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 p-i.
 
 THE CHRISTIAN PROPHETS 
 
 AND 
 
 THE PROPHETIC APOCALYPSE
 
 THE 
 
 CHRISTIAN PROPHETS 
 
 AND THE 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD CARUS SELWYN, D.D., 
 
 HEAD MASTER OF UPPINGHAM SCHOOL, AND LATE FELLOW OF 
 KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 2Lont>on 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED 
 
 NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 1 QOO 
 
 All Rights reserved.
 
 (Eambrtoge : 
 
 I'RINTED BY J. AND C. F. CLAY, 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
 
 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but He revealeth His 
 secret unto His servants the prophets. 
 
 6YAOKHC6N O 060C ATTOKAAYYAI TON YION. 
 
 We are the disciples of an Ascended Prophet. 
 
 2063S39
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE present treatise is an attempt to deal with 
 the most important body of teachers and the 
 most characteristic kind of teaching which have ever 
 escaped notice, in their specific features, by theo- 
 logians ancient and modern. 
 
 The body is one to which our Saviour himself 
 belonged : the teaching is one which is prominent in 
 many of St Paul's Epistles, which is only less clearly 
 marked in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and which in 
 most of the Catholic Epistles and in the Apocalypse 
 has dominated the entire composition. 
 
 It has been usual to commence the study of the 
 New Testament with the first Gospel or the first 
 Epistle. Would it not be well if, for the next genera- 
 tion or so, students were to begin with the closing 
 books of the Bible? 
 
 To treat the Prophets in the New Testament as 
 mere preachers would be as unjust on the one hand as 
 to label them chiliasts or believers in the millennium 
 would be unfair on the other. 
 
 The Prophets claimed the same name as their 
 predecessors of the Old Testament. .They enjoyed 
 one of ' the greater gifts.' St Paul clearly implies
 
 viii PREPACK. 
 
 that they are an order (i Cor xii 31, xiv 40). They 
 formed the nucleus round which gathered the first 
 elements of Christianity. 
 
 They deserve a very much more thorough investi- 
 gation than I have been able to give them. Yet to 
 most thoughtful and earnest persons they are an un- 
 regarded quantity. 
 
 The origin of this little book is the requirement 
 by my University of a dissertation for the D.D. 
 degree, for the purpose of which the first part of the 
 book (chapters I iv and vi) has been submitted to 
 the Divinity Professors, under the title of ' The 
 Authorship of the Apocalypse.' 
 
 As I advanced into the subject I found it more 
 and more fascinating, but only in proportion as I 
 studied and formed my own opinions upon the 
 original authorities. It was impossible to treat of 
 the Authorship without treating of the Date, Occa- 
 sion, Name, Environment, and Atmosphere of the 
 Author, and of other works cognate with his or 
 supposed to be from his pen. 
 
 Let me gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness 
 to Zahn in his Einleitung in das N.T., vol. II, some 
 pages of which I have translated in chapter in. 
 While I have felt his stimulus continually, and 
 Westcott's and Lightfoot's also, I am as little able to 
 adopt Zahn's conclusion, that the Fourth Gospel is 
 an earlier writing of the Seer of the Apocalypse, as 
 Westcott's and Lightfoot's that it is a later writing 
 of the same author. Zahn places St John's Gospel 
 about 85 and his Apocalypse about 95 A.D. Our
 
 PREFACE. ix 
 
 English theologians place the Apocalypse about 70, 
 and the Gospel about 95 or 100. 
 
 The view which evolves itself in these pages is 
 briefly as follows. The gift of Prophecy was con- 
 tinuous from Jewish to Christian times. The Apoca- 
 lypse is the fullest and ripest fruit of Christian 
 Prophecy. The Fourth Gospel is designed to repre- 
 sent a non-prophetic aspect of the original facts of the 
 Saviour's life ; and as it quietly ' fulfils ' and corrects 
 the Synoptic Gospels, so it is designed to ' fulfil ' and 
 correct the Apocalypse. The Prophet and Elder and 
 Seer who wrote the Apocalypse, so far from being the 
 Evangelist, differs from him toto caelo. The Prophetic 
 order became enfeebled in the first half of the second 
 century by the growth of the irregular and dangerous 
 vagaries of the Montanists ; while the acceptance of 
 the Fourth Gospel coincides with what to the Prophets 
 was the rival growth of church order and episcopal 
 organisation. The Churches were compelled by the 
 divine law of their being to decide between Prophecy 
 and Order. The chief theatre of the conflict was 
 Asia Minor. 
 
 Yet, if I am not mistaken, it will be found that 
 the Prophets are the hinge on which the door, so 
 long set ajar upon the Sibylline leaves of Jewish 
 Messianic literature, was by the gentle breath of the 
 Spirit turned open at length towards the Christian 
 Gospels, 
 
 verso tenuis cum cardine ventus 
 impulit, ct teneras turbavit janua frondes. 
 
 And I think it will prove some day to be true that
 
 x PREFACE. 
 
 the three Synoptic Gospels come to us through the 
 Prophets. I hold that St Luke at least was a Prophet, 
 and that he wrote 2 Peter for the Apostle. 
 
 It is hardly too much to say that, if one writer 
 had to be named as not the author of the Apocalypse, 
 it would be the author of the Fourth Gospel. One 
 definite conclusion to which the present enquiry has 
 led me is that the Seer had been a Jewish Elder, in fact 
 a member of the Judicial Committee of the Sanhedrim. 
 But I am aware that no two persons have ever agreed 
 upon more than a few points together connected 
 with this enigmatic work. Unfortunately, in spite of 
 its exalted strain, its sublime celestial hymns, and 
 its many beautiful household words, it has become 
 a sealed book to most people for want of a guide. 
 
 If this treatise should be found to serve as a help, 
 written from the standpoint of reverent commonsense, 
 I should feel myself rewarded. 
 
 Though I have ventured often to differ from 
 illustrious writers and faithful labourers in the field 
 of theology, I trust I may not seem to slight their 
 authority or to doubt their superior learning. But 
 one of the worst misfortunes that can befall theology 
 or any other study is that a writer however accurate 
 or powerful should be supposed to be above criticism. 
 
 I would earnestly beg the reader to be kind 
 enough to verify the marginal references to the N.T. 
 with an open Bible. 
 
 UPPINGHAM, 
 
 /'aster Eve, 1900.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SHORT HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF CHRISTIAN PROPHECY. 
 
 Apocalypse and Prophecy at Corinth, p. i. Rules of the Prophets 
 in Session, p. 2. Prophetic and other Gifts, p. 3. Ecstasy and Mystery 
 in St Paul, p. 4. St Paul sublimates heathen ideas and prophetic 
 ideas, p. 7. Rom viii, Ap xii, and other passages compared: a 
 reference by Ignatius Eph 19 to the Agony discovered, p. 9. Pro- 
 phecy elsewhere in N.T., p. 10. In Clement R. and Ignatius, p. n. In 
 the Didache, Rules of the Prophets on Circuit, p. 12. An early Apo- 
 calypse in the Didache, p. 14. Justin and Claudius Apollinaris, p. 16. 
 Montanism, p. 17. The struggle with it, p. 18. Miltiades against a 
 Prophet speaking in Ecstasy, p. 20. Apollonius, p. 21. Athenagoras 
 and Theophilus, p. 22. Tertullian and decay of Prophecy, p. 23. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHRONOLOGY AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF MONTANISM. 
 
 Emendation of a passage in Eusebius H. ., p. 26. The ' Anony- 
 mous Antimontanist ' is Apollinaris, p. 27. Attempt to fix chrono- 
 logy of Montanism, p. 31. Hierapolis is Hieropolis Comana, p. 32. 
 Ilarnack upon Zoticus and Maximilla, p. 34. Authorship of the 
 Antimontanist treatises, p. 34. The third treatise is later, p. 36. Earlier 
 dates proposed for Montanism and Apollinaris, p. 38.
 
 xil CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE PROPHETIC CHARACTER OF THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN. 
 
 The book claims to be prophetic, p. 41, and is predictive, p. 44, and 
 its Apocalypse is specific in contrast with others, p. 46, and not mere 
 literature, p. 47, nor obscure to the author, p. 48, nor false prophecy, 
 p. 50, nor written in ecstasy, p. 50. It is epistolary in form, p. 52, to 
 be read in Church, p. 54, and its title was added last, p. 55. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE APOCALYPSE IN RELATION TO OTHER JEWISH PROPHETIC 
 WRITINGS. 
 
 It is much fuller of O.T. than other N.T. books, p. 57, especially 
 of the O.T. Prophets, p. 59. Recurrent prophetic themes, p. 60. 
 Barnabas, p. 60. Literal and conservative use of O.T. by the Prophets, 
 p. 61. O.T. quotations in Apocalypse combined and recombined, 
 p. 62. Origin of the Seer's references to ' the hidden manna,' p. 65, 
 and ' the seven stars,' p. 66. Prophetic character of the Book of 
 Enoch, p. 68, of Assumption of Moses, p. 69, of Apocalypse of Baruch, 
 p. 70, of Fourth Esdras, p. 71. Its parallels with Apocalypse, p. 73. 
 Is it an Asiatic reply to Apocalypse ? p. 75. Fourth Esdras ii, p. 75. 
 Fourth Esdras xv, xvi, p. 76. The Epistle of Barnabas, p. 77. It is 
 not episcopal, p. 79, but allegorical and prophetic and continues a 
 quasi-scientific line found in Enoch, p. 80. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE APOCALYPSE IN RELATION TO THE FOURTH GOSPEL : 
 INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 
 
 The Fourth Gospel is controversial towards the Apocalypse, p. 81. 
 Twenty instances quoted : the word of God, p. 82. God visible, p. 84. 
 The Jews' pre-eminence, p. 84. Apocalypse is Jewish-Christian or else 
 Jewish, p. 86. John's Baptism, p. 87. The Lamb of God, p. 87. The 
 Son of Man, p. 88. The Wedding-Supper of the Lamb, p. 90. The
 
 CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 Temple preserved for a while, p. 91. The kingdom of God, p. 93. 
 The Serpent, p. 94. Salvation not Judgment, p. 95. John Baptist a 
 forerunner, p. 95. The Testimony of Jesus, p. 97. The Manna, p. 98. 
 The Spirit not yet given, p. 99. The Second Death, p. 101. The 
 Faith-Door of the Flock, p. 101. Washing and Bathing, p. 103. 
 Servants and Friends, p. 103. Prophetic palm-bearers, p. 105. The 
 treatment of O.T. Prophecy by the Evangelist, p. 105. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE SEER-ELDER DISCOVERED IN HIS WRITINGS. 
 
 Papias distinguishes two Johns, p. 107. Eusebius partly follows him, 
 p. 108. Dionysius of Alexandria and the value of his writings, p. no. 
 His higher criticism, and his conclusions on the Authorship of the 
 Apocalypse, p. 114. Criticism of Dionysius's criticism, p. 117. Did the 
 Seer write 'in the time of Domitian'Pp. 119. Asia the favourite of 
 Rome, p. 122. Emperor- worship in Asia, p. 123. The Seer's protest 
 against it in Ap xvii, xviii, an act of treason, p. 124. The Seer is the 
 Elder, p. 126. His visions are based on his own experiences, p. 128. 
 The Judicial Committee of the Sanhedrim, p. 128. The Four and 
 Twenty Elders, p. 129. The Book with Seven Seals, p. 130. The 
 Accuser, p. 131. The Laying-on of hands, p. 132. The Elder's other 
 writings: the Third Epistle of John, and its solecisms, p. 133. The 
 Second Epistle and its solecisms, p. 136. External evidence of both 
 Epistles, p. 137. The Muratorian Fragment defended, p. 140. Internal 
 evidence of 2 John, p. 142. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OTHER PROPHETS IN OTHER APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 
 
 The Sabbath-rest, p. 146. The Epistle of Jude, p. 148. The relation 
 of 2 Peter to Jude, p. 149. 2 Peter is prophetical, p. 150, but on a 
 crucial point was considered dangerous and set aside, p. 152, as were 
 other Canonical Books by the Syrian Church for five centuries, p. 154. 
 2 Peter compared with St Paul's rules, p. 155. Its reference to St Paul, 
 p. 156. It emanates from Rome, p. 157, and from the pen of St Luke,
 
 xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 p. 159. The Elders quoted by Irenreus proved to be prophetical, p. 163. 
 John the Lord's 'disciple,' p. 164. Reference to the Apocalypse, p. 166. 
 The grades of Paradise, p. 169. The Elders and the Elder, p. 171. 
 Harnack on the Elders, Papias, and Irenajus, p. 171. Do 'the Elders' 
 mean 'Papias' Exposition'? p. 172. The Elders in the Acts, p. 174. 
 The Council of Jerusalem : St Luke's use of Siriyijffts, p. 175. St Peter's 
 speech prophetical, p. 176. The usage of the lot in Acts i, p. 177. 
 St James' speech prophetical, p. 178. St Paul and his companions, 
 p. 179. He is a Prophet and more than a Prophet, as his speech at 
 Miletus shews, p. 180. The name 'Elders' in Acts, p. 181. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SOME LEADING IDEAS OF THE APOCALYPSE. 
 
 The first three chapters of Apocalypse were written last, p. 183, as 
 proved by examination of 12 passages, pp. 184 195. Double ending to 
 Ap, p. 188. The two-edged sword, p. 191. The ' Lord's Day,' p. 192. 
 'Shepherding,' p. 194. Did the Seer hold the Baptism of John? 
 p. 195. The Holy Spirit absent from Ap, p. 197. The Seer's 
 references to the Apostles, p. 199. The omission of Dan in Ap 
 Dan is Messiah, p. 200. The Targums on Dan, p. 201. Dan in the 
 Christian fathers, p. 203. The Lamb, p. 204. Shiloh, p. 206. The 
 Angel of the Church, p. 208. His qualifications, p. 209. The clue to 
 the date, p. 210. The number of the Beast, p. 211. Tacitus on Nero, 
 p. 212. Nero in Greece, p. 214. Nero hated in Asia, p. 215. 
 Emperors that might have been, p. 216. Nero's expected return to 
 life, p. 217. Galba's reign, the date of the writing of Ap iv xxii, 
 p. 218. Modes of reckoning the date, p. 218. Harnack's mode 
 criticised, p. 219. Zahn's mode criticised, p. 220. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE APOCALYPSE IN RELATION TO ST JOHN'S GOSPEL : 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 
 
 Certain priority of Apocalypse in date, p. 222. It cannot be written 
 by the Evangelist, p. 223. It is written by the Elder, p. 226. Zahn's
 
 CONTENTS. xv 
 
 defence of Domitianic date, p. 227. Irenseus on John the Disciple, 
 p. 229, and on the age of Jesus, p. 230. Harnack's view of the two 
 Johns, ib. note. Irenrcus on I'olycarp, p. 231, and on the tradition of 
 John, p. 233. Irenams mixed up two Johns, p. 235. His letter to 
 Florinus on Polycarp's ' intercourse with John,' p. 236. Was Papias a 
 'hearer of John' ? p. 237. The 'Elders' were Prophets, p. 238. Ireiueus 
 on St John's sojourn in Asia, p. 239. The Muratorian fragment on the 
 Fourth Gospel, p. 240. Its Prophetic meeting, ib. Text defended, 
 p. 244. St John Evangelist dead, p. 245. Clement Al. on St John in 
 Asia, p. 246. Polycrates, p. 247. The 'Petalon,' p. 248. Confusion of 
 two Philips, ib. Eusebius on St John in Asia, p. 250, and on Papias, 
 p. 251. Rarity of outward testimony to the Fourth Gospel 100 
 170 A.M. accounted for, p. 252. Clement R., Ignatius, and Barnabas, 
 p. 253. Did St John the Apostle migrate to Alexandria? p. 256. 
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTE ON THE SOLECISMS OF THE APOCALYPSE, p. 258. 
 INDEX OK PASSAGES IN THE N.T., p. 264. 
 INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS, p. 272.
 
 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 Ecstasy = a state of mental abstraction in which the Prophet was 
 
 when he received an Apocalypse. 
 Prophecy = the verbal expression of the Apocalypse whether before 
 
 or after it was submitted to the decision of the Prophets in session. 
 
 Apocalypse = Revelation. 
 Didache = Teaching. 
 Jn the Fourth Gospel. 
 Mt, Mk, Lk, = the Synoptic Gospels. 
 
 Ap = the Revelation of St John the Divine, who is here not called 
 St John but John, for distinction. 
 
 Clement of Rome died 95 100 A.D. 
 Ignatius died about no 115 A.D. 
 Irenoeus died about 203 A.D. 
 
 Clement of Alexandria died about 203 A.D. 
 Tertullian died about 230 A.D. 
 Origen died 253 A.D. 
 Eusebius died 339 A.D. 
 
 On page 129 the references are to the tract Sanhcdrin of the Mishna, 
 which appears to be our only authority for the proceedings of the 
 Judicial Committee.
 
 THE CHRISTIAN PROPHETS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF CHRISTIAN PROPHECY. 
 
 Apocalypse and Prophecy at Corinth. 
 
 AN Apocalypse was not an unusual phenomenon 
 in a Christian Church composed largely of heathen 
 elements before the year 60. In the graphic picture 
 drawn by St Paul of the Corinthian Church we i Cor xiv 
 have his deliberate comparison of the various gifts of 
 the Spirit which the members of the congregation 
 coveted and competed for so eagerly. He encouraged 
 this eagerness, but with a clear preference for Prophecy, xiv i 
 as compared with Tongue-speaking. The former gift 
 was exercised with the consciousness of the subject, 
 and it issued in something logically intelligible. To 
 use the latter gift, which issued in a jargon of words 
 and unduly excited the speaker, was to speak to GOD 
 instead of man, 'for no man hears'; 'but he that xiv 2 
 prophesieth speaketh to men edification and exhorta- 
 tion and encouragement,' ' he edifieth a Church.' xiv 3 
 
 s. AP. i
 
 2 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF 
 
 Prophecy is not a coextensive term with Apocalypse: 
 St Paul might ' speak to them either by Apocalypse 
 
 iCorxiv6or by Knowledge or by Prophecy or by Doctrine.' 
 Still the gifts were similar. ' When ye assemble, 
 each one hath a Psalm, hath a Doctrine, hath an 
 
 xiv 26 Apocalypse, hath a Tongue, hath an Interpretation.' 
 But in the same passage, which is one of unique 
 importance for the understanding of the activity of 
 Prophecy, he proceeds to formulate rules for the 
 exercise of these gifts. We shall have to refer more 
 than once in the following pages to these concise and 
 abrupt Pauline regulations, which we may call Rules 
 of the Prophets and Tongue-speakers in Session. 
 ' If a man speak with a Tongue, let it (be done) by 
 two or at most three at a time, and in turn, and let 
 one man interpret : but if there be not an inter- 
 preter (present), let him keep silence in church, and 
 speak (only) unto himself and to GOD. But as to 
 Prophets, let them speak two or three (at a session), 
 and let the rest (of the Prophets) discriminate (as to 
 the value of their utterances): but if an Apocalypse 
 be given to another (Prophet) while he is seated, let 
 the first (Prophet) continue silent (during the Apoca- 
 lypse). For ye can all prophesy one by one, in order 
 that all may be learning and all exhorted, and spirits 
 which inspire Prophets are subject to Prophets col- 
 lectively, for GOD is not One of confusion but of 
 peace, as in all the Churches of the saints.' It 
 would however be too much to say (with Zahn, Einl.
 
 CHRISTIAN PROPHECY. 3 
 
 II. 594) ' that a Prophet only spoke when he had had 
 an Apocalypse. 
 
 Besides this St Paul has given a numerical order 
 of the Gifts (-^apicrp,ara), of which he recognises 
 some as ' the greater.' while all are contrasted with i Cor xii 
 
 o rr 
 
 the Way or Method (0809) of Christian love, which, he 
 says, ' I point out for you in the direction of excel- 
 lence.' The order is: i, Apostles; 2, Prophets; 3, 
 Teachers (of Doctrine) ; 4, Powers ; 5, Gifts of Heal- 
 ings, Assistances (nursing), Pilotings (wise counsels), 
 kinds of Tongues. The list does not include Apoca- 
 lypse, nor Knowledge. Yet elsewhere Knowledge 
 
 1 Zahn has concluded his last great theological work, of solid 
 learning and lasting value (Einleitung in das N.T. vol. n. 1899), with 
 the following sentences : ' He who considers the Apocalypse to be the 
 artistic patchwork of a seer who has seen nothing may busy himself 
 further to find more satisfactory solutions of the numerical riddle 666, 
 and others in the book, than have yet been discovered under such 
 an hypothesis. We others, who mindful of St Paul's warning find i Th v 20 
 genuine prophecy in the Apocalypse, of which we hope to under- 
 stand something now, and more later, shall, in spite of the unsparing 
 ridicule that awaits us, recollect the word : Prophecy is not for the i Cor xiv 
 unbelieving, but for the believing.' The quotation must not be allowed 22 
 to pass without the prefix of the noble words of St Paul in the con- 
 text: ; Brethren, be not children in mind, howbeit in malice be ye 
 babes, but in mind be grown men. In the law it is written' (a favourite 
 passage with the Prophets) : ' By men of strange tongues and by the lips 
 of strangers will I speak to this people, and even so they will not hear 
 me, saith the Lord. Wherefore the (gift of) Tongues is for a sign not 
 to the believing but to the unbelieving, but the (gift of) Prophecy is for 
 a sign not to the unbelieving but to the believing.' The effect of Pro- 
 phecy upon the unbeliever present in church, i Cor xiv 25 that 'he will 
 fall down on his face and worship God,' offers a close parallel with the 
 prophetic Apocalypse xxii 9. 
 
 I 2
 
 4 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF 
 
 i Cor xiii 8 is co-ordinated with Prophecies and Tongues; and 
 xiii i, 2 with Tongues, Prophecy and Faith : and with Pro- 
 xiii 9 phecy. The term Knowledge is distributive. Know- 
 ledge was present in many of the Gifts. It is a fair 
 analogy that Apocalypse was present in Prophecy if 
 not in others also. This inference is confirmed by the 
 peculiar structure of the sentence in xiii. 2, which I 
 translate : ' and if I have Prophecy (and know, i.e. so 
 as to know, intuitively, all the mysteries) and have all 
 (experimental) Knowledge.' The R.V. seems to be in 
 error here, for tBevai yv<o<Tiv would be a confusion of 
 
 1 Cor viii language for e%eti> yvwa-iv, ^vwvai yvdoa-iv. Again, the 
 
 position of irdvra after its substantive, in contrast 
 with Tracrav rrjv r yvo5a-tv...7rdaav rr/v Tricmv before 
 their substantives, appears intentional. Thirdly, we 
 are now able to understand the arrangement of 
 xiv 6 quoted above : an Apocalypse is to Prophecy 
 as Knowledge is to Doctrine. The first issues in 
 the second as the third in the fourth. 
 
 Ecstasy and Mystery in St Paul 
 
 Nor is there wanting an illustration of St Paul's 
 
 2 Cor xii meaning in xiv 6. He gives a chief and crowning 
 
 instance of an Apocalypse in his own life, in which he 
 was caught up as far as the third heaven, i.e. above 
 the first heaven, of clouds, and above the second, of 
 stars, into the third, of angels. He knows that he 
 was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable 
 words which it is not lawful for man to utter. To
 
 CHRISTIAN PROPHECY. 5 
 
 identify this with the trance (eWrao-i?) of Acts xxii 17 
 is unnecessary, because of the excellence or excessive 
 number of his Apocalypses. But we may safely say 2 Cor xii 7 
 that the trance was an occasion of the 'Apocalypse of 
 Jesus Christ,' by means of which he received the 
 Gospel which he preached. Further, the latter is, as Gal i u f 
 regards himself, the mystery of the Christ, i.e. the Eph Hi 2 
 truth into which Jesus the Christ initiated him : it is Hi 4 
 as clear as daylight, and the translation ' mystery ' is Rom xvi 
 
 26 
 
 one of the modern English drawbacks of the Gospel 
 owing to the unfortunate paronomasia which is 
 obvious : which truth was not in other generations 
 made known to the sons of men as now it was 
 revealed (a7reKa\v(f)Or)) to His holy Apostles and 
 Prophets in spirit. The substance of the Pauline 
 Apocalypse is the admission of the heathen to the 
 fullest fellowship of the promise in Christ Jesus. In 
 this wide opening of the door of faith to all it offers a 
 pointed contrast to the Apocalypse of John which 
 maintains some Jewish reservations. Smaller details xxii 2 etc 
 of the individual life and movements from place to 
 place were also in St Paul's case guided by Apoca- Gal H 2 
 lypse. If the term on the whole is narrowed to an 
 eschatological meaning, and is applied more and more 
 to the issue of the last things, at least within the i Pet i 
 limits of the N.T., it seems on the other hand to bear -^ ^/v i 
 
 in St Paul's mind less and less of this restriction. A p l l 
 
 i 7 
 Outside of 2 Th he applies it only once perhaps i Cor i 7 
 
 to the last things. And yet when this passage is
 
 6 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF 
 
 compared with the similar one in Rom viii 18 ('the 
 earnest expectation of the creation waiteth eagerly 
 for the Apocalypse of the sons of GOD') even this 
 application becomes doubtful. St Paul in Rom viii 
 is dealing with the future history of the visible world. 
 With the sanguine courage of a marvellously true 
 Prophet, he foresees that the labouring earth will 
 produce a Titanic brood, not of rebels who will 
 vainly essay to scale the heights of heaven, but of 
 children of GOD who will prove indeed to be sons of 
 GOD, and who will deliver mother-earth from her 
 bondage of corruption and aimlessness into the service 
 to His will which is perfect freedom. Creation is the 
 theatre in which this great drama is to be wrought 
 out, and the Apocalypse of the future glory (i.e. the 
 fulness of the attributes of man as GOD sees him to 
 be) will be brought to us and into us. Instead of a 
 catastrophic end of the world, on which his thoughts 
 used to dwell when he wrote his earlier epistles, they 
 now dwell more and more upon a glorious future in 
 which the kingdom of heaven is within us, and our 
 bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. He has 
 sublimated the crude ideas of the Millennium into a 
 long and indefinite period of orderly, reasonable, 
 Christian service, of men who represent GOD on earth 
 and own Him as their Father.
 
 CHRISTIAN PROPHECY. 
 
 St Paid sublimates Heatliui and Prophetic Ideas. 
 
 It is possible to treat the passage as an instance of St Paul's Rom viii 
 power of transfiguring current ideas, and of sublimating metaphors J 8 25 
 which proceed from a common or heathen origin. I used to think that 
 the underlying thought was here the famous frieze of the great altar 
 at Pergamon, which St Paul had doubtless visited. ' There was at Acts xvi 
 Pergamon,' says Ampelius (3rd century: Liber Memorialis, 'Miracula 7, 8, xix 10 
 Mundi,' see Perry, Greek and Roman Sculpture, 1882, p. 542), 'a great 
 altar of marble, 40 feet in height, with very large sculptures representing 
 the battle of the Gods and Giants.' Ninety-four large slabs of the 
 gigantomachia (about three-fifths of the entire frieze) are now in 
 Berlin. The work was no doubt an offering of the wealthy and artistic 
 Eumenes II for his victory over the Gauls, and was some 200 years old 
 when St Paul saw it. The particular form of the myth adopted in the 
 frieze is that which we find in the pages of Apollodorus (140 B.C.), and 
 in the gigantomachia of Claudian. The mighty mother Earth, having 
 led her Titans against the bright citadels of the Gods, and suffered 
 defeat, now creates a new brood of monsters to hurl once more on her 
 ancient foes. Some of the Giants are of the noblest type of vigorous 
 youth or mature manhood, hardly to be distinguished from their divine 
 adversaries. The mighty form of Ge is represented half emerging from 
 the ground and with piteous look supplicating mercy for her sons. (See 
 also the Pergamene Frieze, L. R. Farnell in Journal of Hellenic Studies^ 
 1882 3.) But to John the Seer this famous altar is Satan's seat. Ap ii i ? 
 
 The Pergamene monument may have suggested the latter part of 
 the strong metaphorical passage, but the earlier is derived from the 
 images of Is Ixvi 6 f., Mic iv 10. So too does the very remarkable 
 and crucial passage, Ap xii 2. I believe the affinity is more than a 
 fancy between Rom viii 15 23 and Ap xii, Ign. Eph. 19, and Prot- 
 evangelium Jacobi 1 72 2 , (see Tischendorf, Evangelia Apocrypha} . The 
 two latter professedly deal with the infancy of Jesus Christ. Although 
 the two canonical passages do not easily disclose the intermediate steps 
 of thought between the O.T. ideas and those which are immediately 
 present to the writers, and although Rom viii may not receive much 
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 does, and I infer that it too is a picture of the birth of Jesus Christ an 
 inference of the very first importance. The passages are translated 
 and arranged in the following conspectus.
 
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 10 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF 
 
 Some other instances of N. T. PropJiecy. 
 
 If we turn to the passages where Prophecy is 
 
 mentioned apart from Apocalypse, we shall find that 
 
 Lk ii 36 from the days of Anna to those of Jezebel, the office 
 
 Ap ii 20 
 
 was commonly recognized in various parts of the 
 
 i Th v 20 Church. St Paul's advice to the Thessalonians refers 
 
 of course to N.T. prophecy. Women prophesied in 
 
 i Cor xi 5 the Corinthian Church, where also prophetic powers 
 
 xiv 37 were to some extent a matter of reputation. At 
 
 Rome it was a recognised Gift, with recognised limita- 
 
 Romxii6 tions, for it was to be exercised 'according to the 
 
 Rom ix 33 proportion of the faith,' as the historic basis of the 
 
 Lk xviii 8 Church throughout all ages, long before dogma began, 
 
 1 ' from at least the time of Isaiah, Habakkuk, and 
 
 Genesis to the end. In Asia a young infant at the 
 
 time of his naming or presentation became, as at 
 
 i Tim i 18 Jerusalem itself, the subject of prophecies. Prophecy 
 
 iv 14 was the medium of the spiritual gift at ordination. 
 
 At Antioch a famine in Claudius's reign had been 
 
 foretold by Agabus who came with other Prophets 
 
 Acts xi 27 from Jerusalem, and among the Prophets and teachers 
 
 resident there in the normal state of the Christian 
 
 Church we have the names of Symeon Niger, Lucius 
 
 xii i of Cyrene, and Manaen, besides Barnabas and Saul. 
 
 They ministered to the Lord in public worship, and 
 
 received instruction from the Holy Spirit (etTre/' may 
 
 imply the ancient form ' Thus saith the Lord ') by 
 
 which after fasting and prayer they laid their hands
 
 CHRISTIAN PROPHECY. II 
 
 upon the two last mentioned and let them go. Judas 
 
 and Silas are two more who exercised their prophetic 
 
 gift at Antioch as elsewhere. At Caesarea four Acts xv 32 
 
 daughters of Philip the Evangelist were prophesying, 
 
 and during St Paul's sojourn there of several days at 
 
 the end of his ' third ' journey they were joined by 
 
 Agabus, who appears on the scene as if he had not xxi 10 
 
 been mentioned in ch. xi, c a certain man from Judaea, 
 
 a Prophet named Agabus.' Like another Jeremiah, 
 
 he bound Paul's hands and feet saying, ' Thus saith 
 
 the Holy Spirit : the man who owneth this girdle 
 
 shall thus be bound in Jerusalem by the Jews, and 
 
 they shall give him over into the hands of the 
 
 Gentiles.' So much respect was due to this Prophet 
 
 that 'we and the people of the place' began to exhort 
 
 Paul not to go up, but though he fully believed the 
 
 foretold result would follow, he held to his purpose 
 
 undismayed. We shall observe later that Mnason Acts xxi 
 
 of Cyprus, the ' old-fashioned disciple with whom we 
 
 should lodge ' at Jerusalem, was not unconnected 
 
 with the Prophets. 
 
 Prophecy in Clement of Rome, Ignatius, and the 
 Didachc. 
 
 The subsequent history of Apocalypse and Pro- 
 phecy generally as a Christian gift is one of de- 
 cadence and depreciation. Clement, who can discover Clem, 
 in Rahab not only faith, but prophecy, has nothing I2 
 to say about prophecy as a living force in the then
 
 12 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF 
 
 Church of Christ. He and Ignatius threw their weight 
 into the scale of the organisation on episcopal lines, to 
 which the prophetic order, such as it was, tended to 
 present a rival and even antagonistic attitude. 
 Ign. Eph Ignatius does indeed recognise an apocalyptic in- 
 fluence within himself. He says, " If Jesus Christ 
 should count me worthy through your prayer, and it 
 should be the Divine Will, in my second treatise, 
 which I intend to write to you, I will further set 
 before you the dispensation whereof I have begun to 
 speak, relating to the new man Jesus Christ, which 
 consisteth in faith towards Him and in love towards 
 Him, in His passion and resurrection, especially if the 
 Lord should reveal aught to me." But he hastens to 
 end with another exhortation ' to obey the Bishop and 
 the presbytery with an undistracted 1 mind.' We have, 
 it seems, in 117 passed the time in which the Teach- 
 ing of the XII Apostles (Syria, 100 A.D. Lightfoot. 1 30 
 -160 A.D. Harnack) was closely observed. It says, 
 Teaching ' Permit the Prophets to offer thanksgiving as much 
 ', as they desire... But concerning the Apostles and 
 
 Prophets, so do ye according to the ordinance of the 
 Gospel. Let every Apostle, when he cometh to you, 
 be received as the Lord ; but he shall not abide more 
 than a single day, or if there be need, a second like- 
 
 rdffTQ is a delicate hit at the ZicffTcuns of the Prophets. See 
 Justin Dial. 115. 'The Prophet Zechariah had not seen Jesus himself 
 in his apocalypse any more than he saw the Devil and the Angel of the 
 Lord with actual eyesight while undistracted (ev Ka.To.ffra.ffei wi>), but he 
 had seen them in ecstasy when the apocalypse was made to him.'
 
 CHRISTIAN PROPHECY. 13 
 
 wise : but if he abide three days, he is a false Prophet. 
 And when he departeth, let the Apostle receive 
 nothing but bread, until he findeth shelter ; but if he 
 asketh money, he is a false Prophet. And any Pro- 
 phet speaking in the spirit ye shall not try nor 
 discern ; for every sin shall be forgiven, but this sin 
 shall not be forgiven. Yet not every one that speaketh 
 in the spirit is a Prophet, but only if he have the ways 
 of the Lord. From his ways, therefore, the false Pro- 
 phet and the Prophet shall be recognised. And no 
 Prophet when he ordereth a table shall eat of it, 
 otherwise he is a false Prophet. And every Prophet 
 teaching the truth, if he doeth not what he teacheth, 
 is a false Prophet. And every Prophet approved and 
 found true, if he doeth aught as an outward mystery 
 typical of the Church, and yet teacheth you not to do 
 all that he himself doeth, shall not be judged before 
 you : he hath his judgment in the presence of God ; Teaching 
 for in like manner also did the Prophets of old time... I3 
 But every true Prophet desiring to settle among you 
 is worthy of his food. ...Every firstfruit then of the 
 produce of the wine-vat and of the threshing-floor, of 
 thy oxen and of thy sheep, thou shalt take and give 
 as the firstfruit to the Prophets ; for they are your 
 chief priests. But if ye have not a Prophet, give them 
 to the poor. If thou makest bread, take the firstfruit 
 and give according to the commandment. In like 
 manner, when thou openest a jar of wine or of oil, 
 take the firstfruit and give to the Prophets ; yea and
 
 14 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF 
 
 of money and raiment and every possession take 
 the firstfruit, as shall seem good to thee, and give 
 Teaching according to the commandment.... Appoint for your- 
 selves, therefore, bishops and deacons worthy of the 
 Lord, men who are meek and not lovers of money, 
 and true and approved ; for unto you they also per- 
 form the service of the Prophets and teachers. 
 Therefore despise them not ; for they are your honour- 
 able men along with the Prophets and teachers.' It 
 looks rather as though the last half-dozen lines were 
 a later addition 1 to the rest of the passage. But in 
 any case the teaching contains the Rules of the 
 Prophets on Circuit corresponding to those of the 
 Prophets in Session given by St Paul. 
 
 Apocalypse in tlie Didache. 
 
 The passage in the DidacJie ends with a short 
 Mt xxiv Apocalypse : ' For in the last days the false Prophets 
 and corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep 
 shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned 
 Mt xxiv into hate. For as lawlessness increaseth, they shall 
 12, 30, 24 j ia ^ ;e one another and shall persecute and betray. 
 And then the world-deceiver shall appear as a Son of 
 Lk xxi 12 God ; and shall work signs and wonders, and the 
 earth shall be delivered into his hands ; and he shall 
 do unholy things which have never been since the 
 world began. Then all created mankind (17 /CT/OY<? 
 dvQpcoTTwv) shall come to the fire of testing, and 
 
 So also Salmon, Diet. Christian Biography, Art. Teaching.
 
 CHRISTIAN PROPHECY. 15 
 
 many shall be offended and perish ; but they that 
 
 endure in their faith shall be saved by the Curse him- Gal Hi 13 
 
 self. And then shall the signs of the truth appear; 
 
 first a sign of an outspreading (eKTrerdcrews) in the Mt xxiv 30 
 
 heaven, then a sign of a voice of a trumpet, and 
 
 thirdly a resurrection of the dead ; yet not of all, but 
 
 as it was said, ' The Lord shall come and all His 
 
 saints with Him. Then shall the world see the Lord Mt xxiv 30 
 
 coming upon the clouds of heaven.' " 
 
 We note here T?}? dvofiia^ : which compares with 
 the Apocalypse in 2 Th ii 3, 4, ' be revealed the man 
 of lawlessness, the son of perdition, who opposeth 
 himself.... 7, lawlessness ; 8, the Lawless One. We 
 may also compare the language of 2 Peter : aOe/jura 
 here is remarkably like adecrpoi in 2 Pet iii 17. 
 
 Kocr/ji07r\ai>i]<? : cf. Ap xii 9, xiii 14, xix 20. -\Jreu- 
 SoTrpofoJTTjs, the false Prophet who did the signs, 
 xx 3, 8, 10. 
 
 : Rom viii 19. 
 
 . Ap xviii 9, 1 8, the smoke of Babylon's 
 burning. But here again we must compare 2 Peter 
 ii 6, 7, iii 7, 10, 12. 
 
 aTToXovvTai : Ap ix ii. The verb is remarkable 
 by its rarity in Ap, only appearing xviii 14. 
 
 vTTOfj,eivai>Te<; ev rf) Triarei : cf. Ap xiii IO, the 
 patience and the faith. Cf. xiv 12. 
 
 <7?7/ietoi> eKTreTdaew ev ovpavm : cf. Ap iv I, along 
 with the trumpet 1 . Cf. also vi. 14. 
 
 1 Palmer's explanation by Is Ixv 2 (Rom x 21) is attractive: Salmon, 
 /;//. p. 562.
 
 1 6 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF 
 
 dvacrracn? veicpwv, ov Trdvrwv Se ..Ap xx 5 6, 
 ' The rest of the dead did not come to life until the 
 1000 years were ended. This is the first resurrection. 
 Blessed and holy is he who hath part in it.' 
 
 The Apocalypse of the Didache appears to be of 
 a decidedly early date, that is, before 70 A.D. But it 
 would not be safe to infer that the whole of our 
 present Didache was the same. 
 
 Justin, Claudius Apollinaris, and Montanisin. 
 
 However it was in vain, for the continuance of 
 the prophetic side of the Church, that Ammia in 
 
 Eus// Philadelphia and Quadratus (both about 117 A.D.) 
 were "said to be eminent, along with the daughters 
 
 Eus/f.E of Philip, for a prophetic gift." Justin Martyr a 
 generation later writes 1 , "Among us even to the 
 present day there are prophetic gifts": but he adds 
 that as the Jews had false prophets, so among the 
 Christians then there were many false teachers in 
 accordance with Mt xxiv. About the same time a 
 serious blow was dealt against the Prophets in Asia, 
 by that " powerful and incontestable weapon of the 
 
 Eus// truth Claudius Apollinaris of Hierapolis." There is 
 every reason to believe that, so far as Prophecy went, 
 the Cataphrygians or Montanists held the same 
 doctrine of Prophecy and possessed the same gift 
 as preceding generations of Christians. But self- 
 
 1 Dial. c. Try. 81.
 
 CHRISTIAN PROPHECY. 17 
 
 assertion, exaggeration, and irregularity may pro- 
 bably have roused the orderly sense of the bishops 
 to oppose the Prophets. This led to a schism ; the 
 schism was magnified into heresy ; the ' heresy ' was 
 eventually quenched and the prophetic gift was cut 
 off and ceased, appearing only sporadically in the 
 succeeding centuries 1 . 
 
 A very early reference to John's Apocalypse is in 
 the letter of Apollinaris 2 to Avircius Marcellus. He 
 says, ' I have been somewhat in doubt about writing 
 till now, not indeed for want of argument or to bear 
 witness to the truth, but because I feared I might 
 appear to give any new injunctions, or to add to the 
 doctrine of the New Covenant, which it is impossible 
 that any resolved to live according to the Gospel 
 should add to or diminish' (Trpoa-ffeivai p,^ d<f>\elv, 
 cf. Ap xxii i8f. Tri0rj...d<}>e\y). The terms applied 
 to Montanus are that he was carried away in spirit 
 and suddenly got into a kind of seizure and irregular 
 ecstasy (Trape/co-raaet) so that he was possessed by 
 GOD and began to speak and utter strange things, 
 prophesying, that is, in a way counter to the tra- 
 ditional custom which the Church has received in 
 succession from of old 3 (napa TO Kara irapdSo<n,i> ical 
 
 1 De Soyres, Montanism. 
 
 2 Lightfoot, Ignatius, vol. I, p. 482. 
 
 3 Traditional Prophecy is fully recognised as existing. The two 
 questions are : (a) Was the prophet's condition ecstasy or wrong 
 ecstasy ? (l>) Was it allowable to speak while in ecstasy ? But to raise 
 (a) is to risk breaking one rule of the Teaching, see p. 13, line 6. 
 
 S. AP. 2
 
 18 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF 
 
 Kara BtaBo^v avwOev 7-779 KK\rjaia<i 6^09). The state- 
 ment is prefaced by ' they say,' and Montanus' village 
 is ' said to be ' Ardabau, a village in Mysia towards 
 (Kara) Phrygia. Though few of the Phrygians were 
 deluded, the faithful in Asia held many meetings at 
 many places upon the matter, repudiated the heresy, 
 and excommunicated the adherents. 
 
 One of the tests applied by Apollinaris to Mon- 
 tanism was, whether it had any martyrs to shew. 
 ' Is there one of them in God's name, O good 
 friends, who was ever persecuted by the Jews or put 
 to death by the heathen (Trapavopwv) ? Not one. Nor 
 yet has one of them been seized and crucified for 
 the Name ? No. Nay nor one of the women ever 
 scourged in the synagogues of the Jews, or stoned ? 
 No, never.' This solemn and formal interrogative is 
 worth notice in connection with a remark of Prof. 
 Ramsay at the expense of Dr Spitta. He says 1 , 
 ' The idea that in great cities of the Roman Empire, 
 some of them the residence of high Roman officials, 
 Ephesus, Pergamos, Smyrna, &c., the Jews could per- 
 secute and kill the Christians in the public and open 
 way that is implied in the Apocalypse does not require 
 serious refutation. We need only recommend Dr 
 Spitta to devote a little more time to the study of 
 Roman Imperial history and administration, in order 
 to learn that the Roman Empire... (would) not allow 
 the extreme license and organised riot that are implied 
 
 1 The Church in the Roman Empire, p. 300.
 
 CHRISTIAN PROPHECY. 19 
 
 by his theory.' But if they did these things in the 
 time of Apollinaris (IQOA.D. Lightfoot, but I contend 
 for a much earlier date below, p. 30) when Christians 
 were a body quite unmistakeable, how much more 
 would they do them in the time of (let us say) Nero 
 with the' connivance or sanction of Roman authorities? 
 Apollinaris admits later in his third book that the 
 test of martyrdom was equivocal, since many of the 
 heretics have many martyrs. 
 
 Another test of the prophecies was the truth of 
 their predictions, at least as regards the false prophetess 
 Maximilla. She had been dead more than 13 years, 
 and she had foretold wars and tumults (a/cara- 
 oTTao-ta?). 'Yet,' said the Antimontanist, 'there has 
 been neither a partial nor a general (/caOoXiKos) war, 
 but even to the Christians rather a continuous peace, 
 from the mercy of God.' Maximilla had good 
 authority for her prediction, and the champion of 
 orthodoxy was premature in his judgment. It is fair 
 to suppose that the theme of the Prophetess was an 
 extension of that of Mt xxiv, Lk xxi, and of Ap. 
 
 Among the churchmen mentioned by Apollinaris 
 are Julian of Apamea 1 and Zoticus from Comana, 
 whom I shall identify with the Zoticus Otrenus (i.e. 
 of Otrous, two miles from Hieropolis near Synnada) 
 'our fellow-presbyter at Ancyra.' The name 'lively,' 
 'fresh,' suggests the explanation of Ap iii i, 'Thou 
 hast a name (meaning) that thou livest, and (yet) 
 
 1 Lighlfoot, Ignatius, vol. I, p. 482. 
 
 2 2
 
 20 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF 
 
 thou art dead.' Zahn refers to the frequency of the 
 name in inscriptions of the province 1 . 
 
 Miltiades and Apollonius on Montanism. 
 
 Another work against the Montanists was written 
 E\isff by Miltiades, quoted by Apollinaris: 'As I found 
 these statements in one of their works attacking 
 another work written by our brother Miltiades (Al- 
 cibiades 2 is obviously wrong) in which he (M.) de- 
 monstrates that a prophet must not speak in ecstasy, 
 I summarised it.' An extract from the summary 
 follows. 'But the false prophet is carried away by 
 a vehement ecstasy, accompanied by want of all 
 shame and fear ; beginning indeed with a designed 
 ignorance and culminating, as before said, in in- 
 voluntary madness. They will never be able to shew 
 that any prophets in O.T. or N.T. were thus violently 
 agitated and carried away in spirit. Neither will they 
 be able to boast that Agabus or Judas or Silas or the 
 daughters of Philip or Ammia in Philadelphia or 
 Quadratus or others that do not belong to them ever 
 acted in this way.' Again : 'If after Quadratus and 
 Ammia in Philadelphia the women that followed 
 Montanus succeeded to the gift of prophecy, let them 
 shew us what women among them succeeded Mon- 
 
 1 Einl. p. 610. 
 
 - Among others Harnack is convinced on this point. Chronologic, 
 p. 364. He would be inclined with Zahn to put MiXridSoi; also in 
 v 3, 4, rather than in v 16, 3.
 
 CHRISTIAN PROPHECY. 21 
 
 tanus and his women. For the apostle shews that 
 the gift of prophecy should be in all the Church until 
 the coming of the Lord, but they can by no means 
 shew any one at this time, the i/j.th year from the 
 death of Maximilla.' 
 
 The next refutation of the Phrygian Prophets 
 which Eusebius mentions is from the pen of Apollo- H E\ 18 
 nius. He accuses Montanus of disorganising marriage 
 and organising laws, offices and salaries for the Pro- 
 phets, who were to preside in a new Jerusalem at the 
 two small Phrygian towns Pepuza and Tymium. 
 ' Does it not appear to thee that every scripture forbids 
 a prophet to receive gifts and money ? When there- 
 fore I see a prophetess that has received both gold 
 and silver and costly apparel, how can I fail to reject Acts xx 33 
 her?' Apollonius seems not to know ch. xiii of the 
 Rules of the Teaching of the Apostles. He mentions 
 one Themison and one Alexander who had combined 
 avarice with the claim of martyrdom: the crimes of 
 the latter, and their punishments, 'were preserved in 
 the public records of the province of Asia.' To refute 
 the Montanist prophets Apollonius quoted passages 
 from Ap. of John, but Eusebius does not specify 
 them. 
 
 Athenagoras and TJieopJiilns on Prophecy. 
 
 It is quite clear that in condemning the Mon- 
 tanist prophets a want of discrimination, and some- 
 times an actual confusion of thought, was shewn
 
 22 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF 
 
 by the champions of orthodoxy and Church order. 
 Some of them were, about the same time, describing 
 the inspiration of the O.T. Prophets in the same terms 
 which the Montanists used for Christian prophecy. 
 Thus Athenagoras, who presented his Apology to the 
 Emperors Aurelius and Commodus about A.D. 176, 
 describes the inspiration of the Prophets in a well- 
 known passage: 'Moses or Isaiah or Jeremiah, and 
 the other prophets, who, lifted in ecstasy above their 
 (ordinary) reasoning faculties by the impulse of the 
 Divine Spirit, uttered the things with which they were 
 being inspired^ (a evrjpyovvTo}, the Spirit making use 
 of them as a flute-player breathes into a flute 2 .' ' The 
 Spirit of God has moved the mouths of the prophets 
 like an instrument 3 .' Justin Martyr says that the 
 prophets ' taught us nothing from their own fancy 4 ,' 
 and retained no natural consciousness during inspira- 
 tion, but presented themselves purely to the operation 
 of the Divine Spirit, in order that the Divine quill 
 descending from heaven may make use of the righteous 
 men like an instrument (evidently this means for 
 immediate and ecstatic utterances of the apocalypse) 
 of a harp or lyre, and reveal to us (d7rotca\.v-^rr)) the 
 knowledge of divine and heavenly things.' Theophilus 
 
 1 Be it observed again that the question was not whether ecstasis 
 was the condition of prophecy but whether a prophet might speak 
 during the ecstatic period. Had Athenagoras only said 
 
 he would have been accurate and orthodox in the true sense. 
 
 2 Ath. Leg. 9. 
 
 3 Ib. 7. * Co/i. c. Gr. 8, 3.
 
 CHRISTIAN PROPHECY. 23 
 
 of Antioch says much the same thing 1 , ' The men of 
 God being inspired by the Holy Ghost (Trvevparocfiopoi 
 Trvevna-ros dyiov) and made prophets, and having re- 
 ceived the breath (e/ATrveva-QevTes) by God Himself 
 and been made wise, became taught of God and holy 
 and righteous. Therefore too they were thought worthy 
 of the recompense to be made instruments of God 
 and to contain the wisdom that comes from Him, 
 through which they spoke 2 .' 
 
 Tertullian on PropJiets. 
 
 Even by the time of Tertullian, the great Mon- 
 tanist, we cannot but feel disappointed at the waning 
 of the quality and quantity of prophetic pheno- 
 mena. The intervals at which they 'gleamed,' as 
 Justin Martyr said, upon the Church, were rarer and Ens iv 18 
 still more confined to the Asiatic sect, though it had 
 now become active in Africa, in the Latin-speaking 
 
 1 ad Antolycum n 9. 
 
 - Mr De Soyres (p. 68) is quite right in saying that the once orthodox 
 doctrine of Justin, Athenagoras, and Montanus, was now branded as 
 heretical. But I do not agree with him when he goes on to say : ' That 
 which had been undoubtedly the private atpecm of Miltiades became 
 the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Epiphanius is perhaps the first 
 to lay down, as a canon and criterion of true prophecy, that it must be 
 conscious and intelligent.' 'All that the prophets have said, they 
 uttered with the accompaniment of understanding,' or ' with sobriety 
 (KdTCKmio-ews, again the opposite of ecstasy) and accompaniment of the 
 reasoning faculty' {Epiph. Hcer. XLVIII 2, 3). No. This is quite true 
 of St Paul and John. They saw and heard in ecstasy; they spoke and 
 wrote in catastasy or sobriety.
 
 24 HISTORICAL OUTLINE OF 
 
 neighbourhood of Carthage. We have evidence to 
 shew that Prophets and Prophetesses still delivered 
 their utterances in church. 'We have with us,' 
 says Tertullian, ' to-day a sister whose \&t it is to 
 possess gifts of revelations, which she suffers during 
 Lord's day services in church in a state of spiritual 
 ecstasy' (per ecstasin in spiritu patitur 1 ). But the 
 manifestations, which include visions and addresses 
 by angels in dreams 2 , were apparently* only of a 
 special and personal kind. We have much cause to 
 regret the loss of the works in which Tertullian dealt 
 at length with this subject, a treatise on Paradise, 
 and six books on Ecstasy. These are mentioned by 
 Jerome 3 and referred to by Tertullian himself 4 : 'on 
 the principle on which we have vindicated ecstasy, or 
 distraction (amentiam) on behalf of the new grace 
 of Prophecy. For a person when established in the 
 spirit (' constitutus ' corresponds to eV Karaa-rda-ei, 
 and looks at first sight as if it were at last being 
 claimed for the prophetic state as it had been claimed 
 by its opponents), especially when he is beholding 
 the glory of God, or when God is speaking through 
 him, must be thrown out of his senses (excidat sensu) 
 being overshadowed of course with Divine virtue. 
 How could Peter at the Transfiguration have recog- 
 
 1 de Anima 9. 
 
 2 de Spect. 26, de Idol. 15, de Virg. Vd. 17. 
 
 3 Catalogtif of Church Writers. 
 
 4 ag. Marcion, IV 22.
 
 CHRISTIAN PROPHECY. 25 
 
 nised Moses and Elias except in a state of spiritual 
 distraction?' Again 1 , 'the new Jerusalem is known to 
 Ezekiel, and has been seen by the Apostle John, 
 and is testified by the discourse (sermo) of the new 
 Prophecy, which is at home with (apud) our faith.' 
 And this proved to be its last home among Christian 
 activities. 
 
 1 ag. Marcion, in ad fin.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHRONOLOGY AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF MONTANISM. 
 
 The Reading of Eusebius H. IL. V 16. 
 
 I AM convinced that the proper reading in Eus 
 H E V 1 6 line 7 is as follows : 'A/o^o/zei'o? <yovv 7779 ar' 
 CLVTWV 7pa<^79 rwv elpr^ikvwv 77877 rrpcorov e 
 tat ical cvypdfais TO49 /car' avrwv e7reeA,#ot 
 n.pooifj,id%6Tai yovv TOVTOV rov rpoTrov... The reading 
 is discussed by Lightfoot, Colossians, p. 56 (1879) but 
 he does not quote all the sentence. By the substi- 
 tution of &/ rt? for 77877 we are saddled with an 
 anonymous writer who has troubled us a long time, 
 yet Routh and Bright both hold to Srf TIS along with 
 MS Reg. and Etienne. The Mazarin and Medicean 
 MSS omit &ij <?, so does the author of the Synodicon 
 quoted by Lightfoot 1 . The Bodleian and another MS 
 give rj8ij (Routh), and the ancient Syr. vs. gives 'Apol- 
 linaris ' (Lightfoot). What Eusebius says is this : 
 ' With reference now to the Phrygian heresy so called, 
 
 1 Co/oss. p. 60; Routh I 173.
 
 CIRCUMSTANCES OF MONTANISM. 27 
 
 he has in the two preceding chapters said how the 
 Montanists arose in Asia and Phrygia and were 
 reaching a climax in Rome, under Florinus and 
 Blastus, who were deposed from their priesthood ' a 
 powerful and incontestable weapon was raised up at 
 Hierapolis in Apollinaris, mentioned above' (ch. 5 
 about the ' Fulminata ') ' and others with him, several 
 of the men of note in those parts, by the Power that 
 champions the Truth : from whom some very con- 
 siderable historical material has been bequeathed 
 even to us. At least at the beginning of his work 
 against them, I mean the Phrygians aforesaid, he 
 already indicates from the first that he had advanced 
 with his arguments against them beyond the limits of 
 written controversy. So I infer from his opening as 
 follows.' The first extract shews how he had paid a 
 personal visit to Ancyra in Galatia, and had dis- 
 coursed there in church for several days in detail 
 concerning these people and their propositions. He 
 had shrunk from writing before for fear of adding 
 anything to the word of Scripture. He had then 
 been requested by the local presbyters to leave 
 behind him a memorandum of the refutation, but, 
 Zoticus of Otrous, his fellow-presbyter, being with 
 him, he had not done this, but promised, the Lord 
 willing, to write from home and post without delay. 
 The purport of the last sentence is that Ancyra was 
 175 miles away from home (ev0d8e I take to be 
 Comana = Hieropolis) a long way, but he and
 
 28 CHRONOLOGY AND 
 
 Zoticus being near neighbours could well prepare 
 the memorandum together. 
 
 The second extract is taken by Eusebius from 
 near the beginning of the treatise. The third is from 
 book II, the fourth and fifth also. The sixth and 
 seventh are from book III. Is it likely that Eusebius 
 would have collected these passages more than 100 
 lines from an anonymous writer, when he has just 
 mentioned Apollinaris as a powerful and incontest- 
 able weapon who was raised up to smite the Phrygian 
 heresy? Is it likely that he should give us not a 
 word of the champion himself, but no lines of some 
 one of his circle ? The Greek sentence with 8rj rt<? 
 is most awkward : the &ij rt9 is too late in it : the &rj 
 is wholly unnecessary: even TGJV rfSr) eip. would be 
 more than we want. But r}8r) Trpwrov supports the 
 idea of a climax of controversy in Asia Minor which 
 corresponds to the climax described by Eusebius in 
 the previous chapter as subsisting in Rome, and leads 
 up to the teal dypdfots which suggests the same sort 
 of active measures, issuing in the defeat and vexation 
 of the prophetic party (diroKpova-Orjvai,, \VTrrj0fjvai) in 
 this continent as in that. 
 
 Lightfoot 1 was evidently anxious to reconcile the 
 statements in Eusebius with those of the Bollandist 
 Acta Sanctorum on the life of Abercius, which he 
 says is ' disfigured by extravagant fictions ' and ' may 
 safely be pronounced spurious.' A later admission of 
 
 1 Co/oss. p. 54.
 
 CIRCUMSTANCES OF MONTANISM. 29 
 
 his 1 is that its ' chronology is altogether at fault.' 
 Ramsay having first dated the writing of the Life of 
 Abercius 363 385 A.D. later concluded that it could 
 only date from the 7th century 2 . It seems a pity that 
 this ' Life ' was ever mixed up with historical inquiry 
 into the Montanists. 
 
 Eusebins on Apollinaris elsewhere. 
 
 What is more to the purpose is Eusebius' remark 
 elsewhere on Apollinaris's writings. ' Also the works Eus iv 27 
 which he composed after these ' Against the heresy of 
 the Phrygians,' which was revived not long afterwards 
 (/ACT' ov TTO\VV KaivoTO/j,r)0i<rr)<; ^povov) but was then 
 (when he wrote) just beginning to sprout, as it were 
 ((wcrTrep K(f>veiv), while Montanus along with his false 
 prophetesses was beginning his departure into error' 
 (TrapeKTpoTrrjs). I cannot see what dates are assigned 
 by Lightfoot to Claudius Apollinaris, except that he 
 says he wrote against the Montanists after his Apology 
 to M. Aurelius which was after A.D. 174. I think this 
 is not a necessary inference at all. In the passage 
 just quoted Eusebius says : " Now while many works iv 27 
 of Apollinaris are preserved in many places, those 
 which have come into my hands (et? r//j>a<? e\66vra) 
 are as follows : An ' Address to the (aforesaid) em- 
 peror,' and '(an Address) to the Greeks, five (large) 
 
 1 Ignatius, vol. I, 484. 
 
 2 ' The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia.' Journal of Hellenic 
 Studies, iv 2, p. 425. 1883.
 
 30 CHRONOLOGY AND 
 
 treatises ' (avyypn(j,/j,aTa). And ' Concerning Truth/ 
 first and second, and ' To the Jews,' first and second 
 (treatises). And the treatises which he composed 
 after these &c." It is plain upon consideration that 
 we are not bound to consider that all these works are 
 quoted by Eusebius in strict chronological order of 
 composition. Is it likely that a writer who had never 
 put pen to paper would make his literary debut with 
 an address to an Emperor ? The obvious explanation 
 is that the address to the Emperor is mentioned first 
 as most distinguished and perhaps most famous. 
 But ' after these ' means after the two volumes of the 
 address to the Jews, perhaps after some of the others 
 also. It is certain that he was a man of mark before 
 he ventured to address the Emperor. This address 
 may well have been his last and crowning work. But 
 I am sorry to see that Harnack 1 continues the same 
 assertion as Lightfoot : ' According to Eusebius the 
 7/oa/iyLtara of Apollinaris against Montanism were 
 written after his other writings ; but he also says they 
 were composed at the beginning of the history of 
 Montanism.' He points out however that it is no- 
 where said that Apollinaris wrote after Commodus 
 began to reign (which is just the time that Lightfoot 
 chooses for him, Ignatius, i 483). Harnack also holds 
 to the 'anonymous' Antimontanist and makes him 
 write 192 A.D. 
 
 1 Die Chronologic dcr altchristlichen Litteratur bis Eusebius, 1897, 
 I 361. But they were ffvyypafj./j.aTa., which is more than ypd/j./j.a.Ta.
 
 CIRCUMSTANCES OF MONTANISM. 3 1 
 
 A n attempt to fix the CJironology of Montanism. 
 
 I cannot however leave the complicated question 
 of the Montanist chronology without one attempt 
 to clear the ground. The old view that Montanism 
 began in the first half of the 2nd century, held 
 by Blondel, was revived by Schwegler 1 and Hefele 2 
 on the ground of the Shepherd of Hernias, which 
 opposes Montanist tendencies, being of necessity 
 anterior to 151 when Pius was bishop of Rome 3 . 
 I hold that the right reading rjSrj irpwrov is a 
 very strong point in favour of the early date 
 about 140 A.D. To begin with a small point. 
 Theodotus, the currier excommunicated at Rome 
 by Victor (192 202) as a Monarchian, was not 
 Theodotus the early Montanist, nor does Eusebius 
 identify them. But since the invaluable discoveries of 
 Ramsay 4 it seems plain that the centre of the activity 
 of Apollinaris ought to be transferred entirely from the 
 valley of the Lycus to that of the Glaucus (near the 
 Cludrus, now called the Sandukli). Hierapolis on 
 the Lycus near Laodicea is always so spelt. But 
 Hieropolis on the Glaucus, also a tributary of the 
 Maeander, but near its source, is ' always called 
 Hierapolis in literary authorities, though on coins 
 
 1 Montanisinns, p. 255. '-' Councils, I 79. 
 
 3 140 155 A.D. according to the oldest Roman list. Harnack, 
 Chronologie, p. 720. 
 
 4 ' The Tale of Saint Abercius,' Journal of Hellenic Studies, Oct. 
 1882; 'Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia,' ib. Oct. 1883, Oct. 1887.
 
 32 ' CHRONOLOGY AND 
 
 and inscriptions Hieropolis 1 . Where Greek lan- 
 guage and civilisation had fully established itself, the 
 name is 'lepa 71-0X19 ; the name in 'central Phrygia, in 
 Cappadocia, and in Syria is 'lepoVoXt?. Hierapolis 
 on the Lycus fell entirely under Greek influence in 
 the first century 2 .' I believe there is no evidence to 
 prove that Apollinaris was bishop of the town on the 
 Lycus, nor anything to connect him with it rather 
 than with Hieropolis. The inscriptions quoted by 
 Lightfoot 3 belong to Aezani, but this was at the 
 source of the Rhyndakos, 95 miles as the crow flies 
 from Hierapolis, and 65 from Hieropolis. Abercius 
 of course has nothing to do with the former and 
 everything with the latter. Avircius Marcellus is 
 probably Abercius. If it should be argued that 
 Eus v 19 Sarapion (190 211 A.u.) says Apollinaris was bishop 
 in Hierapolis in Asia, the answer is that neither 
 Hierapolis nor Hieropolis was in the Roman province 
 of Asia, the former being 15 miles, and the latter 
 50 miles from its nearest boundary. Asia is used in 
 a wider sense by Sarapion, who was bishop of the 
 distant Antioch in Syria. 
 
 Hierapolis is Hieropolis Comana. 
 
 Now Ramsay has shewn that Hieropolis was the 
 native and official name of Comana, 30 miles north 
 of Apameia Cibotus in Phrygia (which boasts the 
 
 1 Ramsay, p. 340. Abercius. 2 Cities, n p. 478. 
 
 3 Coloss. p. 58; Boeckh 3827, 3840.
 
 OF MONTANISM. 33 
 
 famous coin as early as 2 1 1 A.D. with the inscription 
 Noe in token of its name 'Ark/ Apameia). Naturally 
 then the two champions of the truth (mentioned in 
 Eus v 1 6) ' men approved and bishops, Zoticus from 
 Komana kome. and Julianus from Apameia,' were 
 from neighbouring towns, afterwards (6th century) 
 included in the same Pentapolis 1 . But I will quote 
 the passage from Eusebius. " In the same treatise he 
 says that the holy bishops of that time had tried to 
 refute the spirit that was (once) in Maximilla, but had 
 been hindered by others, cooperating, we are to infer, 
 with the spirit. He writes thus : And let not the 
 spirit that wrought through Maximilla persist in 
 saying in the same way as it did in the time of 
 Asterius Urbanus, 'I am chased as a wolf from thejnx 12 
 sheep ; I am not a wolf: I am speech and spirit and 
 power ' ; but let it resolve to shew effectually the 
 power in the spirit, and prove it ; and let it use the 
 spirit to extort a confession (of its truth) from those 
 who were then present to examine and argue with the 
 spirit as it spoke, men approved and bishops, Zoticus 
 from Komana kome, and Julianus from Apameia : 
 whose mouths were stopped by Themison and his 
 party, thus preventing them from proving the false 
 and misleading spirit." A very similar account of 
 this painful struggle 2 is given by Eusebius on the v '8 
 testimony of Apollonius : ' how Zoticus, mentioned 
 
 1 Ramsay, Hist. Geogr. of Asia Minor, p. 139. 
 
 2 Harnack, Chron. p. 366. 
 
 S. AP. 3
 
 34 CHRONOLOGY AND CIRCUMSTANCES 
 
 by the previous historian also, when Maximilla was 
 going so far as to claim to prophesy at Pepuza, had 
 opposed her (eVto-ra?) and attempted to refute the 
 spirit working in her, but was prevented by those 
 who followed her opinions.' Pepuza (and Tymium 
 also) was within 5 or 10 miles of Comana. Harnack 
 is inaccurate in saying that the occurrence took place 
 in or near Comana. It took place at Pepuza. What 
 can be clearer ? Both accounts refer to one and the 
 same event. Zoticus was of Otrous (close to Comana), 
 from Comana (just then) and at Pepuza (close to 
 Comana). 
 
 The Anonymous Antimontanist is Apollinaris. 
 
 I venture to think again that the chronologers of 
 Montanism have too hastily passed over the hints of 
 time which Eusebius gives ; while the discovery of 
 places by Ramsay has not been fully turned to 
 account. Something must now be said as to the 
 authorship of the second and third treatises against 
 Montanism quoted by Eusebius, and commonly called 
 ' second and third Anonymous.' We shall be prepared 
 to find that Apollinaris, who was very far superior to 
 a writer of 'tracts' (as Lightfoot calls the sources of 
 the extracts) 1 , and who, when he wrote at all, wrote 
 volumes on a subject, would not be content with 
 a single treatise against so important a movement 
 
 1 Coloss. p. 56 note.
 
 OF MONTANISM. 35 
 
 as Montanism. When he addressed the Greeks he 
 composed five books: when he treated of the Truth, 
 he wrote a first and a second : the same when he 
 addressed the Jews. We only know that his works 
 against the Phrygian heresy were plural : and it is Eus iv 
 no strain of probability to suppose they were three. 
 The style of the three sets of extracts (A, B, C) is 
 uniformly flowing, and rather more classical than that 
 of Eusebius. Recurrent and parallel phrases are : 
 TO) Trpoeiprjaevw (A), rj irpoeiprjuevrj yvvij (B), 
 ZCOTIKOV TOV 'Orprjvov (A), Z. CLTTO Ko/iaz^ K<a- 
 M? (B), 
 
 TO (3\d-fyt$>pOV Kal VTrOKOpKTTlKOV Kdl \aOTT\dvOV 
 
 7rvev/j,a (A), TO T/reuSe<? /cat \aoTT\avov Trvtvpa (B), 
 VTTO TTvev/Juaro^ j3\a^i<f)povos (B), 
 
 Kara Tpdrov (A), ra> Kara ' Acrrepiov Ovpfta- 
 vov (B), 
 
 rrjv ev T(0 Trvev^an Svva^tv (B), T?}<? 8vvduea)<; 
 TOV. ..\eyofjievov ...Trvev^arof (C), 
 
 Kal 7raptKO'Td(Ti (A), irapeKGTrivai (B), 
 
 77 7rp6cr(f)aTOs TOV aTTocr^icryLtaT''? atpecrif (A), Kal 
 yap TWV d\\(0v alpeaewv (C), 
 
 e 'AovipKie Mc;'p/ce\Xe (A), u> paKdpie (B), 
 ocrov (A), TrXetcrTOV? ocrou? (C), 
 
 aTropiq (A), aTroprj(T(i)crLV (C), 
 
 T>V a7ro Mo/'Taj'oO \a\ii' np^afjievwv (B), oi diro 
 TTJS Ma/o/ctcoi/o? aipt<recos (C). 
 
 There are some quite Platonic touches. To Be ea-riv 
 apa, <W9 eolKe, Travros /u-aXXor OVK d\r)0i<s (C), TrXetcr- 
 
 32
 
 36 CHRONOLOGY AND CIRCUMSTANCES 
 
 roi/9 6crov<f e%eiv /jLaprvpas Xeyovcri (C), <f>eKTirccoTp6v 
 eL^rjv (A), e&Ti rt?, <w ySeXTtcrrot (B); 
 (B), 7ro\vs alpel Xoyos (B), eo"#' OTTT; 
 Se /eat, KaraicpLvovTos (A). Yet eKacnov appears to be 
 used for etcarepov (B). Was Apollinaris an Alex- 
 andrine? 
 
 Thus the identity of authorship of the three is 
 quite clear. The translation of the first line of the 
 fourth extract has been missed by some through 
 failing to observe the distinction between 
 'continue to say' and the aorists which follow 
 K. \ej^(iTa) 'let it make up its mind 1 .' Kara is 'in the 
 Eus v 16 time or case of/ Kara Tpdrov in the time of Gratus. 
 If \6y(a is not read as Routh does after ev rc5 avrq>, it 
 is quite easily supplied from \yT(o : it means ' way 
 of saying.' The words v T<a...Ovppavov are certainly 
 not a gloss. 
 
 The third treatise is later than the others. 
 
 I see no reason why the third book of Apollinaris 
 against Montanism should not have been written 
 some time after the first, in fact more than 13 years 
 after Maximilla's death. He was long before he 
 
 1 The best instance of this distinction which I know is i Pet ii 17, 
 'Make up your mind (aorist) to honour all men, form the conception of 
 honour to all, and then the natural results will flow from it in your 
 several relations (present) of love towards the brotherhood, fear to God, 
 honour to the king.' Dr Hort in his commentary ad loc. is far from 
 convincing.
 
 OF MONTAN1SM. 37 
 
 complied with Avircius Marcellus' request to write 
 at all. He was then a presbyter. By the time he 
 wrote the second book, Zoticus had become a bishop. 
 Montanus, Theodotus, and Maximilla were dead; the 
 last was dead more than 13 years. The Montanists 
 had no martyrs to shew. Rumour said the leaders 
 hanged themselves like Judas, and that Theodotus 
 their first Bursar, who kept the prophetic bag, had 
 been hurled by the spirit through the air like a quoit. 
 Apollinaris is content not to think (^...vo/j-i^wpev) 
 unless he knows. Hypotheses non fingit. Perhaps 
 they did, perhaps they did not, so die. Meanwhile 
 the same prophetic spirit that had moved Maximilla 
 was not dead, and it was combatted as before, if 
 possible, by discussions and encounters face to face. 
 The experienced Zoticus was still ready to oppose 
 the false spirit of prophecy. In the third stage when 
 Apollinaris wrote his third book, the Montanists had 
 produced many martyrs, to whom they pointed in 
 proof of the power of their prophecy. Alas, the 
 Marcionites, was the reply, could do the same. 
 Orthodox martyrs would not even suffer with them 
 nor communicate with them before suffering. This 
 had been the case recently at Apameia on the 
 Maeander, and at Eumeneia (not 20 miles from 
 Comana) when Gaius and Alexander and their com- 
 panions were martyred.
 
 38 CHRONOLOGY AND CIRCUMSTANCES 
 
 Summary of Dates. 
 
 I would venture therefore to suggest with much 
 
 diffidence the following chronology. 
 
 140. Montanism breaks out at Ardabau 1 while 'Gratus 
 is proconsul of Asia' (of course when the dates 
 of Gratus and of Aemilius Frontinus, pro- 
 consuls of Asia, are ascertained, as they are 
 not yet' 2 , the question is settled). Apollinaris 
 is charged by Avircius Marcellus to compose 
 an account (nva \6yov) of the movement, 
 which in his neighbourhood of Comana is 
 Eus v 16 headed by one Alcibiades. 
 
 145 about. After a visit to Ancyra, he writes Book I 
 /cara T^? <>pv<ya)v tupe<re&s. The occurrence of 
 the outbreak is spoken of as year' eicelvo /caipov. 
 Montanus is mentioned fyaai riva rtav veoiria-- 
 TWV TT/XWTO)? Wovravov Tovvopa. By this time 
 meetings have been held by the orthodox 
 (Tvve\Bovra)v these are less formal than ' coun- 
 cils ' TO)/' Kara rrjv '\alav TTKTTWV. Plainly 
 'Atria is used loosely to include Phrygia. 
 
 155 about. Apollinaris writes his Book II. Before 
 this time the position has hardened. The or- 
 thodox are called ' Prophet-killers.' Montanus 
 is dead and Maximilla is dead fully 13 years. 
 
 1 ? Blades, Blaudos, see Ramsay, Hist. Geogr, Asia Minor, p. 133. 
 
 2 Harnack, Chron. p. 367.
 
 OF MONTANISM. 39 
 
 Doubtless the sect charged their deaths upon 
 the orthodox. Harnack's idea that Maximilla 
 presided over the sect for many years after 
 Montanus' death 1 has no foundation at all. I 
 venture to think he quite misapprehends the 
 fourth extract both in whole and in parts. 
 The 13 years fall within the long peace of the 
 reign of Antoninus Pius 138 161 A.D. The 
 latest date for Book II is 161. But 155 would 
 fall just before the outbreak of persecution at 
 Smyrna in which Polycarp perished 2 . 
 1 60 about. He writes Book III. We cannot tell 
 whether this also is addressed to Avircius, or 
 whether he was dead. Lightfoot, whose fasci- 
 nating restoration of Abercius' epitaph throws 
 a most instructive light upon the ideas of the 
 time 3 , says Avircius may well have gone to 
 Rome about 163 A.D. But he may have gone 
 there much earlier, and probably did so. He 
 was in his /2nd year when he ordered his fine 
 epitaph and tomb, and was in full and favour- 
 able touch with the Roman government then, 
 for he imposes a fine upon any one who ' shall 
 place a tomb above mine. If so then he shall 
 pay 2000 pieces of gold to the treasury of the 
 Romans, and 1000 pieces of gold to my good 
 fatherland Hieropolis.' This very practical 
 
 1 Chroii. p. 365. 2 Lightfoot, Ign. I. 653. 
 
 3 Ignatius \. p. 480.
 
 40 CHRONOLOGY OF MONTANISM. 
 
 style of a siste viator eclipses the quaint stone 
 near Shakspeare's monument : 
 
 Good Frend, for Jesus Sake forbeare 
 To digg the Dust encloased Here. 
 Blest be the Man that spares these Stones 
 And curst be He that moves my Bones. 
 
 As to the further difficulties raised by the data 
 given in Epiphanius (Hcer, viii i), Eus. Chron. (Jerome 
 Marcus an. xii) and Chron. Pasch. i 490, which Har- 
 nack discusses 1 and which would give us 157, 172 and 
 I82A.D. for the 'rise of Montanism/ a phrase which 
 may mean almost anything, I can only say that the 
 extracts given by Eusebius are of infinitely more 
 value than these contradictory fixtures. It may well 
 be admitted that the phrases of Eusebius' own in 
 iv 27 of his history are of doubtful meaning in them- 
 selves and are intended to conceal some haziness on 
 the part of the author. There are three metaphorical 
 words in three consecutive lines, but I imagine the 
 meaning to be that (i) Montanism was shewing some 
 green above the ground when Apollinaris first wrote : 
 that (2) its leaders shewed their course was not Kara 
 TO opdov TreptTraTovvTfov. that (3) Montanism entered 
 on a new stage not long afterwards, and was re- 
 organised, as we see in Apollinaris' book II, where 
 Theodotus is mentioned as the treasurer keeping the 
 bag: organisation usually means funds. But here I 
 must leave the subject at present. 
 
 1 Chron. p. 372.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE APOCALYPSE A PROPHETIC BOOK. 
 
 The Claim of the Book itself. 
 
 No right understanding of the Apocalypse is 
 possible until it is brought into relation with utter- 
 ances of its own kind. Its kind is prophetic. Zahn 
 has done well to recall attention to this fact 1 . The 
 work calls itself an ' apocalypse belonging to Jesus 
 Christ' because GOD had given it to Him with the 
 definite purpose that He should shew His servants 
 prophetically what must shortly come to pass. In 
 the accomplishment of the Divine purpose Jesus 
 employs the medium of an Angel and shews the 
 Apocalypse to his servant John, who accordingly 
 writes down all that Christ or His angel has given 
 him to see, and since it is ultimately GOD who has 
 spoken to John, and Christ who has testified Himself 
 to him, he has delivered GOD'S word and Christ's 
 witness in his book as a testimony. The words are 
 those of the prophecy, and the nature of the work is Ap i r ff. 
 
 1 Einl. p. 583.
 
 42 THE APOCALYPSE 
 
 declared from the very outset as prophetic. In 
 
 writing it down and despatching it as a letter to the 
 
 Api 11,19 Seven Churches of Asia, the author, so far from 
 
 xiv 13 following any arbitrary impulse, is discharging a 
 
 solemn command in relation to the whole or to the 
 
 xxi 5 
 
 xxii 10 several parts. Only once is he forbidden to write 
 x 4 what he has seen. Like the Prophets already referred 
 
 to, he describes the condition in which he sees and 
 
 hears the contents of the book as spiritual: 'I became 
 i 10, iv 2 in spirit.' The word ' ecstasy ' is not used : nor was it 
 
 necessary to particularise the mental state so far. 
 
 When the historian of the Acts describes Peter's 
 Acts x 10, condition, and lets him describe it (he ' beholds 
 
 Xl Js 
 
 heaven open/ ' 1 saw a vision ') the greater precision 
 
 is quite natural. The impressions upon John's mind 
 
 Ap xix 10, of an angel 1 present with him to whom homage is due, 
 
 are phenomena of the ecstatic condition, upon which 
 
 1 The idea of the angel shewing comes from Zech i 9, iii i, iv i. 
 John receives through this angel the effect of visionary hearing and 
 seeing, but without his being visible. He becomes visible only in Ap 
 iv i, xvii i, xix Qf, xxi 9 ff, xxii 6ff. It seems hypercritical to say with 
 Spitta and others, that there is any serious difference between the order 
 of i 10 and that of iv 2, as if 'I became in spirit before (the sight)' 
 shewed a different hand from 'I saw. ..and immediately after this I 
 became in spirit. ' Still there may well be a trace of a separate time of 
 composition (see chapter v). The angel's command in iv 2 is put in 
 two parts 'go up' (this is intelligible after the previous verse), and 'I 
 will shew thee' (which is explained by the following vision). In 
 a Cor xii St Paul's case I can see no essential difference except that he was 
 2,4 'snatched' (ypirdyr)) at the moment of the apocalypse; and if the 
 
 question were asked 'By whom?' a fair answer would be virb rov 
 ayyt\ov. The expression of St Paul implies rather more violence than 
 that of John.
 
 A PROPHETIC BOOK. 43 
 
 he bases his consciousness of having borne human 
 witness in his book to GOD'S word and Christ's testi- 
 mony, and his right to call his writing a word or xxii 7, 18 
 words and book of ' the Prophecy.' The particular xxii 10, 7, 
 and repeated expression ' what the Spirit saith unto 
 the Churches' is only another term for prophetic , i 
 utterance. But one of the clearest declarations in 
 the book is ' worship GOD, for the testimony of Jesus xix 10 
 is the spirit of prophecy': in other words, 'worship 
 GOD, for by doing so, instead of worshipping me or 
 any one else, you will be shewing the truth which you 
 know now so well, that the witness which Jesus has 
 borne to GOD, first in Himself upon earth, and still 
 through His servants the Prophets and disciples, 
 is the spirit which inspires them to prophesy still.' 
 Formerly the spirit which inspired Prophecy looked 
 forward to the Messiah ; now it looks back to the 
 witness which Jesus has borne, and to the history of 
 His life as man, and in that witness it has received a 
 new impulse. So far from contemplating an ex- 
 tinction of the prophetic gift and office in the 
 Christian Church, he is intensely and profoundly in 
 earnest. He fulfils St Paul's command and isiCorxivi 
 ' zealous that he may prophesy.' He eagerly desires 
 to maintain Prophecy as an agency of GOD'S will, a 
 means of its communication to men, and an en- 
 couragement to belief and perseverance.
 
 44 THE APOCALYPSE 
 
 It is predictive in a measure. 
 
 At the same time Dr Milligan 1 goes too far when 
 he says ' Apocalypse is not a mere revelation of 
 events that are immediately to precede the second 
 coming of the Lord. It is no mere prophecy of 
 the early doom of those enemies of Christian truth 
 whom the seer saw around him. The book is not 
 predictive. It contains no prediction that is not 
 found in the prophecies of Christ. It gives no know- 
 ledge of the future that is not given first by our Lord, 
 and then by others of His inspired Apostles.' Where 
 then is ' the new Jerusalem coming down from 
 heaven' foretold by Christ or His Apostles? Neither 
 Gal iv 26 St Paul nor the writer to the Hebrews gives any such 
 
 Heb xii 22 . 
 
 prophecy, to mention only one. Inis one in the 
 hands of Cerinthus was made to discredit the Apoca- 
 lypse with many readers in the early centuries. 
 Eus in 28 Eusebius quotes Gaius 2 thus: ' But Cerinthus also who 
 lies by means of revelations which he pretended were 
 written by a great apostle, introduces against us, by 
 further lying, marvellous discourses which he pretends 
 have been shewn him by means of angels : he says 
 that after the resurrection the royal city (@acri\eiov) 
 of Christ is upon the earth, and again that the flesh 
 enjoys citizenship in Jerusalem and is subject to lusts 
 and pleasures.' From this extract and from another 
 which Eusebius gives from Dionysius of Alexandria 
 
 1 Baird Lectures, p. 187. 2 Rome, 200 A.I >.
 
 A PROPHETIC BOOK. 45 
 
 (250 A.D.) about Cerinthus (100 A.D.) it is plain that 
 the second century writers fully appreciated the 
 prophetic, and more especially the predictive, charac- 
 ter of the Apocalyse. Dr Gloag is right in saying 
 that if the book is not predictive, 'the Christian 
 Church has been mistaken from the beginning.' 
 
 TJie term Apocalyptic. 
 
 On the other hand Dr Charles in his very interest- 
 ing work 1 says 'the object of Apocalyptic literature 
 in general was to solve the difficulties connected 
 with the righteousness of GOD and the suffering 
 
 condition of His righteous servants on earth The 
 
 Psalmists go so far as to complain that the best 
 things of this life are bestowed on the wicked.... The 
 O.T. Prophets had... pointed in the main to the 
 restoration of Israel as a nation.... But later... the 
 growing claims of the individual... pressed... irresist- 
 ibly on the notice of religious thinkers. It was to 
 this difficulty in particular that Apocalyptic addressed 
 
 itself, though it did not ignore the former (It) in 
 
 fact presented a Semitic philosophy of religion 
 
 Apocalyptic taught universally and thus enforced the 
 teaching of prophecy.' It would seem from this that 
 ' Apocalyptic ' was to be considered as auxiliary to 
 Prophecy but not as Prophecy itself, nor even as a 
 successor to Prophecy as we know it in O.T. We 
 1 Book of Enoch, 1893, p. 12.
 
 46 THE APOCALYPSE 
 
 should have to call it poetry or poetical philosophy, 
 and find its O.T. antecedent in Job, Pss xxxvii, xlix, 
 Ixxiii, etc. As Dr Charles proceeds to give a long 
 array of passages to prove that the ' writer or writers 
 of the Apocalypse are steeped in Jewish apocalyptic 
 literature,' there is no doubt that he considers our 
 book to belong to it, as a specimen to its class, and 
 since the Apocalypse is far more famous than any 
 other specimen, we must suppose that the class has 
 been named chiefly from it. Zahn 1 rightly enters a 
 protest against the use of the term so far as it ignores 
 some obvious peculiarities of our book, and assumes 
 certain formal resemblances between it and the Books 
 of Enoch, of the Twelve Patriarchs, of Jubilees, Fourth 
 of Ezra, the Apocalypse of Baruch, the Sibylline 
 Oracles, the Ascensions of Moses, and of Isaiah, and 
 treats these resemblances as constituent properties of 
 a class. " Our book may contain a representation of 
 the development of the world's history in the form of 
 an antedated prophecy, but if so it is a subordinate 
 element in it. The authors of these other books, 
 named after Enoch, Moses, Baruch, Ezra, and Daniel, 
 antedated their prophecies hundreds and thousands of 
 years, sheltering them under the honoured names of 
 hoary antiquity, and offering them to a credulous 
 public without even pretending to have any personal 
 relation to it." But here we have a man conversing 
 with the Seven Churches of Asia, and delivering to 
 
 1 Einl. 584.
 
 A PROPHETIC BOOK. 47 
 
 them a book which he has based on the closest acquaint- 
 ance with their present circumstances. 
 
 TJie Apocalypse is not mere literature. 
 
 I suggest then that the term ' apocalyptic ' is only 
 to be allowed conditionally and used with reserve, 
 as applied to one species of prophecy : nor must 
 it convey any foregone conclusion as to the truth 
 or falsehood of the prophecy. Let it be under- 
 stood that we have to deal with a time of the 
 Christian Church at which " visions, inspirations of 
 various kinds, and announcements flowing from them, 
 were all in the day's work. Unless we set aside the 
 witness borne by St Paul, the Acts, and early Christian 
 literature to a prophetic spirit able to run the gauntlet 
 of criticism by the consciousness of the Church and 
 claiming to prove its independence of the personal 
 will and opinion of the speaker; unless we are pre- 
 pared to set down its productions as so much artistic 
 patchwork and therefore false prophecy ; we have no 
 right to take a book originating at that time and 
 presenting itself as a book of prophecy resting on the 
 experience of actual visions and recognised as such 
 by the Churches to whom it was addressed, and pro- 
 nounce it a mere product of literary art or treat it as 
 a mixture of the after-effects of ecstatic conditions and 
 the artistic lucubrations of a literary hack'." Of 
 
 1 Zahn, Einl. p. 585, to whom I am under frequent obligations for 
 the remarks in this chapter.
 
 48 THE APOCALYPSE 
 
 course, to write a book based on visions within the 
 author's experience, is a literary task which cannot be 
 performed as mechanically as the development of a 
 photographer's plate. To write down the visions is a 
 Ap x 1 1 kind of prophecy, and therefore the Prophet who 
 resorts to writing, no less than one who speaks to the 
 Church viva voce, requires the faculty of graphic repro- 
 duction for the Apocalypse he has received. For this 
 he requires also the prophetic spirit, which however 
 does not suspend its consciousness as regards the 
 outer world and limit its spontaneity as in the pre- 
 vious condition of the ecstatic vision, but on the 
 contrary awakens it and lifts it up to prophetic 
 inspiration. The book cannot be understood except 
 by those who take the point of view of its composer 
 and first readers, and start with the supposition, 
 however provisional, that the visions described by 
 John in Ap i 10 xxii 16 were those of his own 
 experience. 
 
 The Apocalypse is not obscure to the author at least. 
 
 The Apocalypse belongs therefore to Christian 
 Prophecy, which as a source of knowledge, edification, 
 and activity at the time of the Apostles was so power- 
 ful an expression of the Spirit, and as such was so 
 highly regarded. It has of course partial parallels 
 in Mt xxiv, 2 Th ii, I Cor xv, and other passages 
 to be cited. But this peculiarity, so far as it is one,
 
 A PROPHETIC BOOK. 49 
 
 only unites it more closely to the writings of the O.T. 
 Prophets. It is impossible to understand the contents, 
 origin and value of the book, indeed the sense of 
 whole passages and the purport of the work, until the 
 question is clearly put : what right has John to speak 
 so of himself and his book ? The answer must be 
 given with the sincerity indispensable in intelligence. 
 It is a misuse of language to speak of the author as 
 the 'Seer' if it permits of the idea that he has seen 
 nothing but his study-lamp and some books lying 
 round him ; and yet it is an offence against the laws 
 of historical criticism to suppose that the author 
 suffered with regard to the origin of his ideas, which 
 are represented as visions, the same obscurity into 
 which many learned readers have fallen. His ex- 
 pressions, as quoted above, leave nothing to desire 
 in point of clearness, and the claim that he makes 
 
 for the delivery of the revelations he has received Ap i 2 f 
 
 xxii 1 8 f 
 
 bears no evidence of uncertainty. He knows as well 
 as St Paul does that there were such men as false 
 witnesses. He betrays the same abhorrence of all 
 lies as St John in the Gospel and Epistle. 
 characterizing his book as prophetic and claiming a x ; v 5 
 place in the series of N.T. Prophets, he does not 
 maintain absolute infallibility for his expressions. 
 The Prophets of the Apostolic Age were obliged 
 to submit to the criticism of their fellow-Christians, i Th v 
 and to be warned against unnatural excitement and v cor xiv 
 the confusion of their own thoughts and fancies with 32 
 s. AP. 4 

 
 50 THE APOCALYPSE 
 
 what was given to them by the Spirit. In the second 
 century, as we have seen (p. 17), the critical side 
 became identical with the orthodox, and the pro- 
 phetic with the Montanists. However John assures 
 them that he is not conscious of any such confusion. 
 
 The Apocalypse is not false prophecy. 
 
 On the other hand every Christian Prophet of 
 
 that age must be conscious of the opposition to 
 
 the false prophets who have gone forth among the 
 
 Ap ii 20, Christians, the Jezebels and Balaams, and of the 
 
 xfx 20 need of ' testing the spirits to see whether they are 
 
 1 J ni Y. J of God.' These are described invariably as immoral 
 
 2 Pet 11 i 
 
 cf Mt vii persons, sometimes as propounders of untrue doctrine. 
 
 xxiv ii, 24 But the idea of a false Prophet is constituted by neither 
 
 Lk vi 26 ^ e f ormer nor th e latter, but by the pretence of being 
 
 a Prophet and having received divine revelations when 
 
 that is not the case. ' Ye shall know them by their 
 
 fruits ' in life and teaching. But among these fruits 
 
 was, in the first place of all, the veracity of their 
 
 assertions about the origin of their announcements. 
 
 There can be no question with an early Christian of 
 
 any uncertainty upon these elementary truths. 
 
 The Apocalypse is not. written in ecstasy. 
 
 Nor yet again was the book written during a 
 
 Api ii state of ecstasy. 'What thou seest write in a book:' 
 
 is the order which John receives through the voice of
 
 A PROPHETIC BOOK. 51 
 
 the angel who shews him the apocalypse, but before 
 he sees anything at all : he then receives the command 
 through Christ himself ' Write,' &c. Hence it is Ap i 19 
 evident that John is not to reduce the vision to writing 
 during the ecstasy, accompanying its phases step by 
 step, or employing for the purpose any waking 
 moments which might interrupt it. In any case there 
 is no room for such waking moments before iv i. 
 Jesus continues His speech without interruption from 
 -i 17 iii 22. Apart from the consideration that the 
 writing must have been recorded as much as the 
 prostration, and that the whole dramatic vigour of i 17 
 the action of the vision would be sacrificed, it would 
 be useless to have written during the ecstasy. A 
 writing so produced would itself be only of a visionary 
 nature, that is, it would have no more objective 
 existence when the seer awoke from ecstasy than all 
 that he had seen in the ecstasy. The present /SXeTret? " 
 has the force of a future, and the aorist etSe? that of 19 
 a future perfect, like the strange aorists in x 7, 
 xv i : the latter no less than the former refers to all 
 that John is enabled generally to see in ecstasy. In 
 accordance with this we find that what John is to 
 see and afterwards to write down is divided into 
 things present and things to come. Of the former 
 kind is mainly the contents of ii, iii ; of the latter is 
 mainly the contents of iv xxii. The command to 
 
 'write' is to be understood to take effect after the ii i, 8, n, 
 
 etc 
 vision has ended, when he will address these words to
 
 52 THE APOCALYPSE 
 
 Ap i u the separate Churches in the book which he is told to 
 write and send to them. They are not independent 
 letters, or rather they are not received as such by 
 each separate Church, but as a constituent part of the 
 book which is addressed to the Seven Churches as 
 
 i 4 a whole. The same holds good of the ' write ' in 
 
 xiv 13, xix 9, xxi 5. It serves to underline certain 
 words as of particular importance. Even the pro- 
 hibition in x 4 affords no basis for the view that 
 seeing and writing were simultaneous. John must 
 have regarded the writing down of the Seven Thunders 
 as forbidden by GOD, and that of the other visions as 
 commanded : the wish therefore to write what he had 
 heard must have stirred him during the course of the 
 vision. Thus the prohibition impressed him all the 
 more strongly. 
 
 The Apocalypse is epistolary in form, and meant to 
 be read in church. 
 
 If for a moment we look away from the compre- 
 hensive title of the book, we find that it wears the 
 form of an Epistle to the Seven Churches of Asia. 
 John opens quite in the style of the apostolic epistles 
 with an introductory greeting, in which he speaks of 
 himself, as of those whom he addresses, principally in 
 the third person : although like Peter and Paul he 
 departs from the ancient style in introducing the 
 address along with the greeting itself. Then follows
 
 A PROPHETIC BOOK. 53 
 
 a doxology which is separated by an Amen from A P l 5 6 > 
 
 cf Eph i 3 
 two following sentences which indicate the contents i Pet i 3 
 
 of the main document ; an announcement of the 
 return of Christ given from the author's standpoint 
 and confirmed by 'Yea, Amen,' and an expression of Api 7,8 
 the almighty power of GOD. At this point begins 9 
 the actual Epistle, in which, naturally in a letter, he 
 speaks of himself throughout in the first person. If, J 9 xxii 8, 
 however, the address to the readers is not repeated 
 after i 9 or in the conclusion, it follows that the 
 form of the Epistle, as in so many didactic and his- 
 torical writings of that time (St Luke, Acts, Josephus' 
 Antiquities, Josephus' Against Apion, &c.) is meant to 
 betoken that the contents are only immediately in- 
 tended for a definite set of readers, and ultimately for 
 a wider circle. This comprehension of the whole 
 book into the form of a letter does not exclude the 
 use of a title any more than it would in other forms of 
 literature. In fact a title is rather more in accordance 
 with the common custom. Without a title, the form 
 of the Epistle might lead the reader to think that 
 a single perusal sufficed. But John is convinced of 
 the importance of its contents for the Churches. It 
 takes its place along with the prophetic books which 
 the Church of Israel has inherited, as a homogeneous 
 work 1 . 
 
 1 In xxii 21 read either /uera WO.VTUV without TWV ayiuv with A, or 
 fiera rwv ayluv with N. The V/JLW of xxii 16 is spoken not by John but xxii 12 to 
 by Jesus, who addresses John once more, and therefore includes him 16
 
 54 THE APOCALYPSE 
 
 To them it is to be a possession for ever, which 
 
 they are to guard as a treasure not to be tampered 
 
 ApxxiiiSf with, using it diligently till the expected coming 
 
 xxii 17, 20 of Christ, so as to give it currency in their congre- 
 
 i 3, cf ii 7, gations by reading it at public worship. Further, the 
 
 xxii 10', 17 author is convinced that the contents of the Book 
 
 are intended and bear important meaning not merely 
 
 for the Seven Churches, to which it is addressed as 
 
 i i, xxii 6 an epistle, but for all servants of GOD and Christ, 
 
 for collective Christendom represented as the bride 
 
 xxii 17 O f Christ The Churches addressed by the prophetic 
 
 ii7>n spirit through this book are of course chiefly the 
 
 etc, xxii 1 6 . . 
 
 Asiatic Seven ; but beyond them his outlook stretches 
 
 ii 23 far more widely forth to all the Churches. But since 
 the form of the book is that of an Epistle to the 
 Seven, a formal title of the book was necessary in 
 order to express its destination to the use of the 
 whole Church and of public worship. ' A little re- 
 flection on the part of readers of recent literature on 
 the Apocalypse would have saved them surprise at 
 the author speaking of himself in the third person 
 in the title, while in the course of the book he used 
 the first person. If among the Jews the Prophet 
 
 with the other Christians in this address. This concluding speech of 
 Christ stands, like the single word of Jesus, xxii 20 a, outside the 
 Visions, the series of which ends with xxii 8 9 (or 15), just as the 
 speech of GOD does in i 8. GOD and Christ speak through the prophets, 
 i 8 that is through John the writer of the book, without GOD or Christ 
 
 becoming visible to him. These and the above remarks are directed by 
 Zahn against the destructive analysis, by Spitta and others, of the 
 preface and conclusion of the work. But see below, p. 188,
 
 A PROPHETIC ROOK. 55 
 
 Jeremiah commences his book as he does, and among Jer i 13, 
 
 * 4 
 
 the Greeks Herodotus, with the use of the third 
 person, while in the course of their works they 
 resort to the first, in narrative passages, we find no 
 suggestion of manifold authorship in this natural 
 variation. 
 
 The Title of the Apocalypse. 
 
 'Again many difficulties of interpretation disappear 
 when we keep in view the idea that the composition 
 of the book presupposes that the visions, at least 
 those of iv xxii, have been seen first, and that 
 in normal circumstances, especially in antiquity, the 
 Title is the last piece of the book to be written, just 
 as in our day the title is the last printed. The writer 
 therefore in fixing the Title of the book looks back 
 not only to the apocalypses already received ('saw'), Ap i i, 2 
 but to his completed literary activity (' testified '), 
 and represents to himself the near future, in which 
 the single reader will be reading his book before 
 many hearers, that is, in the assembled congre- 
 gation. But no sooner does he start the writing i 3 
 of the book which begins at i 4, than he has set the 
 visions behind him and their contents before him in 
 spirit, and his expression gains a distinctness which is 
 only conceivable as a result of the visions. Since in i 1 1 
 there have been seven separate local Churches belong- 
 ing to the province of Asia named as the recipients 
 of the completed book, and since in the further course
 
 56 THE APOCALYPSE A PROPHETIC BOOK. 
 
 of the first vision he receives the charge to say a 
 particular word to each of these Churches, which it 
 is to read and hear as a constituent part of the book 
 addressed to all the seven, it follows that in com- 
 posing the book these seven Churches are standing 
 Ap i 4 before his eyes as definite quantities. It is not the 
 cf i Cor Churches of Asia as though there had not been as 
 GalVa early as St Paul's time independent Churches at 
 Col i i, Colossae, Hierapolis and Troas which are not named 
 Act's xx here, but the Seven Churches named by the Angel 
 6ff, 2 Cor w hj c h are all in Asia. Further, the definite mention 
 
 11 12 
 
 2 Tim iv at the very outset of the seven spirits before 
 
 13 
 
 Ap i 4 the throne of GOD (where instead we might have 
 
 found the one spirit mentioned, on the analogy of 
 2 Cor xiii 13, I Pet i 2, of which nevertheless we seem 
 to read in Ap ii 7, xiv 13, xxii 17), is only to be 
 explained by the vision in which the Spirit had 
 represented itself to John in the shape of seven 
 iv 5, v 6 lamps before GOD'S throne and of seven eyes of the 
 Lamb standing at the throne. If we are inclined to 
 call the definiteness of the expression in i 4, thus 
 conditioned, a piece of literary clumsiness, it testifies 
 in any case that the literary statement originates in 
 visions previously experienced 1 .' 
 
 1 Zahn pp. 586, 587. It must, however, be added that the seer 
 would not have seen a vision of the Spirit as seven-fold, unless this 
 conception harmonised with his own belief. See below, p. 185.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE APOCALYPSE AND OTHER PROPHETIC 
 WRITINGS. 
 
 TJie conservative treatment of the O. T. in the 
 Apocalypse. 
 
 IF any doubt remained of the prophetic character 
 of the Apocalypse, a glance at the quotations from the 
 Old Testament which it contains would suffice to 
 prove that the writer could hardly express himself in 
 any but Old Testament phraseology. Readers will of 
 course differ as to what does or does not amount to a 
 quotation ; but counting a context of which fragments 
 are quoted even without actually consecutive verses 
 as one quotation, and treating repetitions as separate 
 quotations, I find that the following are the approxi- 
 mate amounts of quotation by the N.T. writers: 
 Mt 126, Mk 71, Lk HI, Acts 136. In contrast to 
 these the small number in St John's Gospel 27 is 
 remarkable. In St Paul's Epistles the Romans of 
 course takes the lead with 88, as might be expected 
 from the scriptural and controversial character of the 
 Epistle, i Cor has 33, 2 Cor 31, Gal 20, Eph 27.
 
 58 THE APOCALYPSE AND 
 
 From which there is a drop in Phil to 7, and Col to 
 5. The contrast between Eph and Col is noteworthy. 
 But in the Pastoral Epistles we come down to 
 
 1 Tim 2, 2 Tim 5, and Titus 3. In the Catholic 
 Epistles i Pet 36, and James 26, are followed by 
 
 2 Pet 6 and Jude 6. The Epistle to the Hebrews 
 shews no less than 100 quotations, a larger pro- 
 portion than any of St Paul's. But the Apocalypse 
 exceeds all, with the enormous proportion of 518, 
 on a moderate computation by Westcott and Hort's 
 list 
 
 An ordinary writer dealing with the future, as 
 John does in at least 19 chapters out of 22, is not 
 obliged to resort to the distant past for his language 
 and ideas. The author of the Pastoral Epistles could 
 deal with the problems of the present organisation of 
 the Church, with all its delicate relations, racial, 
 social, disciplinary, in 13 chapters of precept and 
 advice without making more than 10 quotations. If 
 it was St Paul, he wrote actually before the Apoca- 
 lypse. There must then be something very different 
 in his relation to his readers. St Paul once wrote an 
 Epistle about the last things, and in the three chapters 
 of 2 Thess he quotes Scripture 14 times, or about 
 once in every 3 verses. John quotes it 518 times in 
 writing only 404 verses. His mind was indeed satu- 
 rated with O.T. language. 
 
 But an analysis of the authors quoted shev s his 
 very strong predilection for the Prophets. He quotes
 
 OTHER PROPHETIC WRITINGS. 59 
 
 Daniel 83 times ; of course some passages are re- 
 peated again and again, such as Dan iv 30 (27). He 
 quotes Ezekiel 80 times : Isaiah i xxxix 41 times, 
 of which vi i occurs often : Isaiah xl end 67 times : 
 Zechariah 22 times: Jeremiah 39 times: Amos 12 
 times, of which however Am iv 13 occurs 9 times: 
 Joel 9 times. The Psalms he quotes 87 times and 
 Exodus 36 times. About two-thirds of all his quota- 
 tions are from the Prophets of O.T. Of course the 
 explanation of these facts is that he was a Prophet 
 himself. 
 
 T/te Prophets are nurtured upon the Prophets of old. 
 
 To say that the study of Prophecy by Christian 
 Prophets, that is by Jewish Prophets who were con- 
 verted to Christianity in the years 35 60 A.D., was 
 not scientific, to say that it did not employ the com- 
 parative method, or apply historical data, or exert a 
 critical faculty, or even regard the dates and circum- 
 stances of its treasured writings, is only to say that it 
 belonged to its own stage of development and not to 
 ours. 
 
 The Prophets pored upon what was ancient or 
 was reputed to be so : enough for them that it was 
 prophetic matter, inspired phraseology, holy language. 
 Their duty was to awaken and keep awakened the 
 slumbering hopes of the servants of the GOD of Israel,
 
 60 THE APOCALYPSE AND 
 
 to encourage them to patience and to brace their 
 faith in GOD'S justice to the people of His covenant. 
 To those who are seeking for fulfilments, fulfilments 
 will readily occur. Many a text would apply over 
 and over again to the circumstances of the suffering 
 faithful. Many a theme would recur along with 
 recurring conditions or without them. 
 
 Acts xiii i Barnabas we know was a Prophet, and his name 
 accorded with the fact. How often must he have 
 
 Acts xiv used the exhortation, of which every syllable rings 
 with the ardour of simple prophetic preaching 1 ! At 
 the same time he represented the less conservative 
 spirit of the Prophets. ' He was a good (that is a 
 
 Acts xi 24 kind) man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith,' 
 and when the time came to decide the great contro- 
 versy, whether entrance into the Church of Christ was 
 to be open to the heathens by the door of faith or by 
 
 Acts xiv the door of ceremony, it is not surprising to find that 
 
 27 he was on the right side along with St Paul. 
 
 But Barnabas' was an uncommon nature, and it 
 stands in the nature of man and things that members 
 of an ancient school and representatives of a venerable 
 
 1 I could hardly bring myself to think with Dr Charles and others 
 that Barnabas wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews with its marvellously 
 modern tone of Christian thought and reasoning, except on the sup- 
 position that he had been more influenced by St Paul than he seems to 
 xii 22, 23, have been from the account in Acts. In spite of some strong prophetic 
 X f 1 .9> touches the style of language is too essentially Greek, and the favourite 
 
 g *' ' prophetic quotations are not present, e.g. thrice in quoting Ps ii 7, he 
 stops short of 8 and 9. I see no reasons against Apollos, and many for 
 him, as the author.
 
 OTHER PROPHETIC WRITINGS. 6 1 
 
 order should in the religious sphere be conservative. 
 The Prophets, steeped as deep as Rabbis in the Old Jn v 39 
 Testament, nurtured in the Messianic hope, awake to Acts xxviii 
 every turn of events which might contribute to its 2C 
 fulfilment, ready to interpret the signs of the times, Mt xvi 3 
 waiting for the consolation of Israel, amid their Lk ii 25 
 fastings and prayers (which Barnabas shared), were Lk H 37, 
 feeding their minds far more upon the language of 3) x i v 23 ' 
 ancient Prophecy than upon the thought which had 
 inspired and animated its authors. The unflinching 
 trust of an Isaiah, the rigorous impartiality of an 
 Amos, the plaintive melancholy of a Jeremiah, the 
 dry light of reason and clear precision of an Ezekiel, 
 the wild self- revelations of a Hosea, were not treasured 
 by their latest successors for the types and experiences 
 of character which their writings had enshrined. They 
 were not studied in any biographical or ethical or 
 even human aspect. They were not treated analytic- 
 ally, so that one of them was understood as a whole, 
 or as distinct from or related to another. Their 
 several characteristic features were ignored. They 
 were considered as so many contributors to a great 
 body of teaching, authors of a circle of ideas, pro- 
 ducers of a common store of pictures, of which the 
 elements were promiscuous, incongruous, and often 
 contradictory. It mattered not to the later Prophets, 
 who found in them bright gleams of hope and solemn 
 confirmations of the unfailing Covenant.
 
 62 THE APOCALYPSE* AND 
 
 Combined Fragments of Quotations of O. T. in Ap. 
 
 These elements could be recombined, and the 
 language in which they were couched was at the 
 disposal of the living voice. One verse of the living 
 writer will embody fragments from three different 
 passages of Scripture (Ap i 13 = Dan vii 13 'like as 
 a Son of Man ' -4- Ez ix 1 1 ' clothed with a garment 
 down to the feet ' + Dan x 5 ' girt with gold ' Chald. 
 and Theod. Trepie^wa-^evi] tV ^pvaira '!</>), from four 
 (Ap iv 8 = Is vi 2, 3 'each one had six wings, 
 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord ' + Ez i 18 'full of eyes 
 around' (icvicXodev) + Amos iv 13 LXX 'Lord God 
 Almighty ' + Ex iii 14 ' Who art '), from three (Ap vi 
 io = Zech i 12 'How long, O Lord, wilt thou not' 
 (shew mercy) + Deut xxxii 43 ' avenge the blood of 
 (his sons)'+Hosea iv i 'judge them that dwell on 
 the earth '), from four (Ap vii 17 = Ez xxxiv 23 ' shall 
 be their shepherd' 4- Jer ii 13 'fountain of water 
 of life'+ Is xxv 8 ' GOD... take away every tear from 
 every (face) '+ Jer xxxi 16 'eyes from tears,') from 
 four (Ap ix 20 = Is xvii 8 ' the works of their 
 hands ' + Dan v 23 LXX 'gold and silver and brass 
 (and iron) and wood and stone ' + Dan v 4 ' idols ' 
 + Deut xxxii 17 'devils (and not to GOD) ' + 
 Ps cxv 7 'cannot see, hear, walk'), from three 
 ( Ap xi 6 i Ki xvii I ' shall not be rain ' -f Ex 
 vii 17 'turn the water into blood ' + i Sam iv 8 
 'smite with every plague'), from three (Ap xi 15
 
 OTHER PROPHETIC WRITINGS. 63 
 
 = Obad 2 1 ' The kingdom is the Lord's ' + Ps ii 2 
 ' The Lord and His Christ' + Dan ii 44 'his kingdom 
 shall stand for ever'), from three (Ap xi i8=Ps 
 Ixxviii 31 'His wrath came upon them ' + Dan ix 6 
 'thy servants the Prophets ' + Ps cxv 13 'them that 
 fear the Lord both small and great '), from three 
 (Ap xiv 10 = Is. Ii 17 ' Jerusalem, who shall drink of 
 the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath ' (8v/j,ov) 
 + Ps Ixxv 8 'cup in the hand of the Lord, full of 
 strong drink mixed ' (d/cpfirov /eep<7oyiaTO<?) + Ez xxxviii 
 22 'fire and brimstone... in the presence of...'), from 
 seven (Ap xv 3* = Ex xv I ' Moses... sang this song' 
 + Josh xiv 7 'Moses the servant of GOD' + Ps cxi 2 
 ' great are the works of the Lord ' + Ex xxxiv 10 ' the 
 works of the Lord... are wonderful' + Amos iv 13 
 
 1 The change of reading here, Ap xv 3, is very remarkable. In 
 the original of Jeremiah the passage is x 6 'There is none like unto 
 thee, O Lord ; thou art great, and thy name is great in might. Who 
 would not fear thee, O king of nations?' This is the train of thought 
 which has prompted the song in the Apocalypse. But the closing 
 expression of it ' King of heathens ' ' did not commend itself to the mind 
 of John in this context, in spite of the fact that in Deut xxxii 8 Moses 
 himself says 'The Most High divided to the nations (heathens) their 
 inheritance,' Heb., or 'divided the nations (heathens)' LXX. John 
 is unable to put down as it stands an expression which seems to admit 
 the heathen to so full and equal a share in the kingdom of GOD, and he 
 therefore passes over three verses till he comes to the term ' (everlasting) 
 King of the ages ' Jer x 10 Heb. There could hardly be a stronger 
 proof of Jewish tenacity in John. 
 
 1 Weiss (Apocalypse, p. 99 and cf. p. 5) however reads idvCiv, but against his own 
 principles as I understand them. He says that aitavtav, though supponed by X C 18 
 95 demid. tol. syr. ar. , is a conformation to a quite remote passage, i Tim i 17. Why 
 then should it be ' conformed ' ? The author himself wrote it.
 
 64 THE APOCALYPSE AND 
 
 1 Lord God Almighty' + Deut xxxii 4 'True are thy 
 works and all thy ways judgments' + Jer x 10 Heb 
 'king of the (WH) ages': x 7 'who shall not fear 
 thee...?'), from three (Ap xviii 2 = Is xxi 9 'Fallen, 
 fallen hath Babylon ' + Jer ix 1 1 ' Jerusalem (not 
 Babylon) to be a habitation of serpents ' + Is xiii 21 
 ' ostriches and owls ' etc.), from three (Ap xviii 9 = Ez 
 xxvii 33 'the kings of the earth' 30 'shall wail and 
 cry bitterly ' + Ez xxvi 16 'lay away their robes 
 and broidered garments ' 4- Is xxiii 17 Tyre 'shall 
 commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the 
 earth' : all three passages refer to the fall of Tyre, 
 but John applies them to Babylon), from five (Ap xix 
 6 = Dan x 6 ' like the voice of a multitude ' + Ez i 24 
 'like the voice of great waters' + Ps civ 35 'Alleluia' 
 + Ps xciii i 'The Lord hath reigned ' + Am iv 13 
 ' Lord GOD Almighty'), from three (Ap xx 9= Hab 
 i 6 'upon the broad places of the earth '+ Jer xi 15 
 'What hath my beloved (city) done ? ' + 2 Ki i 10 
 ' There came down fire from heaven and devoured 
 them'), from four (Ap xix 15 = Is xi 4 'he shall 
 smite the earth with the word of his mouth ' + Ps ii 8 
 'he shall shepherd them with a rod of iron'-l- Is Ixiii 3 
 ' I have trodden them in the wine -press in my 
 wrath ' + Amos iv 13 'GOD Almighty').
 
 OTHER PROPHETIC WRITINGS. 65 
 
 Quotations from Apocrypha in the Apocalypse. 
 
 But while the Prophets treated the ideas and lan- 
 guage of the canonical books with such indiscriminate 
 freedom, they did not hesitate to embody and interpret 
 apocryphal statements also. Thus the obscure refer- 
 ence in Ap ii 17 to 'the hidden manna' is I believe to 
 be explained. In 2 Maccabees ii i 7 we read: ' It is 
 found in the records that Jeremiah the Prophet, being 
 warned of GOD, commanded the tabernacle and the 
 ark to go with him, as he went forth into the moun- 
 tain, where Moses climbed up and saw the heritage 
 of GOD. And when Jeremiah came thither he found 
 a house of a cave, wherein he laid the tabernacle, and 
 the ark, and the altar of incense, and so stopped the 
 door. And some of those that followed him came 
 to mark the way and the place, but they could not 
 find it. Which when Jeremiah perceived, he blamed 
 them, saying, As for that place it shall be unknown 
 until the time that GOD gather this people again to- 
 gether, and receive them unto mercy. Then shall 
 the Lord shew them these things, and the glory of 
 the Lord shall appear, and the cloud also as it was 
 shewed under Moses...' The manna in .its golden 
 pot was of course laid by in the ark, which was 
 hidden by Jeremiah in the way described. What Heb ix 4 
 John says is that the reward of him that overcometh 
 the doctrine of the Nicolaitans in Pergamon, with 
 its temptations to eat things offered to idols and to 
 
 commit fornication, shall be a portion of the manna 
 s. AP. 5
 
 66 THE APOCALYPSE AND 
 
 reserved as the food of GOD'S covenant-people together 
 with the token inscribed with the new name ; both 
 the food and the token are as yet unknown, and both 
 will be known when received. Both promises receive 
 the inauguration of their fulfilment before the Apoca- 
 lypse ends. After the seventh trumpet and the two 
 hymns, ' the kingdom of the world has become ' and 
 
 Ap xi 19 ' we give thanks to thee, Lord God Almighty,' we 
 read that GOD'S temple (shrine) in heaven was opened, 
 and there was seen the ark of His covenant in His 
 temple. And it was accompanied by the cloud, as 
 foretold, for there were lightnings and thunderings 
 and great hail. After the occurrence of the first 
 great sign, the woman clothed with the sun, and the 
 appearance of her foes the beasts of the sea and of 
 
 xiv i the land, occurs the brief glimpse of the corresponding 
 fulfilment, the 144,000 with the Lamb upon Mount 
 Sion with His name and His Father's name written 
 upon their foreheads. 
 
 Another passage in the Apocalypse, that has not I 
 think hitherto received a satisfactory explanation 1 , is 
 
 i 16, 20, that of 'the seven stars.' The key is to be found in 
 Enoch i 18, 'And I saw a deep abyss, with pillars of 
 heavenly fire, and among them I saw pillars of fire 
 fall, which were in number beyond count alike to- 
 wards the height and towards the depth. And over 
 that abyss I saw a place which had no firmament of 
 the heaven above and no foundation of the earth be- 
 neath it: there was no water upon it and no birds, but 
 1 It is not in Charles's list.
 
 OTHER PROPHETIC WRITINGS. 67 
 
 it was a waste and horrible place. And I saw there 
 seven stars like great burning mountains, and like 
 spirits, which besought me. The angel said : (or : 
 when I enquired of these things, the angel said :) 
 This is the place where heaven and earth terminate, 
 it serves for a prison for the stars of heaven and the 
 host of heaven. And the stars which roll over the 
 fire are they which have transgressed the command- 
 ment of GOD before (or, in the beginning of) their 
 rising because they did not come forth at the ap- 
 pointed time. And He was wroth with them and 
 bound them till the time when their guilt should be 
 consummated in the year of the mystery (or, in ten 
 thousand years) 1 .' I suggest that our author drew 
 upon the prophetic cycle of ideas which Enoch i 
 xxx vi (before 161 B.C., Charles) represents, for his 
 thoughts of the high responsibility of the stars which 
 he identifies with the bright uplifted angels of the 
 Seven Churches, of the possibility of their fall and 
 punishment (observe the responsibility implied in the 
 words, 'But if not,' ii 5, 16, 22, iii 3 ; contrast 'a pillar 
 in the temple of my GOD,' iii 12), and of their de- 
 pendence on the Son of GOD who was 'the beginning Apiii 14 
 of their 'creation' and therefore 'holds them,' 'keeps 
 them fast in His right hand' or 'upon it.' 
 
 1 Charles, Book of Enoch, p. 89, says, ' This may be the final 
 place of punishment for the fallen angels,' cf. Enoch x 6, 'Azazel on 
 the great day of judgment shall be cast into the fire.' The parallel 
 passage is in xxi. In xc, 'Judgment was first held over the stars, and 
 they were judged,... and cast into an abyss... full of pillars of fire.' 
 
 52
 
 68 THE APOCALYPSE AND 
 
 The Book of Enoch. 
 
 The Book of Enoch, it need hardly be said, was 
 eminently prophetic both in its origin and in its 
 preservation. Hardly the Book of Daniel itself was 
 more treasured by the Prophets, partly because this 
 remarkable book struck out a new line. A Hellenist 
 writer quoted by Eusebius 1 says that Enoch was the 
 founder of what we should call astronomy. The 
 Assumption of Moses 2 (about A.D.) probably and the 
 Book of Jubilees (before 70 A.D.) certainly used Enoch. 
 The Apocalypse of Baruch (soon after 70 A.D.) de- 
 pends upon it. Fourth Ezra (81 96 A.D. ?) uses it 
 often. The Testaments of the XII Patriarchs refer to 
 it often. The Epistle of Barnabas (70 132 A.D.) cites 
 it three times, twice as Scripture. Justin Martyr and 
 Irenaeus use it. Athenagoras (170 A.D.) regards Enoch 
 as a true Prophet. Tertullian (197 223 A.D.) regards 
 Enoch as ' Scripture ' and ' a most ancient Prophet.' 
 Clement of Alexandria (200 A.D.) quotes him by 
 name twice as an authority and refers to him again 3 . 
 
 . E-v. ix 17, 8 ; see Charles, p. 33, where see the other 
 references. Dr Charles has since given a full treatment of ' Apocalyptic 
 Literature' in the Encyclopaedia Biblica, of which I had not the advan- 
 tage when these pages were printed. 
 
 2 For a fuller treatment of the Jewish Apocalyptic literature see 
 Dr Stanton, The Jewish and the Christian Messiah, and Dr Drummond, 
 The Jewish Messiah. 
 
 3 Dr Charles gives the following dates for the different portions 
 of Enoch: i xxxvi before 170 A.D., Ixxii Ixxviii, Ixxxii, Ixxix (Celestial 
 Physics) undated, Noachian interpolations undated (both undated por- 
 tions being B.C.), Ixxxiii xc 166 161 B.C. (more spiritual than Part I.
 
 OTHER PROPHETIC WRITINGS. 69 
 
 The Assumption of Moses. 
 
 There is of course a dearth of evidence for the 
 activity of the Prophets as there is for all Jewish 
 literature^ between 150 B.C. and /OA.D. roughly speak- 
 ing. Still the prophetic works already mentioned 
 represent a large proportion of it. The different 
 portions of the Book of Enoch are scanty pieces 
 indeed to bridge over the last 1 50 years B.C. They 
 are of course prophetic. Then we come to the 
 ' Assumption of Moses,' in which Moses by way of 
 legacy hands over to Joshua certain books of Pro- 
 phecies which he is requested to preserve in a place 
 appointed by GOD. Moses then reveals to Joshua in 
 brief outline the future history of Israel from the 
 entrance into Palestine down to the destruction of 
 the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Under Nebu- 
 chadnezzar the captives will remember that all this 
 had been foretold by Moses 1 . The history, as usual 
 in these prophetical apocalyptic works, such as the 
 portions of Enoch, becomes more detailed as it be- 
 comes more recent, and finally we are given a date or 
 the clue to it. In this Herod the Great is clearly 
 shewn. After this we come to 'the end of the times 2 / 
 The conclusion contains the dispute between the Arch- 
 
 and resembling Daniel), xci civ 134 94 B.C. ('fusion of prophetic and 
 apocalyptic ideas in a profounder and more comprehensive system'), 
 xxxvii Ixx (Similitudes) either 94 79 B.C. or 70 64 B.C. 
 
 1 Schiirer, Jewish People, 32, II iii p. 74 E.T. 
 
 2 The word 'taxo,' as the name of a man of the tribe of Levi with 
 seven sons, is according to Schiirer undoubtedly a corruption of the text, 
 though Hilgenfeld has supposed it to be a reference to the Messiah.
 
 70 THE APOCALYPSE AND 
 
 angel Michael and Satan about the body of Moses 
 which is referred to in Jude 9 just before the direct 
 Jude 14, 15 quotation from Enoch. There is nothing surprising 
 En 19, V4, in Jude quoting Enoch and referring to the Assump- 
 tion of Moses if Jude was a Prophet himself, which 
 seems to me certain. 
 
 The Apocalypse of Barnch. 
 
 We have then a gap of 70 years before coining to 
 the Apocalypse of Baruch, which purports to be a 
 writing composed by Baruch in which he recounts in 
 the first person what befel him immediately before 
 and after the destruction of Jerusalem, and what 
 revelations were made to him. Four angels destroy 
 the Holy City ; then the Chaldeans enter. Baruch 
 remains behind among the ruins. After he had fasted 
 seven days, GOD tells him that judgment would over- 
 take the Gentiles also: and He calms his apprehensions 
 generally about the prosperity of the wicked and the 
 calamities of the righteous. Fasting and praying are 
 repeatedly enjoined : the time of tribulation is divided 
 into twelve parts. ' The measure of that time will be 
 two parts weeks of seven weeks.' Baruch announces 
 to the elders that ' after a short time the building of 
 Sion shall be shaken to pieces, that it may be built 
 again. But that building also shall not remain, but 
 again after a time it shall be uprooted, and it shall 
 remain desert for a time. And afterwards it must be 
 renewed in glory, and it shall be crowned for ever.' 
 Then follow new revelations of streams and trees, of
 
 OTHER PROPHETIC WRITINGS. /I 
 
 dark waters and clear alternately. ' Mine Anointed 
 will come and will judge the nations and sit for ever 
 upon the throne of His kingdom.' The Epistle is 
 sent to the nine and a half tribes through the medium 
 of an eagle. It can hardly be doubted that it is a 
 prophetic epistle like our Apocalypse, to which it 
 presents so many resemblances and so many con- 
 trasts, that we should almost say it was designed to 
 supplant it in favour with readers of Prophecy. It 
 would seem to them to have the advantage in point 
 of veracity as regards the saving of the Temple and Ap xi 
 
 j 13 
 
 the fall of Rome. Our Apocalypse, whatever be its Ap xvii 
 date, may have been somewhat discredited for a time 
 after its appearance by the non-fulfilment of its pro- 
 phecy, although as Hausrath says 1 in the case of the 
 Sibylline oracles non-fulfilment, which must have 
 been known, however dexterously concealed by later 
 and later additions, did not injure their credit for long. 
 Whether Papias borrowed his absurd details of the 
 millennial kingdom from Baruch 2 or drew them from Baruch 
 the same source as Baruch 3 , it is evident that Papias x> 
 was versed in the prophetic writings then current 4 . 
 
 Fourth Esdras, and its parallels with Apocalypse. 
 
 The Fourth book of Ezra was used by Greek and 
 Latin fathers as a genuine prophetical work. Clement 
 of Alexandria quotes Esdras the Prophet 5 , or the 
 
 1 Hist. ofN. T. Times, ad fin. 2 Schurer. 
 
 3 Charles, Apocalypse of Bartich. * Iren. v 32, 3.' 
 
 5 Strom, iii. 16, 100; Schurer, p. 109 E.T.
 
 72 THE APOCALYPSE AND 
 
 Esd v 35 Apocalypse of Esdras. It is nearly certain 1 that the 
 Epistle of Barnabas quotes it as ' another Prophet.' 
 
 Barn xii Probably we owe to it the legend that when the Holy 
 Scriptures had perished at the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem by Nebuchadnezzar, Ezra completely restored 
 them again by means of a miracle 2 . Ambrose re- 
 peatedly quotes it as prophetical. ' Of all the Jewish 
 Apocalypses,' says Schiirer, ' none has been so widely 
 circulated in the early Church.' Assuming with most 
 authorities that the first two and last two chapters 
 
 Esd i, ii, are additions by a Christian hand, and that the book 
 
 XV XVI 
 
 was written not later than 98 A.D. 3 , we have evidence 
 of Jewish prophecies being written at that date and 
 current as such. Further it was considered by the 
 author of the Epistle of Barnabas to be Prophecy, 
 though at his time (which we cannot definitely fix: 
 Lightfoot says 70 79) it was so recently composed. 
 Lastly the Christian additions, which strike a plaintive 
 note resembling that of the Prophet Jeremiah, pre- 
 suppose the existence of Christians eager to study 
 prophetic literature. The following parallels between 
 Apocalypse and 4 Esdras i, ii, xv, xvi may be 
 noted for what they are worth : 
 
 1 But see the full treatment in Dr M. R. James's Introduction to the 
 Fourth Book of Ezra edited from the MSS by Bensly, Texts and Studies, 
 Vol. Ill No. 2 4, of which most valuable work my remarks are 
 independent. 
 
 2 Iren. Hi. 21, 2; Tert. Cult. fern. i. 3. 
 
 3 The dates proposed are the reigns of Titus, by Ewald : of Domitian 
 (81 96 A.D.) by Schiirer, Gfrcirer, Dillmann, Wieseler, Reuss : of Nerva 
 by Volkmar, Langen, Hausrath, Renan.
 
 OTHER PROPHETIC WRITINGS. 73 
 
 Ap ii 3, 7 4 Esdras ii 1 2 They shall have the tree 
 
 xxi 4 of life for an ointment of sweet 
 
 xxii 2,14 savour; they shall neither labour 
 
 nor be weary. (But cf Gen iii 22, 
 
 Is xxv 8.) 
 
 ii 27 Be not weary ; for when the day 
 
 of trouble cometh, others shall weep 
 
 (cf. Jn xvi 20) and be sorrowful, but thou shalt be 
 
 merry and have abundance. 
 
 Ap ii 1 1 4 Es ii 29 My hands shall cover thee, 
 
 so that thy children shall not see 
 Gehenna. 
 
 Ap ii 13 4 Es ii 36 I testify my Saviour openly 1 . 
 
 (The reference in Ap is to the temple 
 of Zeus Saviour at Pergamum.) 
 
 Ap ii 25 4 Es ii 37 O receive the gift that is 
 
 iii 3 given you, and be glad, giving 
 
 thanks unto Him that called you 
 
 unto the heavenly kingdom. 
 
 Ap iii 2 4 Es ii 13 The kingdom is already 
 
 prepared for you : watch. 
 
 Ap iii 2 4 Es ii 40 which have fulfilled the 
 
 v 12, vi ii law of the Lord. 
 
 Ap iii 4 4 Es ii 39 which have received 
 
 vii 14 glorious garments of the Lord. 
 
 ii 40 Those of thine which are clothed 
 
 in white. 
 it 45 These be they which have put 
 
 1 James, Int. p. lix, prefers ' I testify that my Saviour hath been 
 commanded of the Lord.'
 
 74 THE APOCALYPSE AND 
 
 off the mortal clothing and put on 
 the immortal. (This is from Enoch 
 Ixii 1 6.) 
 
 Ap iii 5 4 Es ii 45 And have confessed the 
 
 name of GOD. 
 
 47 It is the son of GOD whom they 
 have confessed in the world. 
 
 Ap iii 8 4 Es ii 25 Nourish thy children, O 
 
 good nurse (i.e. Sion): stablish their 
 feet. As for the servants whom I 
 have given thee there shall not one 
 
 (cf. Jn xvii 12) of them perish; for I will require 
 them from among thy number (?). 
 
 Ap iii 12 4 Es ii 15 Mother, embrace thy chil- 
 
 dren and bring them up with glad- 
 ness, make their feet as fast as a 
 
 (cf. Jn xv 1 6) pillar 1 ; for I have chosen thee, saith 
 
 the Lord. 
 
 4 Es ii 10 Tell my people that I will 
 give them the kingdom of Jerusa- 
 lem, which I would have given unto 
 Israel. 
 
 Ap iii 1 1 4 Es ii 43 Upon every one of their 
 
 heads he set crowns. 
 
 Is Fourth Esdras an Asiatic reply to the Apocalypse? 
 Ap iii In the last section the resemblances are far too 
 
 y j o 
 
 striking and numerous and continuous to be due to 
 
 1 We must rather translate : ' like a dove (her young) : strengthen 
 their feet.'
 
 OTHER PROPHETIC WRITINGS. 75 
 
 anything but intention. Is not 4 Esdras a Jewish 
 reply to the Christian Apocalypse ? I think no one 
 can compare the two consecutive passages together 
 without being convinced that they belong to the same 
 prophetic kind of literature, and tolerably sure that 
 the writer of 4 Esdras i, ii, xv knew the Apocalypse. 
 At the same time candour compels us to admit that 
 in the address to the angel of the Church in Phil- 
 adelphia taken by itself there is nothing that makes it 
 certain that the author held that Jesus was the Christ. 
 Every word of it might be uttered by Messiah, when 
 sufficiently endowed with an objective existence to 
 address His servants as their Lord. This statement, 
 along with the question whether such objectivity could 
 have become possible, will be considered later. 
 
 The number of parallelisms between 4 Esdras ii 
 and Ap i iii, xxii specially is remarkable ; but there 
 are not wanting references to the rest of Ap in the 
 same chapter, viz. : 
 
 Ap vii 3, 4 4 Es ii 38 Arise up and stand, behold 
 xix 7, 9 the number of those that are sealed 
 
 in the feast of the Lord. 
 
 Ap xiv i ff. 4 Es ii 42 I Esdras saw upon Mount 
 Ap vii 9 Sion a great people whom I could 
 
 not number, and they all praised the 
 
 Lord with songs... 
 Ap vii 14 45 So I asked the angel and said, Sir, 
 
 what are these ? 
 Ap vii 9 45 Now are they crowned and receive 
 
 palms.
 
 76 THE APOCALYPSE AND 
 
 In 4 Esdras xv, xvi the following parallelisms 
 occur: 
 
 Ap xxii 6 ff. 4 Es xv i Behold speak thou the words 
 of prophecy, which I will put in thy 
 mouth, saith the Lord, and cause 
 them to be written in paper; for they 
 are faithful and true. 
 
 Ap vi 4 8 4 Es xv 5 I will bring plagues upon the 
 world ; the sword, famine, death and 
 destruction. 
 
 Ap vi 9, 10 4 Es xv 8 The innocent and righteous 
 blood crieth unto me, and the souls 
 of the just complain continually (cf. 
 4 Es iv 35 Did not the souls of the 
 just ask question of these things in 
 their chambers saying How long shall 
 I hope (for) the mercy of GOD?... 
 Uriel answered and said, Even (when 
 the number of seeds is filled in you, 
 or) when the number of those like 
 you is fulfilled. The passage marks 
 a common prophetic theme.) 
 
 Ap viii 10 4 Es xv 13 Their seeds shall fail... with 
 a fearful constellation. 
 
 Ap viii 13 4 Es xv 14 Woe to the world and them 
 that dwell therein. 
 
 Ap vi 4 4 Es xv 15 One people shall stand up 
 
 to fight against another, and swords 
 in their hands.
 
 'OTHER PROPHETIC WRITINGS. 77 
 
 Ap xxi 24 4 Es xv 20 I will call all the kings of 
 
 the earth to reverence Me. 
 Ap xiv 20 4 Es xv 35 Blood shall be from the 
 
 sword unto the horse's belly. 
 
 But I can see nothing Christian whatever in 4 Es 
 xv, xvi. There is one passage which associates Asia 
 with Rome and which recalls strongly the address to Esd xv 46 
 Thyatira. It seems to prove the Asiatic origin of 
 4 Es xv. It is this : 'And thou, Asia, that art partaker Ap ii 20 
 of the hope of (or joined in heart to the splendour 
 of) Babylon, and art the glory of her person 1 , woe be 
 unto thee, thou wretch, because thou hast made thy- 
 self like unto her ; and hast decked thy daughters in 
 whoredom, that they might please and glory in thy 
 lovers, which have always desired to commit whoredom 
 with thee ! Therefore, saith GOD, I will send plagues 
 upon thee, widowhood, poverty, famine, sword, and 
 pestilence, to waste thy houses with destruction and 
 death.' The remark made above concerning the 
 address to Philadelphia applies also to that to 
 Thyatira, that it contains nothing indubitably and 
 positively Christian, not even ii 27 b. 
 
 The Epistle of Barnabas is prophetic. 
 
 In passing from these Jewish prophetic writings 
 to the Epistle of Barnabas we pass to a different 
 point of view, but not a different atmosphere. Bishop 
 
 1 Cf. what is said of Miletus in Herod, v. 28, 'the jewel of Ionia's 
 crown.'
 
 78 THE APOCALYPSE AND 
 
 Lightfoot says 'the Epistle stands alone in the litera- 
 ture of the early Church 1 .' Yet like every other writing 
 since the world began it bears some relation to other 
 works before and after it, if only we could determine 
 what. He says, ' how the name of Barnabas came to 
 be associated with it, it is impossible to say.' This 
 observation was certainly not intended to check 
 reasonable investigation, nor should it prevent us 
 from concluding from the name and character of the 
 work itself and from the considerations urged above 
 that it claimed to be and was considered to be a 
 prophetic work, written by a Christian Prophet, and 
 since Barnabas means ' Son of Prophecy,' the name 
 was most naturally and fitly associated with the work. 
 Clement of Alexandria (200 A.D.) quotes it frequently 
 and ascribes it to the 'Apostle' or 'Prophet Barnabas,' 
 meaning St Paul's companion. In this he was pro- 
 bably wrong. But he was right in ascribing it to a 
 Prophet. Its concluding chapters (18 21) are nearly 
 identical with the first part of the Teaching of the 
 Twelve Apostles, which we have seen above to be 
 eminently a prophetic work, dealing at length with 
 rules for the conduct and treatment of Prophets. 
 While it differs entirely from all Judaic explanations 
 of Scripture, which it accuses the Jews of misunder- 
 standing from beginning to end, it uses the Old 
 Testament with what it means to be reverence, and 
 especially it shews its prophetic origin by the quota- 
 tion of Dan vii 7 ff., which it introduces thus: 'the 
 
 1 Apostolic Fathers, p. 239.
 
 OTHER PROPHETIC WRITINGS. 79 
 
 last offence is at hand, concerning which the Scripture 
 speaketh, as Enoch saith. For to this end the Master 
 hath cut the seasons and the days short, that His 
 beloved might hasten and come to His inheritance. 
 And the Prophet also speaketh on this wise... Ye Dan vii 7 
 ought therefore to understand... Wherefore let us 
 take heed in these last days. For the whole time of 
 our faith shall profit us nothing, unless we now in 
 the season of lawlessness and in the offences that 
 shall be, offer resistance, as becometh sons of God, 
 that the Black One may not effect an entrance.' We 
 
 note the familiar accents of the Prophets : ' Ye ought AP i 3 
 
 11 7, n, 
 to understand,' 'the last days,' 'lawlessness,' 'cut short 17, 29, 
 
 their days,' ' for his beloved.' "2, ^jf^ 
 
 Mt xi 15, 
 xiii 9, 43, 
 
 XXIV I ^ 
 
 The Epistle of Barnabas is not episcopal. Lk viii 8, 
 
 xiv 35, 
 
 Another point worth noting about the Epistle of Mk xni r 4 
 
 2 Th n 7 f 
 Barnabas is that it is free from the urgent precepts Mt xxiv 12 
 
 J^Jf Xxiv *2 2 
 
 which mark Clement, Ignatius and other writers of the 
 organised Church of that time so strongly, ordering 
 submission to the presbyter and the bishop 1 . The 
 limits of date for ' Barnabas' are 70 1 32 A.D.: Light- 
 foot says 70 79. The writer addresses his readers 
 as ' sons and daughters,' ' children of love and peace/ 
 for a very simple reason, explained by Joel ii 20, 'your 
 sons and your daughters shall prophesy.' He ignores 
 Church organisation. He urges them to ' be good 
 
 1 Clem. Cor. 21, 37, 42, 54. 57; Ign. Eph. 5, Mag. 6, Tral. 13, 
 Phil. 4, 7, Smy. 8, 9, Pol. 6; Ep. of Polycarp, 5.
 
 80 THE APOCALYPSE AND OTHER WRITINGS 
 
 lawgivers one to another: to continue faithful coun- 
 sellors to themselves : and prays that GOD may give 
 them wisdom, judgment, learning, knowledge of His 
 ordinances ' (Sucaiw/jidTfov), and finally that distinctive 
 attribute of prophetic teaching (viropovrji'), ' patience.' 
 This is a very different stamp of advice from that of 
 Clement and Ignatius. This is the forerunner of free 
 enquiry, and the right of private judgment, just as 
 the others were the heralds of priestly domination. 
 The two tendencies were combined in the Christian 
 Church then, as they are combined in our Church now, 
 nevertheless they are radically distinct and mutually 
 exclusive. The Prophets and the Priests, whether 
 Jewish or Christian, have always taken, and will always 
 take, different roads to the same end. 
 
 'Barnabas' is at the same time the originator of 
 that allegorical treatment of the Old Testament which 
 has for so many centuries, ancient, mediaeval, and even 
 modern, affected all and dominated so many theo- 
 logical writers, especially writers on prophecy. He 
 is the father of all Futurists, though he wrote no 
 Apocalypse. In spite of the absurdities, bordering 
 on the frivolous, which disfigure his pages, he did 
 but carry on the same kind of speculation in natural 
 science, transferred however to the branch of natural 
 history, which we have already seen in the Celestial 
 Physics of the Book of Enoch, of whose prophecy 
 his was thus a lineal descendant.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE RELATION BETWEEN THE FOURTH GOSPEL 
 AND THE APOCALYPSE. 
 
 THE Muratorian Fragment is thought by Bp 
 Westcott to have a lacuna after the statement ' that 
 John should describe everything in his own name.' 
 It resumes after the gap with a sort of apology for the 
 Fourth Gospel 1 : 'And therefore, although divergent 
 principles (varia principia) are taught in the several 
 books, still this makes no difference to the faith of 
 believers, seeing that by the one (and) dominant spirit 
 there are declared in all of them all things that con- 
 cern the nativity, the passion, the resurrection, the 
 conversation with His disciples, and the two comings, 
 the first in humility of contempt, which has taken 
 place, the second in kingly power of glory, which is to 
 be.' The Fragment seems to recognise again that the 
 occasion of this Gospel was the opposition of two 
 tendencies. I do not for a moment see that there is 
 anything to shew they were those of Peter and Paul, 
 but I venture to think that they were those of the 
 
 1 For the original see p. 241, below. 
 5. AP. 6
 
 82 THE RELATION BETWEEN THE 
 
 Prophets on the one side, and the organizers of the 
 Church on episcopal lines, represented by John the 
 Evangelist or his bishops or both, on the other. 
 
 The following comparison of the doctrine of the 
 Gospel and the Apocalypse does not profess to be 
 exhaustive, but it may be adequate, in order to sub- 
 stantiate the contention that the Gospel was written 
 for the principal purpose, if not indeed the one purpose 
 subsidiary to that of Jn xx 31, of correcting ideas 
 which the Apocalypse might suggest, and supplying 
 some of its deficiencies. If it be true that ' the 
 Synoptists and St John differ in the general impres- 
 sion which they convey as to the duration, the scene, 
 the form, the substance of the Lord's teaching, and in 
 regard to the circumstances in which they were com- 
 posed 1 ,' the same is even more true of the Apocalypse 
 and the Gospel. The comparison adds to the sense 
 of the marvellously comprehensive character of the 
 Gospel, but it does not dispose towards a belief in the 
 identity of the two Johns. 
 
 (i) 
 
 Ap xix 13 fif. His name has been called the Word 
 of GOD. The armed knight on the white charger, 
 clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood, leading the 
 hosts in heaven on white horses clothed in white, 
 judges in righteousness, and makes war on kings and 
 Ap xix 18 Roman ' captains ' and strong men and many more 
 
 1 Westcott, Intr. to Comm, on St John Ixxvii.
 
 FOURTH GOSPEL AND THE APOCALYPSE. 83 
 
 who are to be slaughtered and given to the fowls of 
 the air, and this slaughter is ' GOD'S great supper.' 
 The central figure of this bloodthirsty scene, with the 
 sword proceeding out of his mouth, has (may it be 
 said ?) nothing whatever to do with Jesus of Nazareth. 
 The word of GOD in question does indeed belong to 
 the Most High (16), who ruleth in the kingdom of Dan ii 47 
 men and giveth it to whomsoever He will. John the 
 Elder, in his savage hatred of Rome, foretells the fall 
 of Rome in a series of bloody battles, which are over- 
 ruled by the Word or Providence of GOD employing 
 as always some human agent, and so far therefore 
 representable under human shape. This is, however, 
 not the Messiah coming to Judgment, for the Judg- 
 ment is over. The Word goes forth in order to execute xii 10 ff 
 one portion of the sentence of the Judgment. The 
 picture is partly based on Is Ixiii and xi 4, but chiefly 
 on the sublime ' prayer and hymn of Habakkuk,' from Hab Hi 
 which the ideas are taken into this passage of Ap as 
 follows : GOD (3), Word (5 LXX), wrath (8), light (4), 
 lightning (ii), go before (5), mounted on horses (8), 
 crush the heathen (12), the abyss (10), beasts eating 
 (17), powerful men (14), staff (9). There is not a sign 
 or a trace of any Christian or Alexandrine notion of 
 the Logos doctrine in the Apocalypse. But it might 
 occur to a Christian of 85 A.D., that this passage was a 
 stumbling-block to any believer in the Logos, in what- 
 ever form it was associated with Christian doctrine. 
 It might seem to him utterly unworthy as a descrip- 
 
 62
 
 84 THE RELATION BETWEEN THE 
 
 tion, and dishonouring in point of teaching, and 
 certain to mislead. Therefore the Evangelist has set 
 the correction of it in the fore-front of his Gospel. In 
 spite of the fact that to St John such an expression as 
 ' the Word of GOD ' was impossible, for the reason 
 given in Jn i i,the statement has been repeated again 
 and again that Ap xix 13 resembles Jn i i, 14. Those 
 who have repeated it have ignored both the context in 
 the Apocalypse, and the clear contrast between its 
 Ap xix 1 1 vision (elSoi/, ISov) and the ocular and physical witness 
 of edeacra/jieda in Jn i 14. 
 
 (2) 
 
 The question whether GOD has ever been seen is 
 one not uncommonly asked by the young, and is 
 often answered in the affirmative with a reference to 
 Ap iv 3 etc. The Evangelist is quick to supply the 
 true answer by his remark in i 18. So again xiv 9. 
 
 (3) 
 
 The preeminence of Jews as a people for salvation 
 is among the strongest features of Ap. In vii 4, 9 
 the countless multitude out of every nation and 
 kindreds and peoples and tongues can hardly be ' one 
 and the same body, Jewish Christians and Gentile 
 Christians alike 1 .' Hort says, ' As spoken of by the 
 Angel, heard not seen, they may be described under 
 
 1 Hort, Judaistic Christianity, p. 162.
 
 FOURTH GOSPEL AND THE APOCALYPSE. 85 
 
 an exact ideal numeration as making up the ideal 
 Israel : as seen by the Prophet they may be presented 
 in accordance with external fact as a vast mixed 
 multitude. But however this may be, the sealing of 
 the 12 tribes cannot be recognised as a mark of 
 Jewish exclusiveness.' This is a very strange state- 
 ment, from which I must differ for these reasons : 
 (i) The Prophet in verse i has said, 'I saw four 
 angels ' : in verse 2 he has said, ' and I saw another 
 angel ascend.' He was therefore endowed with sight 
 of the vision at the time, and it is unnatural to suppose 
 that he did not see the sealed ones of Israel, though 
 it is natural to suppose that he could not count the 
 exact number of each tribe and therefore he was told 
 what it was. A few verses before, he even ' saw 
 beneath the altar the souls of the slain. Indeed ' I 
 saw' and ' I heard' have been continually alternating 
 throughout the previous chapter, vi 1,2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 
 9, 10, 12. Why then must we suppose that he did 
 not see the twelve tribes ? As a matter of fact he did 
 not see 144,000 out of every tribe, for Dan is absent 
 (see chap. VIII). As to the seeing of a vast number, 
 and hearing what the exact number was, there is an 
 exact parallel in ix 16. (2) If the Prophet heard 
 them first numbered, and saw the separate sets of 
 twelve, and then saw the multitude, ' which no man 
 could number,' he must at least have known whether 
 they were the same as the numbered ones or not, 
 even if he could use the contradictory language.
 
 86 THE RELATION BETWEEN THE 
 
 Why then does he pretend in 14 that he does 
 not know? (3) Is it to be supposed that the Elder 
 who asks him thinks that John knows already, and 
 only asks for the benefit of the reader of the 
 Apocalypse? If so, why does he not say what 
 they are ? Therfc is nothing to shew they are not 
 circumcised Christians. (4) The Gentiles are treated 
 throughout Ap as only on the verge of the covenant 
 of GOD. They are allowed to contribute to the wealth 
 Ap xxi 24 of the New Jerusalem, through their kings. They are 
 allowed to walk in the light of the city. They are 
 xxii 2 allowed to be healed by the leaves of the tree. But 
 everywhere else the Gentiles represent the world at 
 enmity with GOD (xi 2, 9, 18, xii 5, xiii 7, xiv 6, 8, 
 xvi 9, xvii 15 a terribly close resemblance to this 
 verse, xviii 3, 23, xix 15, xx 3, 8). If such a treatment 
 of the Gentiles is possible to any author who con- 
 sidered them on an equal footing with himself, it is 
 hard to see what words can mean. If it be not ad- 
 mitted that Ap is intensely Jewish though Christian 1 
 from beginning to end, there is only one alternative, 
 namely to hold that it is entirely Jewish, with not 
 many Christian interpolations. The latter form of 
 theory would be tenable : Harnack holds it. But the 
 Evangelist loses no time in clearing the ground for 
 his Gospel by the clear assertions in i n 13. 'His 
 own people did not accept Him as their own traditions 
 
 1 Bousset agrees that the author was a Jewish Christian, The Anti- 
 christ Legend, E. T. p. 210. See also p. 63, note, and p. 203 below.
 
 FOURTH GOSPEL AND THE APOCALYPSE. 87 
 
 led them to do (Trape\a/3ov), and those who received 
 Him apart from tradition (e\a/3ov) were not of the 
 XII tribes (ef ai^drwv)^ nor born of sensual desires (eV 
 0eA,77/iaTo<? <raprc6<;), nor born by man's will at all (ex 
 0e\?7//,aTo<? dvBpos), but were begotten of GOD. A 
 more direct removal of Jewish exclusiveness can 
 hardly be imagined, nor one more apposite to the 
 sealing of the 12,000 twelve times, and its impli- 
 cation. 
 
 (4) 
 
 The remark upon John's Baptism, and what follows 
 (i 15 17) seems to be greatly emphasised if there is 
 any truth in what is said below concerning John's 
 Baptism having been brought into Asia by the Elder 
 (Chapter VIII). 
 
 (5) 
 
 Ap uses the strange term apvlov, of which an ex- 
 planation is offered in Chapter VI 1 1. The only passage 
 in which Jn uses it is xxi, but considering the great 
 prominence given to the Lamb in Ap it seems quite 
 natural that Jn should take an early opportunity of 
 giving the actual testimony of John the Baptist, and 
 he does so i 19 42, quoting the words "ISe 6 a/xi/ov 
 TOU eoO, Behold the Lamb of GOD, which at once Jn i 29, 36 
 opens out all the train of sacrificial references in the 
 Pentateuch, and many more, instead of the single 
 passage in Jer xi 19, where alone the singular dpviov
 
 88 THE RELATION BETWEEN THE 
 
 occurs except two more passages where it is used for 
 'lambs of the sheep.' Two other points occur at the 
 same time : first that the Prophet John the Baptist 
 disowned the idea of being the Messiah, and that of 
 equality with Him : and next, that the true Lamb of 
 GOD baptises with the Holy Spirit, not merely unto 
 repentance, nor unto the seven spirits of Ap. 
 
 (6) 
 
 The title ' Son of Man' is found in Ap i 13, xiv 14 
 without even a construction (o^oiov viov dvdpwjrov 
 Chald. where LXX has <?). But there is no idea of 
 his being a true representative of mankind. In the 
 
 Ap ii 14, other places where ' sons ' occur, they have no repre- 
 
 12, xH^ 1 sentative sense. We may fairly say therefore that 
 not even in ii 18 has 'the Son of GOD' a representa- 
 tive sense, but the meaning is precisely that of i 13, 
 of which description ii 18 is a fragment, like all the 
 other fragments in the titles of the seven Epistles. 
 Consequently before he ends his first chapter the 
 Evangelist makes it quite plain that the unique 
 Person with whom he has to deal is the one repre- 
 
 Jn i 50, 51 sentative of GOD to man, and of man to GOD, for 
 whom mankind was waiting: and at the same time 
 that the vision of heaven opened, which the Seer had 
 
 Ap iv r been privileged to enjoy by himself, was to be granted 
 to mankind at large. Let me quote a passage of 
 surpassing beauty in which, as in many others from
 
 FOURTH GOSPEL AND THE APOCALYPSE. 89 
 
 the same pen, this figure of Jacob's ladder which the 
 Evangelist offers has been applied to our present 
 needs : ' It is precisely this inequality of souls which is 
 the positive awakener of all our higher affections. No 
 man could love or venerate in a universe stocked with 
 mere repetition; of himself: the endless portrait would 
 be a barren weariness. He pities what is below him 
 in happiness : he reveres what is above him in ex- 
 cellence ; he loves what is different from him in 
 beauty. His affections rest on those whom he blesses 
 and those who bless him on his clients and his GOD. 
 At the shock of lower lives and the startling spectacle 
 of higher, he is driven to moral recoil and drawn to 
 moral aspiration : in the one case invested with 
 armour for the resistance of evil, in the other equipped 
 with wings to soar after the good. Whatever is purer 
 and nobler in another than in ourselves opens to us a 
 new possibility, and wields over us a new authority ; 
 and thus it is that, ascending through the gradations 
 of souls which culminate in Christ, we find ourselves 
 carried thence at a bound over the chasm between 
 finite and infinite, and present at the feet of the Most 
 High, saying, "Just and true are Thy ways, Thou 
 King of Saints ; who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and 
 glorify Thy name, for Thou only art holy 1 ! " 
 
 1 James Martineau, "The Watch-night Lamps," Essays, Reviews 
 and Addresses, vol. iv. p. 462.
 
 90 THE RELATION BETWEEN THE 
 
 (7) 
 
 Ap xix 9 He saith unto me, Write : Blessed are 
 they who have been called unto the wedding-supper 
 of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These words are 
 true (words) of GOD. And I fell before his feet to 
 worship him. And he saith to me, See thou do it 
 not : I am thy fellow-servant and of thy brethren 
 that have the testimony of Jesus ; worship GOD : for 
 the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. 
 
 The wedding-supper of the Lamb is not to be 
 identified with 'Goo's great supper' which is provided 
 for the fowls of the air over the slaughtered armies of 
 Rome and the rest in xix 18, though that immediately 
 follows the text. Beyond this we are to look, to the 
 new heavens and new earth, and the new Jerusalem 
 Ap xxi prepared as a bride for her husband. Still it would 
 
 <2 _ "T 
 
 927, xxii be a puzzling arrangement for the average reader to 
 know whether to identify the two suppers, both 
 especially as the former or dreadful one is 
 
 a more tangible supper than the latter, which is rather 
 xxi a feast of eyesight, and soul, than of pure water and 
 
 xxi 3, 27 _ _ ... 
 
 xxii i fruits. It seems more and more plain that in xxi, xxn 
 we have a double ending to the vision (see ch. VIII). 
 But the average reader would again be perplexed 
 here with the repetitions and variations of Ap. 
 
 Moreover the emphasis of xix 10, ' These words' 
 &c. seems intended to shew that some definite words 
 of Jesus, handed down by the prophetic school of
 
 FOURTH GOSPEL AND THE APOCALYPSE. 9 1 
 
 John the Seer, are referred to. We may probably 
 say that they are those of Lk v 34 f. which deal 
 with the specially prophetic usage of fasting. The 
 Prophets had recognised that the disciples of Jesus 
 had not fasted ; yet all true disciples of Prophets 
 were bound to fast. Why was the exception ? For 
 the reason given. But the usage would be restored 
 for the time between the first coming and the second. 
 It would be broken at length in the marriage supper 
 of the Lamb. The object of the Evangelist, as ajniiiff. 
 practical teacher, is to shew that Jesus, though a 
 Prophet, had not been bound by the usage of the 
 Prophets, and that when He performed His first sign, 
 He who was the true Lamb of GOD, a true Israelite, 
 was present at a wedding-feast at Cana, along with 
 His disciples, who then and there were convinced and 
 for the first time as a collective body, when they saw 
 His glory, the fulness of His attributes in an earthly 
 shape, believed on Him. 
 
 (8) 
 
 The view of the Apocalypse in 68 69 A.D. is that 
 the Temple is to be preserved for the present, even Ap xi i 
 though the outer court be given to the heathen, that 
 is, to be occupied by the Romans, while the two wit- 
 nesses prophesy. By this outer court is meant not 
 what we commonly call so, in which were the tables 
 of the money-changers and those who sold doves, and Mt xxi 12 
 which our Lord described as a den of thieves ; but
 
 92 THE RELATION BETWEEN THE 
 
 the Temple platform, called by Josephus ' the so- 
 called Cedron ravine,' which is quite distinct from the 
 Valley of Jehoshaphat, called by Josephus simply 
 'Cedron 1 .' The platform had a gentle slope towards 
 the East, but formed an area some 500 yards long 
 and 300 broad, containing the castle of Antonia in 
 the middle of its western half touching its W. wall, 
 and the Temple itself in its S.W. angle. The Romans 
 did not occupy this until after the Apocalypse was 
 written and within two months of the end of the 
 siege. There was an ancient prophecy recorded in 
 the oracles, Josephus tells us 2 , that the city and the 
 sanctuary would be taken when the Temple should 
 become square. This was within John's knowledge. 
 If the Romans held the outer court or Temple-plat- 
 form (and much more of course if they held the court 
 of Mt xxi 12) the Temple was doomed to fall. This 
 the Seer recognises fully. He is told to measure it in 
 order that the measurements of it may be contrasted 
 with those of the New Jerusalem to come hereafter, 
 Ap xxi 16 which is also measured with a reed, but has no 
 Temple in it. 
 
 But the Evangelist regards the Temple in a very 
 different light. He was aware that its destruction 
 had been foretold by the Lord, but the question 
 of the fulfilment of that prophecy, much more 
 any questions of measurement or size, were of less 
 
 1 See Lewin, The Siege of Jerusalem, 1863, p. 442 . 
 
 2 B. J. vi 5, 4 .
 
 FOURTH GOSPEL AND THE APOCALYPSE. 93 
 
 importance than the truth that the human body was 
 a sanctuary of GOD, and imperishable; for it would 
 be raised again in three days. This was the only 
 ' sign ' vouchsafed in answer to the question of 
 the Jews, a sign of which the Disciples found the 
 meaning after the resurrection had taken place, and J n l8 ~ 
 
 2 2 
 
 the Jews never found at all. 
 
 (9) 
 
 The kingdom of GOD is indeed treated by the Seer 
 in one place as composed of men out of every tribe Ap v 10 
 and tongue and people and nation, and they reign 
 upon the earth. But there is nothing to shew that 
 these are not all proselytes to Judaism, admitted by 
 circumcision as the door 1 of the Christian Church. It 
 is not clear to me that they are so, but the later passage xii 10 
 certainly would not remove any doubt which the 
 earlier might have suggested. It is a pure supposition 
 to regard baptism as implied in either, especially in 
 view of what we find elsewhere in Ap concerning 
 baptism, and what is said of the sealed in vii. Now 
 it is quite true that the Jews recognised some kind of 
 regeneration or new birth necessary in order to prose- 
 lytism, but this was very easily attainable. ' If any 
 one become a proselyte, he is like a child new born 2 .' 
 The Evangelist, therefore, gives us the teaching of 
 Jesus that for those who partake of the kingdom of 
 
 1 See below, p. 102. 
 
 2 Jevamoth 62, i ; Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. iii. 265.
 
 94 THE RELATION BETWEEN THE 
 
 Messiah, another kind of new birth is required beyond 
 what they have as Israelites or proselytes. The stress 
 Jn iii 5 upon 'water,' which certainly is that of baptism, is 
 especially directed against Judaism, but may also be 
 taken as an acceptance so far as it goes of the 
 baptism referred to in Ap iii in such obscure lan- 
 guage. 
 
 (10) 
 
 Ap xx 3 The Seer has made the strange assertion that the 
 Serpent of olden time (o o<*<? o a/r^ato?) was bound, 
 but must be released hereafter for a short time. I 
 believe that this assertion will partly enable us to 
 understand the very difficult passage in Jn iii 14. 
 Undoubtedly the idea 1 there is wholly that of the 
 power of evil, transfixed and slain by GOD, and so 
 exhibited in triumph by Moses according to Divine 
 command. As GOD has overcome, so can man by 
 His power : and this the Son of Man did. Dominus 
 regnavit a ligno. The Evangelist corrects the Seer in 
 respect to the permission of the Power of evil to go 
 loose even for a time. The victory is final and with- 
 out exception. And everlasting life is not merely a 
 future but a present gift for everyone that believeth 
 on Him. 
 
 (ii) 
 
 But it would seem as though he could hardly 
 restrain his flow of dogmatic teaching at this point ; 
 
 1 For its relation to a widely extended body of folk-lore, see Bousset, 
 The Antichrist Legend, E. T. by Keane, Introd.
 
 FOURTH GOSPEL AND THE APOCALYPSE. 95 
 
 as though the very idea of the Apocalypse as a sort of 
 drama of the future Judgment roused his indignation Ap xx 13 
 so that he must disburden his mind without more 
 delay. I think Bp Westcott is right in assigning John 
 iii 1 6 21 to the Evangelist himself, and not Jesus. 
 'The only-begotten Son of GOD' is to be the Name 
 above all other names, in which all creation bows to 
 GOD, and in which all mankind, the world, which to 
 the Seer is but a space of time, or a space to be ruled Ap xi 15, 
 over is to be saved rather than judged, by men xv ,i g 
 coming to the light, and by their making (iroielv) the 
 works of truth. There is to be no mere shifting and 
 succession of phantasmagoric scenes, but a solid con- 
 structive work to be done by those who believe in 
 GOD'S representative on earth. 
 
 (12) 
 
 Once more at the close of the same chapter the 
 Evangelist breaks out into his own teaching. The jn Hi 
 occasion of it is another mention of John's Baptism, 3I 3 
 ending with the announcement of John's own humble 
 place and destiny as a forerunner. The explanation 
 given below (Ch. VIII) will throw farther light upon 
 these words, which would bear much less point if John's 
 Baptism and ministration were in 90 A.D. wholly 
 a thing of the past. This they probably were not ; 
 certainly not in 70 A.D., if those observations are 
 correct. Again in John iii 31 36 the stress is laid 
 on the present nature of life eternal, on faith
 
 96 THE RELATION BETWEEN THE 
 
 having its true object in one unique representative 
 of GOD on earth, One that was to come, and did 
 come, and was heard and seen by the writer, who 
 bears testimony, even if unregarded, as true as that of 
 Ap xxii 16, the Prophets, and who enables the receiver of that 
 
 I ^ 
 
 testimony to set his seal to the fact that GOD is true. 
 Such I believe to be the meaning of the passage, 
 which in any case has several terms which point to 
 the Apocalypse, without however resembling in the 
 least the style and tone of the Seer, with whom the 
 object of faith is the Providence of God rather than 
 Ap ii 13, the Person of Jesus. The text as it stands is unsatis- 
 
 IQ, xiii 10, - . . ... 
 
 x f v I2 factory, and though it will seem overbold, 1 venture to 
 suggest that the present 3rd singular ' witnesseth that 
 which he has seen and heard ' is inappropriate of the 
 Messiah as having seen and heard anything in heaven: 
 but is appropriate of the writer of Jn i 14, 16, I Jn i I. 
 Either it is to be taken as above, or some transposi- 
 tion, as the documentary evidence shews, is required, 
 and it might be 1 : 'speaketh of the earth and witnesseth 
 that (merely) which he has seen and heard, and no one 
 receiveth his witness. He that cometh from heaven 
 is above all : he that receiveth his witness (hath) set 
 his seal to the fact that GOD is true.' This transposi- 
 tion is what seems to me far more probable, on every 
 
 1 The text would then run as in the R. V. except that the clause 'he 
 that cometh from heaven is above all' is transposed to follow verse 32. 
 Then the reference of the words 'he that is of the earth' is not to the 
 Baptist, nor to the Evangelist, but to the average human witness who is 
 always liable to be discredited.
 
 FOURTH GOSPEL AND THE APOCALYPSE. 97 
 
 ground, but, as the text stands, we must try to make 
 some sense of it, as I do not think has yet been done. 
 If it be held that the text is justified by Jn viii 38, 40, 
 xv 15, can the following words, 'and no one receiveth 
 Christ's testimony,' be conceived to be spoken by 
 Him ? Already His disciples had believed on Him, Jn ii n, 
 and many had believed on His name, and He con- 23 ' l 
 fidently expected the belief of others. 
 
 (13) 
 
 ' The testimony of Jesus ' in Ap is the testimony 
 which Jesus gave, just as 'the word of GOD' is the 
 word which GOD uttered. Nor will the usages permit Ap i i, xii 
 
 , r I 7> *i x IO > 
 
 of any other meaning in that book, such, for instance, xx 4 
 as 'the witness borne to Jesus.' This the Evangelist 
 seems clearly to recognise when he writes the long 
 passage on testimony, beginning 'If I testify about Jn v 31 
 
 47 
 
 myself.' Jesus claims once more a greater testimony 
 than John's, although he has borne witness to the 
 truth : because He bears a witness which He knows 
 has been based first upon the witness of the Father, 
 and next is continually confirmed by His works, and 
 thirdly agrees with the Holy Scriptures, which point 
 to Him. Moses himself wrote of Him. This fulness 
 of Christian testimony was far from being entertained 
 by the Seer. For instance, the hymn of praise in 
 Ap xii speaks of the Accuser, who was persistent in 
 accusations against the people of GOD ('our brethren'), Ap xii 10 
 s. AP. 7
 
 9** THE RELATION BETWEEN THE 
 
 but there is nothing there to shew that any besides 
 Jews are the brethren who suffer and who conquer, 
 though they may be Christian Jews. Not long after- 
 wards they sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. 
 The whole scenery is Jewish. But the Evangelist 
 has put into the mouth of Jesus the overwhelming 
 condemnation of the Jews as a people, that their 
 Accuser is Moses himself; for had they believed 
 Moses, they would have believed Him. 
 
 The hidden manna in Ap ii 17 has been already 
 mentioned. The eating of it is a future reward 
 for him that overcometh, which is intended to be 
 realised hereafter in the wedding-supper of the Lamb. 
 ' The Lamb,' although of course used with a sacrificial 
 meaning, is not in any sense, I think, intended by 
 the Seer to take over the associations of the Jewish 
 Passover to the Christian eucharist, but only to 
 prolong those old associations inside the Christian 
 Church. The Lamb is Messiah as fulfilling the Old 
 Testament prophecies of the Suffering Servant, the 
 Lion's Whelp, the Judge of His people, and Shiloh ; 
 but there is nothing to connect Him with the Eucha- 
 ristic feast. There is no mention even of the Agape, 
 as there is in Jude and 2 Peter. It is just as import- 
 ant to note where the Seer stops in his identification 
 as to note how far he goes. To the Evangelist his 
 teaching would seem most inadequate. He therefore
 
 FOURTH GOSPEL AND THE APOCALYPSE. 99 
 
 sets forth some very plain countervailing truths in 
 vi 22 71. 'Moses gave you not the bread from 
 heaven.' ' Your fathers ate in the wilderness the 
 manna and are dead.' ' The bread which I will give 
 is my flesh.' ' The spirit is that which quickeneth, the 
 flesh profiteth nothing.' ' I am the bread which came 
 down from heaven.' ' The Son of Man was sealed by 
 the Father, GOD,' not as those in Ap vii 3 for exemption 
 from injury, but in order that He may give His flesh 
 for the life of the world. At the same time the 
 Evangelist gives us a paradox of the Lord to harmo- 
 nise the relation of works to faith. ' This is the work 
 of GOD, that you have faith on Him whom He sent 
 forth.' Now the Seer is almost as much inclined to Ap ii, Hi 
 
 . often, xiv 
 
 insist on works as he is disinclined to recognise the 13, X xii 12, 
 Pauline value of faith. 
 
 (IS) 
 
 In vii 37 ff. the Evangelist is more than usually 
 severe upon the Seer and Ap xxii 17. The Spirit, i.e. 
 of Prophecy, and the Bride say almost the very 
 syllables of Jesus. Yet the Evangelist goes on to 
 assert that ' the Spirit was not yet (given) because 
 Jesus was not yet glorified.' The assertion implies 
 that the Spirit of Prophecy did not exist at the time 
 when Jesus spoke the words. Noiv it is quite incon- 
 ceivable that, if the Evangelist were the Seer grown 
 older, he could write this. Lightfoot 1 says ' These 
 
 1 Hor. Heb. ad loc. 
 
 72
 
 100 THE RELATION BETWEEN THE 
 
 words have relation to that most received opinion of 
 the Jews' (it was not the only opinion) 'about the 
 departure of the Holy Spirit after the death of 
 Zechariah and Malachi.' But other Jews would agree 
 with the Son of Sirach for instance, who says thus of 
 his belief in his own inspiration (190 180 B.C.): 
 ' I also came out as a brook from a river, and as a 
 conduit into a garden. I said, I will water my best 
 garden, and will water abundantly my garden bed : 
 and lo, my brook became a river, and my river be- 
 came a sea. I will yet make doctrine to shine as the 
 morning, and will send forth her light afar off. I will 
 yet pour out doctrine as prophecy, and leave it to all 
 ages for ever 1 .' Such too was the belief of the 
 Prophets since Malachi, including the Christian Pro- 
 phets : they did not place themselves on the same 
 level as the Scriptural Prophets, whose writings they 
 could not honour too much by incessant quota- 
 tions, combinations, and imitations. But they were 
 ' gleaners after the grape-gatherers, and by the bless- 
 ing of the Lord they attained, and filled their wine- 
 Ecclus press like a gatherer of grapes.' The contemptuous 
 saying of the Jews to Nicodemus, which receives no 
 answer: 'Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet,' does not 
 perhaps affect the Evangelist's own view of Jesus as 
 a Prophet, but neither does it argue any desire on 
 Jesus' part to claim his own position as a Prophet. 
 The effect left on the reader's mind by the Evangel- 
 
 1 Ecclus xxiv 30 33 ; see Sanday, Inspiration, p. 259.
 
 FOURTH GOSPEL AND THE APOCALYPSE. IOI 
 
 ist's account is again somewhat derogatory to the Jn vii 45 ff. 
 Prophets, especially since just before Jesus had cried 37 f - 
 aloud like a Prophet and uttered a prophetic quo- 
 tation. The assertion that 'the Spirit was not yet 
 (given)' is so contradictory to the words of Jesus that vi 63 
 it must always rest under a cloud of suspicion, as 
 to whether it be even genuine. 
 
 (16) 
 
 The Seer said 'He that overcometh shall not be Ap U u 
 hurt of the second death.' The Evangelist goes much 
 further when he gives us the words of Jesus : ' He 
 that keepeth my word shall not behold death forjnviiisi 
 ever.' 
 
 (17) 
 
 The beautiful and suggestive passage : ' Behold I 
 stand at the door and knock' has received a correction Ap iii 20 
 from the Evangelist in the less picturesque statement 
 of Jn x 9. The whole parable is inserted by way of 
 comment on the Prophetic teaching, in which, as in 
 Ezekiel, Psalms, and the latter part of the Book of 
 Enoch the chosen people are sheep. Its insertion 
 was rendered the more needful by the repetition in 
 Ap ii 27, xii 5, xix 15 (where the R.V. throughout 
 loses the sense by translating ' rule ' instead of ' shep- 
 herd ') of the remorseless idea of Ps ii from which it 
 quotes. So also in Jn xxi 16 we may see the abolition 
 of the rod of iron. 'The door' is especially to be
 
 102 THE RELATION BETWEEN THE 
 
 understood in Jn x 9 in connection with the ' door 
 of faith' by which the entrance into the Christian 
 church was secured by the grace of GOD and the 
 Actsxiv?; ministry and labours of St Paul. The idea of Jews 
 and many Jewish Christians was that circumcision was 
 the one door by which to enter the covenant and 
 church of GOD. Had it been maintained, it is im- 
 possible to see how Christianity could ever have 
 become anything more than a Jewish sect. When 
 Christ Jesus proclaimed 'I am the door' and so 
 opened the faith-door into the Church and Covenant 
 of GOD, he interpreted life and all visible things in 
 the spirit of a Trust in the ascendancy of Divine 
 Thought and Affection in the universe, of a strong 
 and serene confidence in their perfect victory. ' To 
 raise the minds oppressed by the sense of material 
 necessity ; to meet the tendencies towards passiveness 
 and despair, and for the consolation of memory and 
 the kindling of hope, to show where the order, not of 
 a hard mechanism, but of beauty, love, and goodness 
 is enthroned ; this also is the duty of a Church. In 
 this relation we must contradict the doctrine of mere 
 science, which proclaims Force, rather than Thought, 
 as the source of all : we must counteract its purely 
 causal and fatalistic explanations ; must detain in the 
 living present' (with the Evangelist) ' that GOD whom 
 it would allow to recede indefinitely into the past ' (or 
 into the future, with the Seer), ' and must lean upon 
 him as the nearest to us in our weakness, the most
 
 FOURTH GOSPEL AND THE APOCALYPSE. 103 
 
 loving in our sadness, and the Rock beneath our feet 
 in our alarms. We agree together to sustain each 
 other in this sacred trust ; to withstand the godless 
 doubts and grievings suggested by our lower mind ; 
 to defy nature's inexorable laws to disguise for us the 
 supernatural light and love within ; and to feel the 
 hardest matter of life, as well as the severest work of 
 conscience, burning at heart with His dear spirit 1 .' 
 
 (18) 
 
 The distinction between irXvveiv to wash, of inani- 
 mate objects, viTTTtiv to cleanse, to wash part of a 
 body, and \oveiv to bathe or wash the whole of a . 
 body, has not been maintained throughout by R.V. 
 In Ap vii 14, xxii 14 we have ' washed their robes,' 
 but the other two words are not used in Ap, for the 
 reading in i 5 is ' loosed us from our sins.' Now the 
 Evangelist, who alone supplies us with the account of 
 the feet-washing, greatly extends the symbolic idea Jn xiii i ff. 
 of washing. It is not that we may appear righteous 
 before GOD, but that we may be actually made 
 righteous by and in Christ, that He has ' given us an 
 example.' ' He that is bathed needeth not to cleanse 
 himself, but is clean every whit.' 
 
 (t9) 
 
 The Apocalypse is not the only book in which 
 the disciples of Christ are described or describe them- 
 
 1 J. Martineau, Essays and Addresses, vol. iv. p. 461.
 
 1 04 THE RELATION BETWEEN THE 
 
 selves as 'slaves.' The term is of course as much 
 St Paul's as any one's, when he speaks of himself. 
 He resembles the Prophets in making special use of it. 
 They are called SoOXot Ap i i, ii 20, x 7, xi 18, xv 3, 
 xix 2, 5, xxii 6, that is in the vast majority of cases 
 where it occurs at all in the Apocalypse. The term 
 was loved by the Prophets because it was specially 
 applied to Moses, who was the first of Prophets, 
 according to Numb xii 6 f . 'If there be a Prophet 
 among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto 
 him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. 
 My servant Moses is not so (as you rebels are), who is 
 . faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak 
 mouth to mouth...' But the LXX preferred in the 
 case of the great Lawgiver to turn the Heb *^y by 
 OepdTrcov rather than the more humble SoOXo?. It is 
 only another instance of the direct use of the Heb by 
 John the Seer that he uses SouXo? even of Moses, and 
 never Oepdirwv. On the other hand the writer to the 
 Hebrews never uses SoOXo?, Bov\evetv, and only 8ov\ela 
 
 Hebr ii 15 once, in connection with the fear of death, while he 
 calls Moses Oepdncw, in a passage where he also makes 
 a great advance towards the standpoint of the Evan- 
 gelist. St John offers the strongest contrast to the 
 Seer, when he gives the definite abrogation of the term 
 
 Jn xv 15 Bov\ot, in the words of the Master himself for all 
 Disciples of Christ. Still the title which they apply 
 to Him continues as before to be ' the Lord.'
 
 FOURTH GOSPEL AND THE APOCALYPSE. 105 
 
 (20) 
 
 Finally a word must be said concerning the use of 
 O.T. prophecy by the Evangelist, for instance in 
 Jn xii. He seems to remind his readers and those of 
 Ap vii 9 that the descendants of the Twelve Tribes 
 in a great and triumphant crowd had borne palms 
 once before, and they had shouted with a loud voice J n xii I2 
 Hosanna, salvation, in similar strains to those of the Pscxviii 
 Seer, who I cannot doubt had in his mind the picture 2S 
 of the entry into Jerusalem, though in his hymn ' the 
 Lamb ' is substituted for ' the King of Israel.' The 
 one account is Prophecy based on history; the other 
 is actual history. We may compare the Prophetic 
 treatment of the Epiphany in xii I ff. But the 
 Evangelist proceeds to show that these men of the 
 Twelve Tribes had soon afterwards failed to under- 
 stand the other O.T. Prophecy of Zech ix 9, which 
 they unconsciously helped to fulfil by inflicting the 
 humiliating death of the Cross. On the other hand 
 the Evangelist is quite willing to adopt the Seer's 
 rendering and reading 1 of the Hebrew of Zech xii 10, Jn xix 37 
 which illustrates his own experience at the Cross. So 
 far therefore from Israel maintaining its high position 
 and prerogative in producing the Messiah (iv 22 where 
 the meaning is that salvation proceeds, starts from, 
 
 1 Who can tell whether this was not one of the most potent and 
 moving causes of the conversion of the Seer to the belief that Jesus was 
 indeed the Christ? For the reading see C. Taylor, The Gospel in the 
 Law, pp. 312, 313.
 
 I06 THE FOURTH GOSPEL AND APOCALYPSE. 
 
 the Jews) they had forfeited it as a people and had 
 
 no longer any preeminence or priority of choice for it. 
 
 Jn xii 38 This is in exact fulfilment, says the Evangelist, of 
 
 Is liii i Isaiah's prophecy, and the reason of it is foretold by 
 
 Is vi 10 the same Prophet. Thus Prophecy had foretold its 
 
 own unavailing effect upon an unbelieving people, who 
 
 had now to learn the lesson of History in the long 
 
 fulfilment of the purpose of GOD.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 THE SEER DISCOVERED IN HIS WRITINGS. 
 
 Papias s clear statement about two Johns. 
 
 THE result of the foregoing comparison of the 
 ideas and expressions of the Apocalypse with those 
 of the Fourth Gospel is to throw us on the necessity 
 of finding some other John who can have written the 
 former. Nor have we very far to seek. Eusebius 
 says : 
 
 "There are said to be five books of Papias, which H E\\\ 39 
 bear the title ' Of the Exposition of the Lord's 
 oracles.' But Papias himself in the preface to his 
 treatises by no means asserts that he had been a 
 hearer and eyewitness of the holy apostles, but in- 
 forms us that he had received the (doctrines) of the 
 faith from their intimate friends, by means of his 
 remarks (which are these) : 
 
 " ' But I will not scruple to give you also, in a 
 parallel arrangement along with my interpretations, 
 all the sayings that I carefully learned in time past 
 from the Elders and carefully remembered, guarantee-
 
 108 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 ing that they are true. For unlike the many I did 
 not take pleasure in those who have so very much to 
 say, but in those who teach the truth ; nor in those 
 who relate foreign commandments, but in those (who 
 record) such as had been given from the Lord to the 
 faith, and are derived from the truth itself. And 
 again if perchance there came one who had been a 
 follower of the Elders, I would enquire about the 
 discourses of the Elders what had been said by 
 Andrew or by Peter, or by Philip, or by Thomas, or 
 James : or by John or Matthew or any other of the 
 Lord's disciples : and what Aristion and the Elder 
 John the Lord's disciples say. For I did not think I 
 could get so much profit from the extracts (or infer- 
 ences) from the books as from the utterances of a 
 living and abiding voice.' 
 
 "Here it is also important to observe that he twice 
 mentions the name of John. The former John he 
 puts in the same list with Peter and James and 
 Matthew and the other Apostles, clearly intending 
 the Evangelist ; but the second John he mentions 
 after an interval, and ranks with others outside the 
 Apostles, putting Aristion before him, and he dis- 
 tinctly calls him Elder ; so that further by these facts 
 the account of those is proved true who have stated 
 that two persons in Asia had the same name, and 
 that there were two tombs in Ephesus, each of which 
 even to their time bore the name of John. Now these 
 statements require attention. For it is probable that
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. 1 09 
 
 the second, unless we chose (to say) the first, was 
 the Seer of the Apocalypse which is current in the 
 name of John. And further the Papias now referred 
 to acknowledges that he had received the discourses 
 of the Apostles from those who had been their 
 followers, but says that he himself had been an 
 immediate hearer of Aristion and of the Elder John. 
 Certainly he mentions them often by name in his 
 treatises, recording their traditions. I trust it may 
 not have been amiss to say this much." 
 
 Eusebius has said quite enough to put us on the 
 track. He has observed shortly before " Now of the H E\\\ 24 
 writings of John, the former of his Epistles also is 
 acknowledged as beyond question alike among our 
 contemporaries and among the ancients, while the 
 remaining two are disputed. But respecting the 
 Apocalypse opinions are drawn in either direction 
 (i.e. between the Elder and the Apostle), even to the 
 present day with most men. But we shall in due 
 time give a judgment on this point also from the 
 testimony of the ancients." In his next chapter he 
 deals with the holy scriptures which are acknowledged 
 and those which are not. First he names ' the holy 
 quaternion ' of the Gospels, Acts, Pauline Epistles, 
 i John, i Peter. " After these are to be placed, if it 
 seem right (e'lye <f>aveirj), the Revelation of John, about 
 which we shall offer the opinions held, in due time. 
 These then are acknowledged as genuine. Among 
 the disputed books, although they are well known and
 
 1 10 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 approved by many, is reputed the so-called Epistle of 
 James and that of Jude, also the second Epistle of 
 Peter and the so-named Second and Third of John, 
 whether they are of the Evangelist or else of another 
 man of the same name. Among the spurious must 
 be numbered both the writing of the Acts of Paul, 
 and the so-called Shepherd, and the Apocalypse of 
 Peter. And besides these the reputed Epistle of 
 Barnabas, and the so-called Teachings of the Apostles 1 : 
 and moreover, as I said before, the Apocalypse of 
 John, if it should appear right (et (ftaveif}), which some, 
 as I said, reject, but others rank among the acknow- 
 ledged (books)." 
 
 Dionysius of Alexandria, and the value of his 
 testimony. 
 
 Not till we reach the latter part of his seventh 
 book do we find any satisfactory fulfilment of these 
 promises of Eusebius, though we twice have Irenaeus's 
 testimony, which will be considered later. Eusebius 
 is properly impressed with the varied activity, un- 
 usual learning, and acute criticism of the great bishop 
 of Alexandria, Dionysius, (died 265), and he has pre- 
 served for us some extracts from his writings of the 
 highest possible interest. Dionysius was a worthy 
 pupil of his master Origen, an exile like him for the 
 
 1 The way in which these two works are classed together is some 
 confirmation of their common reputation in Eusebius' time or mind as 
 prophetical writings.
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. 1 1 1 
 
 truth's sake, a peace-maker, a student, gentle, wise, 
 and charitable. Let it be granted that in his zeal 
 against Sabellius he carried the doctrine of Subordina- 
 tion so far that he was afterwards accused by Basil of 
 having sown the seeds of Arianism, he will be forever 
 memorable as the first of the higher critics. But what 
 makes his criticism on the Apocalypse important 
 above others is that his lot was cast in a time of 
 plague, war, massacre, and famine, such as nearly 
 recalled the time of the sacred book itself. The head 
 of a church who had passed through these calamities in 
 his own experience would be the last person to make 
 light of the work which described them as judgments 
 of God. He writes thus : 
 
 " To the rest of mankind the present may not seem 
 a fit season to keep a festival. Nor indeed is the 
 present (probably 261 A.D.) or any other time which 
 they may consider most joyous, a season of festival 
 to the heathen, not only to those among them who 
 are very sad, but to any of them, however jovial he 
 may be. Now at any rate all things are full of wail- 
 ing, all are mourning, the city resounds with groaning, 
 on account of the multitude of dead, and of those who 
 are dying daily. As the Scripture says of the first- 
 born of Egypt, so now, there is heard ' a great cry,' for 
 there is not a house in which there is not one dead ; 
 and would there were only one ! 
 
 " Great and terrible were the calamities which 
 befell us before this visitation. First the heathen
 
 112 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 drove us away ; and yet we were the only persons 
 who, though we were persecuted and killed, kept 
 festival even then (it was Easter) ; and every place of 
 our affliction, whether it was in the country or the 
 wilderness, or on shipboard or inn, or prison, became 
 to us a place of joyful assembly. 
 
 Bus. vii 12 " After this War and Famine visited us, which we 
 shared with the heathen ; but we suffered alone the 
 evils which they inflicted upon us. And yet we were 
 made joyful by the Peace of Christ, which He gave to 
 us alone. When we had had a very short respite, this 
 Pestilence broke in upon us, which caused a period 
 more terrible than any to them, and more grievous 
 than any affliction, and, as one of their own histories 
 related, far beyond the apprehension of anyone. But 
 it was not such to us, but rather an extraordinary test 
 and exercise. It did not spare us, and it violently 
 assailed the heathen. Most of our brethren took no 
 care of themselves, but clave earnestly to one another, 
 visiting the sick ; they lovingly ministered to them, 
 and took care of them in Christ, and joyfully died 
 with them, having caught the infection from them... 
 The heathen behaved in a totally different manner. 
 They thrust out of doors those who had begun to fall 
 sick : and they fled from their dearest friends, and 
 threw them down half dead in the streets, and cast the 
 dead away unburied as dung, shrinking from the 
 interchange or communion of death with them ; 
 which, however, it was not easy for them to escape."
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. 1 1 3 
 
 Elsewhere Dionysius says of the state of his 
 diocese : : ' It would be more easy to travel from east Eus vii 21 
 to west than to go from Alexandria to Alexandria 
 itself. The heart of the city is more desert and 
 impassable than the trackless desert Our harbours 
 often appear like the Red Sea from the frequent 
 slaughters committed in them. The river too is 
 always polluted with blood and slaughter." 
 
 Of controversy he says: " In many other respects 
 I accord with and greatly love Nepos, both for his 
 faith and industry, and for his great study in the 
 Scriptures; as also for his great attention to psalmody, 
 by which many are still delighted. I greatly rever- 
 ence the man also, for the manner in which he has 
 departed this life. But the truth is to be loved and 
 honoured above all. It is just, indeed, that we should 
 applaud and approve whatever is said aright, but it is 
 also a duty to examine and correct whatever may 
 not appear to be written with sufficient soundness." 
 What could be better 1 ? 
 
 1 Zahn says severely (Einl. p. 616), 'The assertion of Dionysius that 
 the Apocalypse contains not a syllable in common with the Gospel and 
 i John was a silly exaggeration.' So it might have been, but Dionysius 
 says, ' Very different from and strange to these (expressions which occur 
 frequently (iro\\7)i>, irdXti) both in the Gospel and i John) is the Apoca- 
 lypse, neither touching nor bordering upon any of them, almost, having 
 pretty well not a syllable in common with them? i.e. with the peculiarities 
 common to jfti and i Jn. This is quite another story. Not only does Eus vii 25 
 Zahn ignore the qualifying words aytbbv, u-j etVeiV, the latter being as 
 every scholar knows the regular way of qualifying any round statement, 
 iravras ws eiire'iv, tKarbv ws tlveiv, but the term 'silly exaggeration' is 
 not justified by the facts of the case, as I hope to shew. 
 
 S. AP. 8
 
 114 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 Diony sins' s conclusions on the Authorship of Ap. 
 
 This then is the man who in his work ' On the 
 Promises,' in reply to the Egyptian Bishop Nepos, 
 had occasion to discuss the Apocalypse and does so 
 " in exactly the right spirit, at once devout and 
 critical, in which such questions ought to be treated : 
 and the result is that he sweeps away the bad argu- 
 ments against St John's authorship, and states the 
 good ones in a form that has really never been im- 
 proved upon between his day and ours 1 ." His chief 
 points may be summarised thus. The Apocalypse 
 is the work of a holy and inspired man, but not the 
 son of Zebedee, for three reasons : the temper of the 
 writers, their style of language, their purport. John 
 Ap i i, 4, and i John contain no name of the writer: Ap does. 
 2 and 3 John give 'the Elder' without name. Ap 
 does not say 'whom Jesus loved,' 'who lay on Jesus' 
 breast,' ' brother of James,' ' eyewitness of the Lord ' 
 &c. It does say 'brother and fellow-partaker,' 'wit- 
 ness of Jesus,' 'blessed in the revelations.' I suppose 
 there were many Johns called after John the Apostle. 
 There is one in Acts, John Mark. I would not say 
 whether he is the writer. Acts xiii 13 is rather 
 
 1 W. H. Simcox, The Revelation of St John, Introd. xviii. Mr 
 Simcox has translated the whole passage on the subject, and I therefore 
 need not do so. His useful little commentary should be in the hands 
 of every reader of the Apocalypse. It is sound and sensible and makes 
 for the right end, although it is rather tentative, and in one passage 
 after another it leaves us in a state of general equilibrium.
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. IIS 
 
 against it. But I think there was some other of those 
 who lived in Asia ; for in fact they say there are two 
 tombs at Ephesus, each called that of John 1 . And 
 further from their thoughts, language, and composition. 
 While Jn i i harmonises with I Jn i i, and Jn i 14 
 with i Jn i i, iv 3, i 3, Ap differs. The Evangelist 
 " keeps close to himself, and does not depart from his 
 purposes, and sets forth all by means of the same See i 14, 
 headings, but treats his subject throughout by the use xx 3I 
 of the same leading titles and terms (Bia TWV avrwv 
 ice<f)a\aici)v KOI ovo^drwv iravra Sie^ep^erai), of which 
 we will briefly mention some. He who studies the 
 books carefully will find the following terms occur in Jnandijn 
 either: the life frequently, the liglit frequently; opposed 
 to the darkness ; continually the truth, the grace, the 
 joy, tlie flesh and blood of tJie Lord, the judgment, tJie 
 forgiveness of sins, tJie love of God towards us, tJie com- 
 mandment for us to love one another to be guarded as 
 a summary of all the commandments 2 , the conviction of 
 
 1 Prof. Ramsay, Hist. Geog. of Asia Minor, p. no, reminds us 
 that the modern name of Ephesus, Ayasaluk, has nothing to do with 
 St Luke, but is Ayo-thologo, for'A-ytos 660X670$. ' The name Theologos 
 is known to have been used both in Byzantine writers, conformably to 
 the habit of naming towns according to the chief church in them, and 
 also in early Turkish times, for coins of an early Turkish chief are 
 known with the Latin legend, Monet a que fit in Theologo.' I am not 
 sure that this observation has not a much wider and more conclusive 
 bearing on the authorship of the Fourth Gospel than has been thought. 
 
 - The true reading here I believe to be TTJV irpos dXX^Xons ^/taj 
 dydTnrjs (vro\r]v cl>$ irdffas Sdv <f>v\dff<reiv ras ^ToXas' not 5. The 
 point is one and not, as Mr Simcox makes it, two. The duty of keeping 
 all the commandments is a vox nihili. The idea is refuted in Romans 
 
 82
 
 Il6 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 the world, of tlie devil '(, of} Antichrist, tJie promise of the 
 Holy Ghost, the adoption by God as sons, the belief 
 demanded of us throughout, the Father and the Son 
 everywhere : and altogether by every possible mark 
 we are allowed to see one and the same colouring in 
 the Gospel and the Epistle, But compared with these 
 (common features of Jn and i Jn) the Revelation is 
 utterly different and strange, neither touching nor 
 approaching (one may almost say) any of them, 
 having hardly a syllable in common with them. Nor 
 again has either the Epistle (I pass over the Gospel) 
 any recollection or thought of the Revelation, nor it of 
 the Epistle : whereas Paul in his Epistles has given 
 some hint of his revelations, though he did not write 
 them separately 1 ." He goes on to the difference of 
 language: "Jn and I Jn are written, not only with- 
 out stumbling in the Greek language, but with the 
 greatest literary skill in the world, the reasonings, the 
 arrangements of the interpretation : far from there 
 being any barbarous word, ungrammatical phrase 
 (croKoiKLcr^ov), or in fact vulgarism (l8i(OTia-/j.6v) of any 
 sort found there. For he had, as it seems, both forms 
 of the Word, the Lord having granted him both, the 
 word of Knowledge and that of Expression. But this 
 author I will not deny that he had seen a revelation, 
 and received knowledge and prophecy; but I see that 
 
 and Mt xix 20 and elsewhere. What Dionysius refers to is such places 
 as Jn xiv 15 21, xv ioff., i Jn ii 3 n, iii 23 f. v 2 f. the idea of 
 Rom xiii 10. 
 
 1 Dionysius quoted by Eusebius. See Simcox, loc. cit.
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. 1 17 
 
 his dialect and language are not correct Greek, but 
 that he uses barbarous constructions, and is sometimes 
 even ungrammatical. These I need not now recount; 
 for I do not say this for ridicule let no man think 
 so but only in criticism of the unlikeness of the 
 writings." 
 
 Criticism of Dionysius s criticism. 
 
 The criticism is sufficient if not exhaustive, but so 
 long as preconceived ideas as to the identity of 
 authorship are allowed to rule, it will fall unheeded. 
 Mr Simcox has done well to submit it to an interesting 
 analysis of his own under all its 18 heads. He is fair 
 in his analysis, but not quite so in his conclusions. 
 He inserts all sorts of modifications, which partly 
 bridge over the gulf between the two authors : in 
 fact he follows the commentators who for so many 
 centuries have thought it their duty to do as much 
 coagmentation as possible, to harmonise and conciliate, 
 as if the body of Christian doctrine could not take 
 care of itself, while justice was done to the individuality 
 of the writers and their several experiences. This 
 however is to ' break down all the carved work thereof 
 with axes and hammers.' When Dionysius says ' the 
 life' he means 'the life' and not (the Book of) Life 
 &c., expressions in which the term is used adjectivally. 
 He means the absolute eternal life. 
 
 Now Dionysius has made allowance for abate- 
 ments when he said ' one may say ' and ' hardly,' and
 
 Il8 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 there are possibly eight abatements to be made to his 
 criticism, (i) Grace does occur in Ap i 4, xxii 21, 
 that is at the usual epistolary opening and close. 
 Civility could say no less about it ; John has said 
 no more. Dionysius however said The Grace. 
 (2) Judgment does occur four times in Apocalypse. 
 Twice of these times it is plural, and twice it is ' of 
 Thee ' and ' of Him.' Dionysius should have said 
 the nature of the Divine judgment is conceived in 
 a totally different way in the different books. So it 
 is. (3) The Forgiveness of sins (substantive) occurs 
 nowhere in Jn, i Jn, Ap. Dionysius should have 
 said ' To forgive sins.' (4) The world is used by 
 Dionysius in an ethical sense. He should have said 
 so, and then his remark would stand. (5) The devil 
 does occur five times in Ap, but always as a 
 very concrete figure, sometimes in company with 
 other evil figures, and in a very different sense from 
 Jn viii 44, xiii 2, i Jn iii 8, 10, where he is the author 
 of all evil. (6) Antichrist does not occur in Jn nor 
 in Ap. This is an error' of Dionysius, if the 
 term be taken in the usual sense, but I have no 
 doubt he means the term to be taken with the Devil. 
 Now we note that the Devil as the strict actual 
 counterfeit of Messiah does not occur in Ap, which uses 
 ' the Dragon,' ' the Beast,' ' the False Prophet,' in- 
 stead. The passages are ii to, xii 9, 12, xx 2, 10. 
 (7) Our adoption by GOD as sons. Dionysius has used 
 the Pauline compound viodevia for brevity. He
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. 119 
 
 refers to such places as Jn xii 36, i 12, xi 52, i Jn iii 
 1,2, 10, v 2. The point is that this present adoption 
 as children (reKva) is not found in Ap ; which is 
 true, for in Ap xxi 7 the O. T. words have only the 
 old future meaning. (8) The faith w/tic/t is demanded 
 of us throughout is not merely ' faith,' ' the faith of the 
 saints,' ' the faith of Jesus,' which occurs four times in Apii 13, 
 Ap, but the far more explicit faith of i Jn v 4, 5. ^ j" 1 1 
 The noun ' faith ' does not occur in the Gospel ; the 
 verb ' to believe ' does not occur in Ap. Dionysius 
 should have used the verb, to express his meaning 
 clearly. 
 
 On the whole therefore so far from his criticism 
 ' resolving itself mainly into a difference of language,' 
 it may be claimed for him that it is absolutely in 
 accordance with what he represented it to be. The 
 eight abatements shrink into six, which would have 
 shrunk to none at all, had the summary not been put 
 with excessive brevity. None of them is too great 
 for the critic's saving clauses. 
 
 The date of Apocalypse is it the time of Domitian ? 
 
 Mr Simcox, like many others, speaks of the 'strong 
 external evidence of unity ' of authorship. " It is a 
 very extreme measure to set aside contemporary 
 evidence to the authorship of a book : especially of a 
 book ascribed to an author who had been prominent 
 and universally known among the community who
 
 120 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 received the book as his." Yes, but who ascribed it? 
 Contemporary evidence there is none external to the 
 book itself. Hardly a book in the Bible has such 
 evidence. Did the readers of A.D. 70 Mr Simcox 
 has given us 68 70 as the most probable date of 
 its composition ascribe it to the Apostle? Until 
 evidence is produced that they did so, and until it 
 has been carefully sifted, we may say no more of 
 contemporary evidence. Mr Simcox himself rejects 
 Irenaeus. "There is only one well-attested statement 
 that we are obliged to reject that of St Irenaeus 
 about the date.' ; If we reject his date, we may as 
 well reject his view of the authorship, and this de- 
 cidedly we should do. 
 
 Mr Simcox goes on to make what seems a valu- 
 able suggestion in itself, whether it serve or not to 
 account for Irenaeus's date of 95 for the Apocalypse, 
 without supposing it a mere blunder. He says : " As 
 exile was not a penalty often inflicted in Nero's perse- 
 cution, but was in Domitian's, Irenaeus may have 
 assumed that St John's exile took place at the same 
 time as that of other confessors. Or is it possible that 
 (John) was condemned by Domitian, or at least in his 
 name, in the beginning of 70, when he, after the 
 victory of Vespasian's army, was the only member of 
 the new imperial family at Rome, and enjoyed the 
 titular office of city praetor?" Now Tacitus says that 
 Domitian assumed that office on Jan. i, 70, having 
 a few days before been raised to the title and resi-
 
 AV HIS WRITINGS. 121 
 
 dence of Caesar 1 . His name was put at the head of 
 despatches and edicts, but the real authority was in 
 the hands of Mucianus, with the exception that 
 Domitian ventured on several acts of power at the 
 instigation of his friends, or at his own caprice, so 
 much so that his father, Vespasian 2 , said, ' I wonder he 
 does not send out a successor to me too ! ' Mean- 
 while the latter was at Alexandria, where he had been 
 arranging the plan of operations for Titus in Judaea, 
 and for his own embarkation of troops for Italy. He 
 had time to decline the offer of Vologeses, king of 
 Parthia, of 40,000 horsemen for the Jewish campaign. 
 The expectation of some such force is referred to in 
 Ap ix 15 ff. though not perhaps as allies of the 
 Roman power: 'Yet not the earthly horsemen of the 
 Arsacids, with their coats of mail, silken banners, and 
 kettle-drums ; it is their image in heaven that John 
 sees' (Hausrath). Perhaps also Ap xvi 12. Vespasian 
 also had time to become nervous, both on account of 
 the debauchery of Domitian at Rome, and of rumours 
 of attempted usurpation of the throne. He probably 
 gave him three or four months to amuse himself before 
 he reached Rome 3 . 
 
 1 Tac. Hist, iv 2, n. 2 Suetonius, Dom. i. 
 
 3 Tac. Hist, iv 8t, Vespasian was waiting for summer breezes and 
 settled weather on the sea. Schiirer says that Chambalu's statement 
 that he arrived in Rome as late as October 70 must certainly be adopted. 
 Domitian ruled then for 9 months, a period long enough to justify one 
 term of Irenaeus' statement that Ap ' was seen not so long ago at the 
 end of the rule of Domitian.'
 
 122 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 What therefore seems possible is that the youthful 
 Domitian, who ' even in those early days gave a clear 
 foretaste of himself 1 ,' should have taken an early 
 opportunity of signing a despatch for the banishment 
 of a hated Jew, whose kinsmen were still detaining his 
 father and brother in the tough struggle in Judsea. 
 To be able on the Palatine with a pen to strike 
 a blow, however small, for empire, for the supremacy 
 of Rome, as understood by Caesar Domitian, would be 
 something. Let us see how the opportunity would 
 arise. 
 
 The Emperor-^cvorship in Asia. 
 
 Asia, as we have already seen from Esdras 2 , was 
 the darling of Rome. Wealthy, bright, populous, 
 emotional, artistic, wonder-working, easygoing, it 
 added to all its charms the solid virtue in Roman 
 eyes of loyalty. In no quarter of the empire was 
 there so ready a disposition to worship the emperor, 
 nor so simple an apparatus for securing it. The diet 
 or confederation of neighbouring towns had existed 
 at least since the time of Antigonus. The nine towns 
 of the Troad, the 13 Ionic cities, and many other 
 diets (vvveSpia, Kotvd) developed themselves as the 
 simplest units or organs of provincial government 
 from the time of Augustus in those parts. As early 
 as 29 B.C., for instance, he allowed the diets of Asia and 
 
 1 Suetonius, ib. ~ See above, p. 77.
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. 12$ 
 
 Bithynia to erect temples and shew divine honour to 
 him at their places of assembly, Pergamus and Nico- 
 media 1 . The high priest of the new temple was 
 appointed year by year, and he was the most eminent 
 dignitary in the province. To him it fell to celebrate 
 the festivals and games which vied with the old 
 Olympian festival, and doubtless far surpassed it in 
 every kind of pomp, the more so as they were now 
 associated with the provincial worship of the emperor. 
 As president of these he was called Asiarch, and he 
 required to be a rich man to fulfil the duties. The 
 cities were proud of possessing Asiarchs, and in their 
 anxiety to possess more they were induced to increase 
 the number of their temples and their festivals. In 
 23 A.D. Asia decreed another temple to Tiberius, and, 
 after long quarrelling of the cities, the site was allowed 
 by the Roman Senate to Smyrna. Throughout the 
 province of Asia the Asiarch and the Asiarchess 2 , his 
 wife, took a zealous part in providing the festival 
 annexed to the divine worship of the emperor and his 
 predecessors. 
 
 By 15 B.C. all the chief places of judicial circuit 
 had their Caesareum and their emperors' festival. It 
 is probable, says Mommsen, that the Asiarchs ex- 
 
 1 See Mommsen, Provinces of the Roman Empire, E. T. i. p. 344. 
 
 2 Is this the 'Jezebel' of Ap ii 20 if we do not read <rou? Zahn 
 reads ' thy wife ' (Einl. p. 608) pointing out the clumsiness of saying 
 'the woman Jezebel,' which 'the king Herod," Mk vi 14, would not 
 support. He understands the ' Angel ' to be troubled and overmatched 
 with a Nicolaitan and profligate wife, WH omit <rou,
 
 124 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 tended their superintendence, beyond the festival and 
 the emperor-worship, to the affairs of religion in 
 general. These priests were by their traditions and 
 their official duties far more than the imperial magis- 
 trates inclined to note any neglect of the recognised 
 worships, and where dissuasion did not avail, as they 
 had not themselves a power of punishment, to bring 
 the offence to the notice of the local or imperial 
 authorities, and to invoke the aid of the secular arm 
 above all to bring the Christians face to face with 
 the imperial cultus. 
 
 The Seer's protest against Emperor-worship in 
 Apocalypse xvii an act of treason. 
 
 Now let us suppose that a well-known Christian 
 
 residing in Ephesus had fanned the same flame of 
 
 rancour and hatred against himself that St Paul had 
 
 aroused about ten years before, by his attacks upon 
 
 Apii i 4 , idolatrous Jews and heathens : that instead of having 
 
 . Asiarchs on his side as St Paul had, he had them 
 
 Ap xxi 8, 
 
 xxii 15 against him : that he found Demetrius and his gang 
 
 5x1x31 much the same as before: that instead of being a 
 
 Roman citizen he was a Jew of pure blood on both 
 
 sides : and further let us suppose that he wrote a book 
 
 in which, apart from insults to the Temple-Sweeping 
 
 Actsxix35 city and its Artemis, he combined all manner of 
 plagues and vials of wrath which he made to descend 
 upon the head or heads of a certain Babylon, a city
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. 125 
 
 of the St;ven Hills, which ' is fallen, is fallen,' and over 
 its fall he chanted an exultant dirge. Would not the 
 disguise be far too thin to shelter him from visitation 
 by the Asiarch ? Would the Asiarch not invoke the 
 secular arm, and secure his banishment at least to a 
 desert island, several hours sail from the animosity of 
 Ephesus ? Was not this treason of the second degree 
 punished lightly with a sentence of exile? 
 
 In other words I am led by the surmise of 
 Mr Simcox to the view that, whether the first three 
 months of 70 A.D. were in Irenaeus' mind or not, it is 
 exceedingly likely that the cause of John's exile in 
 Patmos was that he had written Ap iv xxii or the 
 greater part of it before that date, that he was 
 punished for it, and that he had leisure to re-edit the 
 work and prefix the first three chapters in Patmos. 
 There are strong signs, which I will mention later, of 
 chapters i iii being composed later than the rest. 
 Meanwhile as to Irenaeus, it must be owned that he is 
 inevitably pursued by his own sayings. No man who 
 has written down the statement, that there must be 
 four gospels because there are four winds, can fairly 
 hope to preserve the same reputation as a judge of 
 evidence after it as before it. His words are : " Since 
 then the opponents ( Valentinians, Marcion, and others) 
 adduce testimony for us and employ these Gospels, 
 our statement is sure and true concerning them. 
 However, these Gospels are neither more in number 
 than those, nor again is it possible that they be fewer.
 
 126 THE SEEK DISCOVERED 
 
 For since there are four quarters of the world in which 
 we are, and four principal (or general) winds, and the 
 Church has been sown abroad over every land, but 
 the Gospel is the pillar and ground of the Church 
 and a breath of life, it is natural that it should have 
 four pillars, breathing from all sides its incorruptibility, 
 and vivifying mankind. From which things it is 
 evident, that the Word who is the artificer of all, who 
 sitteth upon the Cherubim and holdeth all things 
 together, when manifested unto men, gave us the 
 Gospel in fourfold shape and held together by one 
 spirit. For the Cherubim have four faces, Trpoa-wTra, 
 etc." (Iren. iii. 11, 8). He has for centuries been 
 treated with respect, and doubtless will continue 
 to be, but not as a witness to much beyond his 
 immediate knowledge : not to things of two genera- 
 tions or three older than his life-time. 
 
 The Seer the Elder. 
 
 But it is now time to come to close quarters with 
 our author himself. And it is really extraordinary 
 that he has been commented upon, as I hope to shew, 
 by our two illustrious Bishops of Durham and eluded 
 
 1 Ki viii i, them both, with other writers. The name ' elder ' 
 Mt'v 22 5 ' occurs scores of times in Holy Scripture. Why then 
 
 2 J n J must we start with a preconceived certainty that 
 
 3 Jn i, etc. 
 
 Lk xx i 'elder' here means a Christian 'elder'? Why does 
 
 Bp. Lightfoot talk of 'the Presbyter John'? Why
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. I2/ 
 
 must Bp. Westcott say, "Too little is known of the 
 condition of the Churches of Asia Minor at the close 
 of the Apostolic age to allow any certain conclusion 
 to be formed as to the sense in which he may have so 
 styled himself 1 ." This is the sort of uncertainty in 
 which Zahn also leaves us for the Apocalypse. " The 
 term was used by Irenaeus of those who held the highest 
 office in the Church, perhaps through Asiatic usage, 
 as of Polycarp, and of the early Bishops of Rome... 1 "? 
 Must we then forget that the Apostolic writers were 
 Jews first?. Our Lord was surrounded by 'Elders.' 
 They were members of the Sanhedrim. Was not our 
 Elder, the author of the Apocalypse, once a member 
 of the Sanhedrim ? And have we not two letters of 
 his, known as the Second and the Third Epistle of 
 John? 
 
 The best account of the Sanhedrim is perhaps that 
 of Schiirer 2 who shews that it was eminently an aristo- 
 cratic body. As a member of it therefore, once an 
 Elder was always an Elder 3 , till the day of his death or 
 longer. If he became a Christian, he would still be 
 called 'the Elder,' and would be all the more eligible 
 to become a Christian presbyter. If he were a Prophet, 
 he would still be 'the Elder,' though the honour of 
 Prophecy would not be despised. If he was a scribe, 
 or lawyer, his profession would not suffer, but neither 
 
 1 Epistles of SI John, p Iv. 
 
 2 The Jewish People in the time of Christ, E. T. II i 23. 
 
 3 See C. I. G. 9897, Schiirer, Index, ElJers.
 
 128 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 would it alter his title. Our author was all these, and 
 a very earnest and devout man withal. But he did 
 not happen to be a good Greek scholar, even when all 
 allowance is made for some of his solecisms as being 
 intentional and serving to increase the solemnity of 
 his expressions. 
 
 The ideas of the Elder are connected with his own 
 experience. The four and tiventy Elders. 
 
 Let us now see what passages in the main body of 
 the Apocalypse support this contention. 
 
 The first passage to which we turn is what may be 
 Ap iv 2 ff. called the first vision, for the commentators agree that 
 i iii are to be treated separately from the rest of the 
 book. Heaven is opened in order to display to the 
 Seer a solemn Assize of judgment. Round about the 
 throne were four and twenty seats. Now the Sanhe- 
 drim was not only a deliberative and legislative body, 
 but a judicial court, somewhat like our. House of 
 Lords. As a judicial tribunal, it was, as Schiirer 
 points out, not merely spiritual or theological in con- 
 trast with the civil judicatories of the Romans. It 
 would be more correct to say that in contrast to the 
 foreign authority of Rome it formed that supreme 
 native court which here, as almost everywhere else, the 
 Romans had allowed to continue as before, only with 
 certain restrictions as to competency. To this tri- 
 bunal then belonged all those judicial matters and all
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. 129 
 
 those measures of an administrative character which 
 either could not be completely dealt with by the 
 inferior local courts or which the Roman procurator 
 had not specially reserved for himself. Where the 
 local courts could not agree, the Sanhedrim was the 
 final court of appeal. Its sentences were binding on 
 pain of death. A tribe charged with idolatry or a 
 false prophet or a high priest was to be tried by it 
 alone. No enlargement of the city or temple-courts 
 was to be made without its decision. Charges of 
 blasphemy were tried before it. Peter and John were Mtxxvi6s, 
 tried before it, on charges of false-prophecy and A^sY/ia 
 deceiving the people, St Paul on charges of sedition Acts iv> v 
 and the one capital offence in Roman citizens, pro- 
 fanation of the Temple. Acts xxiii, 
 
 xxiv R 6 
 
 Such being the jurisdiction of the Sanhedrim, its 
 judicial procedure was as follows : the members of 
 the court sat in a semicircle, 'like the half of a 
 circular threshing-floor,' says the Mishna, in order that 
 they might be able to see each other. Now Ap iv 4 
 says that the Elders sat round about the Throne 
 (Kvtc\60ev) using the same word (KVK\o6ev) of the 
 rainbow, which presumably was semicircular. For 
 deliberation the elders sat cross -kneed on 1 low 
 cushions ; for justice each had his own special seat, 
 as did the learned men who sat in front of them in 
 three rows to correct or confirm with an Amen. So 
 says the same verse. The judicial quorum was formed 
 
 1 Etheridge, Jerusalem and Tiberias, 1856, p. 26. 
 S. AP. 9
 
 130 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 of 23 elders, and by the same scruple which forbad 
 them to give the legal number of 40 strokes and 
 made them content with 39, they would probably have 
 guarded themselves against accident by requiring 
 24 to be present. These are the four and twenty 
 Elders of Ap iv 4, where the picture would have 
 been in any case unsymmetrical with 23. No other 
 explanation of the 24 elders that I have seen is at 
 all satisfactory. To say that they, or their crowns, 
 are the 24 Books of O. T. is the latest 1 ! I think 
 also that the living creatures full of eyes before and 
 Ezi 5 behind partly take the place of the quick-witted 'dis- 
 ciples of the learned men' who were present in court: 
 but this is doubtful. 
 
 The Book with seven seals ; tJie Accuser: the laying 
 on of hands. 
 
 Secondly, the book written within and behind, 
 
 Ap v i sealed with seven seals, is now generally admitted to 
 
 be a testament 2 . Now the passage means that when 
 
 1 Zahn, Kancni ii 148 referred to by Sanday, Sttidia Biblica iii 237. 
 
 2 E. Hicks, Greek Philosophy and Roman Law in the Christian Church. 
 S.P.C.K. So Zahn (Einl. p. 596), who says it is not a roll of papyrus, 
 but a true book, and maintains the usual translation and reading, but 
 not the punctuation. It rests upon the palm of the hand (Ivi) ; but iirl 
 TTJS 5ets or 7-17 5et would alone be good Greek, for of course we 
 cannot suppose Ap means 'I saw-npon the right hand.' Here tirl TTJV 
 Se^dv is a sample of the author's bad Greek. That it was a book is 
 
 &z u 10, p rove( j by the term ' open ' being used four times, whereas a roll would 
 have been 'unrolled.' The seven seals were fastened on the back, 
 
 A _ j \Jy 
 
 Lk iv 17 where they were invisible as the book lay. Zahn says, 'written within,
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. 131 
 
 the testator dies, the will is produced, and, where 
 possible, in the presence of seven witnesses who had 
 sealed it, is unsealed, read aloud, and executed. The 
 early Christians, though well aware that omne simile 
 claudicat, had to consider that the writing of a will 
 presumes the testator's death to be imminent, and its 
 opening and execution presupposes his actual death. 
 Heb ix 16 f is possibly based upon this very passage. 
 But the notion of inheriting the kingdom is frequent 
 in N.T. The Book in question, which in the O.T. is 
 called ' the Book which GOD has written,' ' The Book,' Ex xxxii 
 
 j f. 
 
 ' The Book of the Living,' ' GOD'S Book,' has received PS. x l 7(?) 
 some extension of meaning in Ap just such as we p^n^ I 8 ' 
 
 might expect from a lawyer accustomed as a judicial Pscxxxix 
 
 1 6, cf. Heb 
 member of the Sanhedrim, versed in Roman law as xii 23 
 
 well as in Jewish, and accustomed to deal with cases 
 of probate of wills. 
 
 Thirdly, another passage may be mentioned, in 
 which the proofs of judicial knowledge of the San- 
 hedrim process are somewhat less cogent. In xii 10 
 the ' Accuser ' of our brethren is expressed by a 
 Hebraic form applicable only to judicial process 1 . 
 
 and sealed behind.' If \ve punctuate as A.V. we only assume that the 
 book had an index or title behind. The seer knew more about this 
 detail of an ordinary testament or will than we do. 
 
 1 It is in fact the regular Rabbinic name "Wt5p, whereas the 
 Advocate Michael was "IJ'OD. Vischer refers to Rabbis on Job i 2, 
 Zech iii i. The word in Ap is Karrtyup, which is not given in Liddell 
 and Scott, 6th ed. See Schoettgen, Hor. Heb. i 1121. Buxtorf, Lex, 
 Rab. p. 2009 KaTTjyopos alone is the true Greek. 
 
 92
 
 132 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 The law was that first the reasons for the acquittal 
 of a prisoner were heard ; then might come those in 
 favour of conviction. The procedure was always 
 favourable to the accused. But the 'Accuser' in 
 Ap xii 10 accused the brethren before the Judge day 
 and night, i.e. incessantly repeating the same charges, 
 which was unlawful. He was then ' cast ' and tried, 
 presumably, for false-witness and blasphemy himself 
 and found guilty of death. Now the law was that a 
 sentence of condemnation could not be pronounced 
 till the following day. This probably accounts for 
 'he hath but a short time.' 
 
 Fourthly, it is not without great interest to observe 
 that as a member of the criminal judicial committee 
 of the Sanhedrim, John the Elder had, before taking 
 his seat, gone through the usual formal admission by 
 the ceremony of the laying-on of hands. It was not 
 understood then as conferring any special charisma or 
 gift, but as in the case of the victim in the O.T. as 
 indicating that an office was transferred to the in- 
 dividual, who was confirmed in it, and was recognised 
 as having come to years of discretion, and as qualified 
 to discern between right and wrong as judge. The 
 inference is not improbable that our laying of hands 
 at confirmation on those who have come to years of 
 discretion is the direct lineal descendant of this rule 
 of the Sanhedrim, and that the Elder is the one above 
 all who was the medium of its transfer from the 
 Jewish to the Christian church. In our Prayer-Book
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. 133 
 
 the laying-on of hands is immediately preceded by 
 the ancient Gelasian collect with its reference to the 
 seven spirits, which is substantially a legacy of the 
 Seer's belief. 
 
 The Elder's other ivritings : tlie Third Epistle of 
 John. 
 
 Before leaving this part of the subject, a few 
 remarks may be made upon the authorship of 2 Jn 
 and 3 Jn. It may be freely admitted that at first 
 the style seems to resemble St John's Gospel and 
 Epistle more than the Apocalypse does. It does 
 seem at first as though 3 Jn were in point of 
 style as a sort of bridge from the Apocalypse to 
 
 2 Jn, and this to I Jn. The idioms quoted by 
 Bp Westcott, 2 Jn 3 'in truth/ 4 'no greater joy 
 than these things, that...,' n 'is of GOD,' 'hath not 
 seen GOD,' 12 'thou knowest that the witness is 
 true,' and others, 10 ' neither. ..and...,' 2 Jn 9 'hath 
 the Father and the Son/ 6 ' his commandments ' 
 meaning the Master's without mention since verse 3 
 of the Master, are notable. And yet not even all 
 these resemblances are conclusive. They are in no 
 case very remarkable idioms or phrases. Current 
 peculiarities and turns of language at Ephesus might 
 account for them all, so far as they need to be 
 accounted for. And there is much against the Evan- 
 gelist having written them. Let us first examine 
 
 3 Jn. The Evangelist knew the Greek word for
 
 134 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 'greater,' and has used it 14 times in Jn and I Jn. 
 The writer of 3 Jn can only give us a solecism 
 which we might translate ' greaterer.' No one will 
 pretend that this is used for emphasis, nor deny 
 that it is what we might expect from the Hebrew 
 elder. Another solecism occurs in 10, as if we should 
 say 'drivelling us' instead of 'drivelling to us.' (See 
 p. 258.) 
 
 But next we observe that the author is a Prophet, 
 and his object is to give in 3 Jn some directions 
 about the reception of Prophets, whom he calls 
 
 3jn6 'brethren,' just as he did in Ap xxii 9, i 9, xix 10. 
 His friend Gaius escorts them 'sets' them, as they 
 say in the North of England as they deserve, for 
 they are so staunch that in their itinerating labours 
 
 3 Jn 7 they accept no alms from the heathen. A com- 
 parison with the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles 
 given above, concerning the reception of Prophets, 
 will shew at once the identity of subject. The 
 coming, the reception, the taking of assistance, the 
 teacliing of the truth, the coming (out) in (for) tJie 
 name (of the Lord), brethren, guests, all these are 
 expressions which though not identical in the 
 'Teaching' and 3 Jn 2 8, are parallel in both. 
 The ' Teaching ' is probably somewhere about a 
 generation later, and recognises Bishops as well as 
 Deacons. 
 
 Again it is eminently natural in a Prophet to 
 
 Num xu h ave j n m j nc i the passage in which GOD rebukes
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. 135 
 
 the sedition of Miriam and Aaron. It was a locus 
 dassicus with the Prophets, and rightly : ' If there 
 be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make 
 myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak 
 unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so. 
 (as you rebels are), who is faithful in all mine house. 
 With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even ap- 
 parently, and not in dark speeches...' Accordingly 
 we find the Prophet-elder writing that he would 
 'speak (with you) face to face' both in 3 Jn 14 and 
 in 2 Jn 12. It is only one more sign of the neglect 
 which has fallen upon the N. T. prophets, even at the 
 hands of Westcott and Hort, that they do not even 
 allow marks of quotation to these two expressions. 
 
 Another point deserves mention in 3 Jn 12 con- 
 cerning Demetrius. It would seem that this is none 
 other than the silversmith again of Acts xix, though 
 he is considered by Bp Westcott to be a different 
 man, a Christian, and the bearer of this letter. Let 
 us infer rather that Demetrius, after all the trouble 
 he gave, had received abundant witness from all men 
 and from the truth itself when he came by his death. 
 ' Aye 1 ,' says the Elder, ' and we are bearing witness 
 still ' ; as he is not, for his works have gone with him 
 into oblivion, and nobody bears witness to him any 
 more. 
 
 1 I cannot help thinking that Ncu was originally written here and 
 Koi is a corruption. It would then be like Ap xxii 20. The remark 
 just preceding ' Demetrius ' deals at any rate with ' the evil-doer.'
 
 I3 6 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 The Second Epistle of John. 
 
 Turning to 2 Jn, we find the same praise of staunch 
 persistence as in 3 Jn and in Ap ii, iii. Yet this letter 
 I must say is very perplexing. First, two half-solecisms 
 occur 1 in the introduction and the close. The close is 
 almost identical with that of 3 Jn, and, but for one 
 expression in the rest of the letter, the careful reader 
 might be disposed to say that after all it was not by 
 the Elder but by the Evangelist. That one phrase 
 however to me is conclusive. ' The deceivers deny 
 ? Jn 7 that Jesus Christ is coming in (the) flesh.' I must here 
 join issue with Bp Westcott, who explains thus : ' The 
 present perfection of the Lord's Manhood, which is 
 still, and is to be manifested.' No : this text is, as 
 it stands, nothing short of a complete converse of 
 i Jn iv 2, 3, and a considerable confirmation of the 
 Elder ; though it must be remembered that the latter 
 never says ' Jesus Christ ' once between Ap i 9 and 
 xxii 21, and perhaps not even in xxii 21 : and that he 
 never says 'flesh' once, though he uses the plural 
 a-aptce? of dead carrion thrice. The main point of 
 i Jn is made against the Docetist theory, which 
 
 iv i f. 
 
 v i 6 denied that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh. Yet 
 
 1 i Jn i ftrrat for iffo^vrfv, cf. Ap xix 13 construction : and 12 
 yevtffOai irpbs u/uas. The only instance I can find is Plato, Rep. x 604 c, 
 OTI rdxtflTa yiyveffdat irpds rb iacrOcu, where we should probably read r$. 
 [I find since writing the above that Mr J. Adam has restored r$ in his 
 text of the Republic^
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. 137 
 
 here we have deceivers who deny the converse, deny 
 that He is coming. The Evangelist could have put 
 here ' has come/ or ' came,' had this been his meaning, 
 just as easily as ' is coming.' Could the Elder ? 
 Perhaps not ; for he did not master his participles 
 easily. Let us then suppose that the meaning is 
 ' confess Jesus, as Messiah that was coming, in flesh.' 
 Then we do obtain an entirely reasonable interpreta- 
 tion, whether we place a comma after ' coming ' or not ; 
 and also a satisfactory agreement with the Apocalypse, 
 but only at the price of a solecism of the first order : 
 for ' Messiah that was coming' can only be expressed 
 in Greek by Xpurrov rov ep^o^evov : see Mt xi 3, 
 xxi 9, xxiii 39, ||. Jn i 15, 27, iii 31, vi 14, xi 27, 
 xii 13, xviii 4. The Evangelist of course never fails 
 to put the article. In 2 Jn 7 we might at least have 
 expected to find some trace of a various reading with 
 rov added ; but there is none, in spite of the similar 
 ending of 'Kpiarov. The only way therefore out of the 
 difficulty appears to be by assuming the solecism with 
 the very same word that we have in Ap i 8. And so 
 far we have saved a violent contradiction by dis- 
 covering one more feature of the Hebrew Elder in the 
 body of the Second Epistle. (See p. 258.) 
 
 External Evidence for 2 and 3 John. 
 
 Before going farther it is proper to examine the 
 external witness to these two brief letters. And here 
 we find much muddling in the early authorities. I
 
 138 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 must again join issue with Bp Westcott when he says 1 : 
 ' Dionysius of Alexandria clearly recognises them as 
 the works of St John.' Dionysius says : ' Now the 
 Evangelist for his part did not prefix his name even 
 to the Catholic epistle ' (the singular used here and 
 the term Catholic may no doubt be explained by 
 contrast with the special character of 2 Jn and 3 Jn, 
 which are addressed to individuals), ' but without peri- 
 phrasis started from the actual mystery of the holy 
 
 i Jn i i revelation, That which was... For this was the reve- 
 lation on which the Lord also called Peter blessed, 
 
 Mt xvi 17 saying Blessed art thou... But neither in the second 
 so-called (fyepo^evr]} of John and the third Epistle, 
 though they are so short, is John prefixed by name, 
 but there is written without name The Elder. Now 
 this writer did not even think it enough to have 
 named himself once before proceeding, but again 
 
 Ap i 9 takes up (the name), I John...' I think, then, it is by 
 
 V j" s 2 _ ' no means clear that he recognises 2 and 3 Jn as by 
 the Evangelist. Else he would not have said they 
 were ' so-called.' But he is discussing the authorship 
 of the Apocalypse, and the other works come in only 
 by the way. He notes that they are by the Elder, as 
 is Ap, and it is fair to suppose that the expression 
 ' This writer ' is put with his wonted brevity, for ' The 
 writer of this book Apocalypse.' We may conclude 
 that Dionysius left the question of the authorship of 
 2 and 3 Jn entirely open. 
 
 HE iii 25 Eusebius leaves it also entirely open. He says 
 
 1 Epistles of St John, p. liv.
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. 139 
 
 that Papias (? 1 30 140 A.D.) 'has used testimonies from 
 the former Epistle of John and from the Epistle of 
 Peter likewise.' What are we to understand by 'the If Em 39 
 former' ? It distinctly implies the former of two and 
 only two. Does he mean that 2 and 3 Jn are prac- 
 tically one Epistle ? If not, it would be hard to say 
 which of 2 and 3 Jn is to be ignored. 
 
 When we come to Irenaeus we find either a con- 
 fusion of memory, as I suppose, or of something else. 
 In III 1 6 8 he quotes the second of John 7 f. as said 
 by ' His disciple John in the aforesaid Epistle,' that is 
 the first Epistle : he goes on at once, ' And again he 
 says in (his) Epistle Many false... 'and proceeds/ There- i Jn iv i f. 
 fore again he says in (his) Epistle, Everyone 1 ... In i Jn v i 
 I 1 6, 3 he quotes 2 Jn 10 f. as by 'John the Lord's 
 disciple.' 
 
 We have not done yet with the confusion. For the 
 great Origen (210 240 A.D.) on John v 3 quoted by HE \\ -2-, 
 Eusebius says: ' John who has left one Gospel... wrote 
 also the Apocalypse... He has left also an Epistle of a 
 very few (irdvv oXiywv) lines. And be it also (true that 
 he has left) a second and a third : for not all men allow 
 
 1 I cannot pass over this passage without commenting on the fact 
 that the Latin translation of Irenreus in quoting 2 Jn 7 f . gives 'venisse' 
 as a translation of epxh/J-fvov. And it is necessary to his argument. 
 Now it is vain to maintain that the present or imperfect tense is ' time- 
 less,' as Weiss and many commentators do. If the aorist is sometimes 
 timeless, the present never is so ; and though there is such a thing as 
 the prophetic present, there is no such thing in Greek as the present 
 with a past meaning. Il^uirw I ai the sender, and d5t/cw I am a cheat, 
 will never justify venisse as the translation
 
 140 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 that these are genuine, but they are not both (together) 
 of 100 lines.' His master Clement of Alexandria 
 quotes i Jn i as 'John in his larger Epistle 1 . Now it 
 is impossible to suppose that Origen described our 
 i Jn as one of quite a few lines. Here indeed is a 
 wide room for conjecture. 
 
 Next the Muratorian fragment (? 1 50 200 A.D.) on 
 the Canon may not be passed over. After mentioning 
 the four Gospels, Acts, Epistles of Paul (Cor (2) Eph 
 Phil Col Gal Thes (2) Rom, seven, ' following the 
 plan of his predecessor John,') Philem Tit Tim (2), 
 he refers to the spurious Epistles of Paul to the 
 Laodiceans and Alexandrines, ' and many more 
 things which cannot be received into the Catholic 
 Church: for it does not suit for gall to be mixed with 
 honey. Of course the Epistle of Jude and the title of 
 JoJm a pair (superscrictio Johannis duas) are received 
 in the Catholic Church : and ' Wisdom ' written by 
 Solomon's friends in his (her) honour.' This is the 
 literal translation of the MS, and though it is a fragment 
 and fragmentary and may have lacunae, which com- 
 mentators try to fill in and even to invent' 2 , this vener- 
 able scrap is entitled to respect in its present form 
 wherever it makes sense. Editors have attacked the 
 word ' duas 'above, and also in the neighbouring line, 
 where it occurs thus: ' Veru ad filemonem una' et 
 ad titu una et ad tymotheu duas pro affecto et 
 
 1 Strom. II p. 389 Morel. 
 
 2 Bunsen, Analecta i 152 ; see Mayor, St James, p. xlviii.
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. 141 
 
 dilectione in honore tamen ecclesi(ae) catholice in 
 ordinatione eclesiastic(ae) descepline scificate (sancti- 
 ficatae) sunt.' Here too ' duas ' makes good sense, 
 and there is no ground for altering the passage into 
 ' unam...unam... dilectione; in....' The one duas in 
 the sense of a pair supports the other. The writer 
 therefore, who has not mentioned James, Hebrews, 
 and i and 2 Peter as Canonical, unless indeed he dealt 
 with Peter in speaking of Mark in the lost portion of 
 the MS, has mentioned a pair of John's Epistles. But 
 what is 'superscriptio'? The common emendation 
 'superscript! 1 ,' meaning 'the aforesaid John,' is inad- 
 missible. John is mentioned eight times in all, and it 
 is absurd to suppose that the seventh time he is called 
 'the aforesaid John.' The sixth time of his mention 
 is ' John in the Apocalypse ' : but so also is the fifth. 
 Nowhere else is he called ' aforesaid,' nor is any other 
 person in the document which is agreed by all to be 
 translated from Greek. Westcott prints ' superscript! ' 
 but says l superscriptae suits the construction better 
 (eTnyeypa/jLfMevat, 'Iwavvov).' But by retaining ' super- 
 scriptio ' we get a good sense, 7riypa<f>rj, the title of 
 John a pair. We read just below 'Acta omnium 
 apostolorum sub uno libro scripta sunt.' The writer 
 in fact interchanges the book and the title. We may 
 fairly conclude that the writer knew of only two 
 Johannine epistles, and further we must infer that the 
 former was our i Jn, and the latter our 2 and 3 Jn 
 
 1 Westcott, 7*he Canon, and others.
 
 142 THE SEER DISCOVERED 
 
 united, both beginning The Elder, and both ending in 
 almost the same paragraph as to words and meaning. 
 But there is yet another authority of about the 
 vi 14 same antiquity, Clement of Alexandria. Eusebius 
 tells us that ' Clement in his Hypotyposeis or Adum- 
 brations had made concise explanations of briefly 
 speaking the entire canonical scripture including the 
 controverted books, Jude and the rest of the catholic 
 epistles, as well as Barnabas, and the so-called Apoca- 
 lypse of Peter.' Now as Clement himself 1 talks of 'the 
 larger epistle' of John, thus implying two and not 
 three epistles in all, this again appears to confirm 
 the idea that the Johannine epistles were considered 
 to be two and not three. Routh 2 says ' But I must 
 admit that I have not found any antenicene writer 
 perhaps owing to the epistle being so short who has 
 quoted 3 Jn without adding, along with his or others' 
 mention of it, a doubt about the genuineness of 3 Jn 
 and 2 Jn.' 
 
 Internal Evidence of 2 JoJin. 
 
 There is no reason whatever to doubt their 
 genuineness if examined carefully and understood. 
 The object of the above remarks is to shew that if 
 3 Jn is by the Prophet-Elder, and if 2 Jn was in the 
 second century always classed with it and supposed to 
 
 1 .Strom, ii 15. The passage in Clem. Adumb. 1601 r. given by 
 Alford does not oppose this. 
 
 2 R. S. i 423.
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. 143 
 
 be one epistle with it, as the testimonies cited above 
 appear to imply, we have a very strong reason to 
 think that they were always companion letters from 
 the first and accepted as proceeding from the same 
 original pen. Thus the link which appears to bind 
 
 2 Jn to i Jn and to the Evangelist is less strong 
 externally than that which binds it to 3 Jn and the 
 Elder. We can now finish our examination of it 
 upon its merits, though most persons will agree 
 that no divorce of these two Epistles is possible. 
 None of the statements of post-nicene fathers need 
 trouble us at all. They knew no more about the 
 question than they have said, and none of them 
 studied it with half the care of Dionysius. But the 
 other language of 2 Jn has now to be examined. 
 
 Truth (in, for, by) 5 times in 2 Jn, 6 times in 3 Jn. 
 But /;/ truth occurs no less than 3 times in 2 Jn, and 
 
 3 in 3 Jn. This is not so common in the Evangelist 
 (only Jn xvii 19 and I Jn iii 18): it is a Hebraism. 
 
 Walking in truth is peculiar to 2 and 3 Jn. 'Ye 
 shall know the truth ' is the Evangelist's : ' they that \\\\ 32 
 have knoivn the truth ' is the Prophet-Elder's. ' The 
 truth which abideth in us ' seems remarkably like the 
 Evangelist ; nevertheless it does not occur in Jn, I Jn 
 and the reading of A ' dwelleth in us ' is almost as 
 likely as the text. 
 
 Shall be with us for ever is the regular phrase of 
 the Evangelist (14 times). Ap always says 'for ever 
 and ever (14 times).
 
 144 THE SEEK DISCOVERED 
 
 Writing a new commandment: exactly like i Jn 
 
 11 7, 8. Ap has only ' commandments ' plural, 3 Jn 
 none. When however we come to the not new com- 
 mandment itself, there is a very marked contrast : in 
 
 2 Jn it is mutual love, in I Jn it is ' the word which 
 ye heard,' the terms of which are truth and righteous- 
 ness, while love is not mentioned till a later paragraph. 
 There is a good deal more implied in the ' word ' 
 besides ' love.' 
 
 From the beginning, a strong mark of the Evange- 
 list (14 times), especially in the phrase 'ye heard from 
 
 1 Jn ji 7, the beginning.' 
 24, in 1 1 
 
 Walk according to, in ; 3 Jn twice, 2 Jn thrice, 5 times 
 
 Ap but in concrete sense. Jn and I Jn 5 times each. 
 
 His, cf. i Jn ii 12 referring to Christ's six verses 
 before. Here it refers 3 verses back. 
 
 Commandments, plural 4 times Jn, 7 times I Jn, 
 
 3 times Ap. 
 
 Gone forth into the world, so 3 Jn 7. 
 
 Those who do not confess &c., cf. i Jn iv i 3. The 
 passages compared together seem as though they were 
 meant polemically to refute each other. A more entire 
 contradiction cannot be imagined; only on the theory 
 of a solecism could they remain in the same Bible. 
 The text is almost too chiliastic even for Ap. 
 
 Lose a word strangely absent in Ap except ix 1 1 : 
 
 12 times in Jn. 
 
 Receive full reward, Ap twice ; once Jn of labour- 
 ers : see Ap xxii 12.
 
 IN HIS WRITINGS. 145 
 
 HatJi the Father and the Son : the phrase derives 
 from Ap xxi 7 but it might seem developed and 
 advanced on the way to the difficult metaphysical 
 distinctions of Jn and even of I Jn. We make a great 
 mistake in reading into this and into i Jn ii 22 etc. 
 many ideas which have gathered round the words since 
 Nicaea. For instance we are at once compelled to 
 admit that there is a strange lack of literal acknow- 
 ledgement of the Holy Spirit throughout 2 Jn ; but 
 this is just the same lack which occurs in Ap. Could 
 there be a more overwhelming contrast with I Jn 
 v 6, 8 than this? See p. 197 below. 
 
 If any one cometJi again seems to be a Prophet 
 coming round to deliver his message. So 3 Jn 3. 
 
 Bid him Godspeed corresponds with 3 Jn 6. 
 
 The only intelligible account of the Epistle gener- 
 ally is that it deals with the same subject as 3 Jn, 
 the reception of Prophets on their circuits, that it is 
 addressed to a Church, and perhaps is a circular letter 
 carried by a Prophet from Ephesus and the Church 
 there. If so it is written by a Prophet and fits its 
 conclusion. Moreover the Evangelist would have 
 known the language of it and would have it before 
 his mind in writing I Jn. The 'Elect Kyria' would 
 soon be misunderstood to mean a lady so-called ; but 
 the Prophet-Elder would undoubtedly have meant a 
 Church (cf. Ap xxi 9, xxii 17) in his usual concrete 
 figurative language. 
 
 s. AP. 10
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE PROPHETS IN SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 
 The SabbatJi-rest. 
 
 FROM Barnabas the transition is easy to his fellow- 
 prophet Judas who was charged with the transmission, 
 along with Silas, of the decrees of the Council of 
 Acts xv 32, Jerusalem, a very simple matter to the Prophet as 
 xiii 3 123> h e went his Circuits (see p. 14). We usually read in 
 the commentaries that ' nothing more is known ' of 
 Judas, except that Barsabbas is a patronymic which 
 he bore. But, as in the case of Barnabas, we may 
 expect to find that the name receives illustration from 
 the work to which he was devoted. The Prophets 
 performed an honourable and sometimes heroic duty 
 in encouraging their hearers to endure hardness and 
 tribulation. 
 
 Take better part, with manlier heart, 
 
 Thine adult spirit can; 
 No God, no Truth, receive it ne'er 
 
 Believe it ne'er O Man ! 
 
 No God, it saith; ah, wait in faith 
 
 God's self-completing plan ; 
 Receive it not, but leave it not, 
 
 And wait it out, O Man! 1 
 
 1 Clough, The New Sinai.
 
 THE PROPHETS IN APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 147 
 
 Still the insistence upon this theme did not ex- 
 haust their teaching, and there was another not less 
 blessed side, the silver lining to the dark cloud. This 
 was expressed by the compendious term Sabbath-rest 
 And when the writer to the Hebrews says, ' There 
 remaineth therefore a sabbath-rest to the people of 
 GOD,' he is treading on common prophetic ground, or 
 striking a familiar prophetic note. So too it need not 
 surprise us if he at once proceeds to refer to a passage 
 in the prophetic Apocalypse in which the 'word of 
 GOD ' is represented as a warrior going forth to 
 conquer the heathen, for the purpose of correcting the Ap xix 13 
 one-sided conception which many readers would form "~ TS 
 of it by inferring Him to be an outward more than 
 an inward power in the world. Now it is most 
 natural that a prophet who could impart most ef- 
 fectively the teaching of the Sabbath-rest expected to 
 follow after the tribulation, should receive among the 
 sons of the Prophets the surname of Bar-Shabbath. 
 The revered Book of Enoch has the same thought of En x 17 
 Sabbath-rest, but in a crude form limited to the 
 present life. ' Then will all the righteous escape and 
 will live till they beget a thousand children, and all 
 the days of their youth and their Sabbath will they 
 complete in peace.' 'This tree will be given to the xxv 5 
 righteous and humble. By its fruit life will be given 
 to the elect... and they will live a long life on earth... 
 
 Cf Is Ixv 
 
 no sorrow will affect them.' I9 '
 
 148 THE PROPHETS IN 
 
 The Epistle of Jude. 
 
 It is only natural that when we turn to the Epistle 
 of Jude 1 , for he is the same as this Judas Barsabbas, 
 
 Jude 17 not of the Twelve himself, though brother of James 
 we find the quotations already mentioned from the 
 
 Jude 9, Mf. prophetic works, Enoch and Assumption of Moses. 
 
 Jude ii, The references to 'Balaam,' 'the angels which kept 
 p " I4 not their first estate, but left their own habitation, 
 whom he hath reserved, in everlasting chains,' 'wander- 
 ing stars for whom is reserved the blackness of dark- 
 
 Jude 6, 13, ness for ever' (see for the explanation, p. 67), 'the 
 mockers in the last time who are sectarian, animal, 
 
 June is, 
 
 Ap ii 20 without the spirit,' all express thoughts in these few 
 25 verses which find their parallels in the Apocalypse. 
 The explanation of the stars 'leaving their own habi- 
 tation' is clearly to be found in Enoch Ixxxvi I, 'Be- 
 hold a star fell from heaven, and it arose and ate and 
 pastured amongst those oxen. And after that I saw 
 the large and black oxen, and behold they all changed 
 their stalls and pastures and cattle, and began to live 
 with each other. And again... I saw many stars de- 
 scend and cast themselves down from heaven to that 
 first star, and they became bulls amongst thos'e cattle 
 and remained with them 2 .' 
 
 1 Harnack assigns Jude's Epistle to c. 100 130 A. D. But it is far 
 more likely to be 65 70. The careful arrangement of it under seven 
 sets of three heads each is well brought out by Dr Maclear in Book by 
 Book, p. 203. The numbers are still further suggestive of the prophetic 
 genus. 
 
 2 See Charles, Enoch, p. 52, for Jude 6, who gives another parallel,
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 149 
 
 Relation of 2 Peter to Jude. 
 
 The question of the priority of Jude to 2 Peter, so 
 often discussed, and well treated by Alford, seems to 
 receive some light from the above considerations. 
 2 Peter 1 is of course far more Pauline than Jude, 
 more fully developed, less abrupt, more elaborate and 
 extended in the condemnation of the evil-doers in 
 chapter ii. 'The angels reserved for judgment' have 2 Pet ii 4 
 been bound in Tartarus with chains of darkness 
 a combination of Jude 6 and 13 and are a proof 
 that the Lord knows how to reserve the unrighteous ii 9 
 in chastisement unto the judgment-day. Instead of 
 the archangel Michael we have angels refraining 
 from a blasphemous judgment. Balaam is mentioned ii " 
 again as loving the reward of unrighteousness, and 
 getting a conviction of his own transgression, while ii 15 
 he is recognised as a Prophet gone mad. Sodom and 
 Gomorrha, which in Jude are a sample of foully open 
 impurity, are here a type of what is unholy and dis- ii 6 
 gusting. The figures of Jude 12 are considerably 
 amplified in 2 Peter ; Jude 12 a one line becomes two 
 
 Jude 4, 'Denying our only Master and Lord,' with Enoch xlviii 10, 
 'Denied the Lord of Spirits and His anointed.' 
 
 1 Harnack assigns 2 Peter to c. 160 (Pijo) c. 175. My object 
 here has not been to determine either a late or an early date, but merely 
 to allow evidence to speak for itself. If we ignored the Prophets, I 
 should almost say to Harnack, Why so early? why not 235? Theophilus 
 died soon after 180. If he does quote it, he quotes it very soon after 
 its composition according to Harnack. See Salmon, Int. N.T. 1891, 
 p. 488.
 
 ISO THE PROPHETS IN 
 
 lines and a half in 2 Peter; 12 b half a line becomes 
 two and a half; 12 c the winds become a whirlwind. 
 But it would not be true to infer that the author of 
 2 Peter merely took Jude and expanded it. Rather 
 we should say that he worked out the same lines in 
 prophetic spirit and carried them forward. At the 
 same time it is remarkable that hardly one point in 
 the main body of Jude's epistle, except the references 
 to the exodus from Egypt but see 2 Pet i n 
 to Cain, and to Korah but see ii 10 is unnoticed 
 by 2 Peter. 
 
 2 Peter prophetical. 
 
 Besides the substance of Jude there is found in 
 2?eti i 2 Peter the introduction in place of that of Jude ; the 
 1515 Pauline passage, which term however by no means 
 implies that St Paul was the author, but only that the 
 style much resembles his ; the personal statement 
 i 16 18 about the Transfiguration, which testimony of an eye- 
 i 1921 witness serves to strengthen the prophetic word. 
 Then follows in ii the substance of Jude; and in iii 
 further warnings about the Second Coming and 
 mockers who mock. The passage concerning pro- 
 phecy 1 deserves fuller examination. The meaning 
 
 1 Neither James nor Harnack (Texte u. Unt. ix, 1893) professes 
 his ability to decide the relation of 2 Pet to the Apocalypse of Peter. 
 I can only venture to say that I think the latter is later and can see no 
 certain trace that it is connected with the former. Such expressions as 
 'righteous,' &c., 'the way,' 'the way of God,' &c., 'pollution of 
 adultery,' 'fire,' 'punishment,' are to be expected in any such writings. 
 
 4
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 151 
 
 appears to be this: (i) We Apostles were eye-wit- 
 nesses of the magnificence of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 the Son of GOD. In 12 15 the writer has dealt 
 with his own circumstances, mentioning by the way 
 his ' exodus ' and ' tabernacling ' which closely agree 
 with the Lord's ' exodus ' and the ' tabernacles ' in the Lk ix 31 
 account of the Transfiguration. Here he speaks in 
 the first person singular. When he returns to the 2 Pet i 16 
 
 "? \ 
 
 plural, we are to infer that he means the Apostles. 
 When in 18 he says 77/^49 he means the three who 
 were present in the Holy Mount. (2) When he 
 comes to ig 21 I understand him to mean: We 
 Apostles who are Prophets or accept the Prophetic 
 teaching have in the above eye-witness a confirmation 
 of the Prophetic Word or teaching of the Prophets. 
 Of course it is a question whether we are at liberty to 
 supply 'so much the more,' TOO-OVTO), before ftefiato- 
 repov. I think we may and ought to do so : but it is 
 fair to say that the other interpretation is literally 
 this : We have already the Prophetic Word as some- 
 thing firmer than even eye-witness. But I can hardly 
 
 The only phrases that suggest imitation are: 'a dark place' 2 Pet i 19 
 = Pet Ap 21, but here the place in the former is this world, and in the 
 latter the next world: 'mire' 2 Pet ii 22 = Pet Ap 23, but in the former 
 the proverb is perfectly clear and natural, in the latter the mire is in the 
 Inferno: 'what sort of persons worairol ought ye to be...' 2 Pet iii 11 = 
 Pet Ap 5 'what sort of persons they are in form,' i.e. the righteous who 
 have come out of the world. The imitation is not very strong if it rests 
 on a Tforairot, as I think it does. Moreover the question of Pet Ap 5 is 
 dealt with at length in 4 Esdras vii 88 ft", of which Pet Ap is a re- 
 miniscence.
 
 152 THE PROPHETS IN 
 
 think that eye-witness is intended to be put second in 
 importance to Prophecy even by so enthusiastic a 
 Prophet as this writer. (3) The use, limits, and 
 condition of Prophecy. It serves as a light shining in 
 a dark place, as indeed it was, with a reality beyond 
 anything that we can now in a Christian society 
 imagine. It serves until the awakening of the 
 Christian conscience and its enlightenment by the 
 presence of Christ in the hearts of His disciples, a 
 notable advance upon the merely Jewish and mille- 
 narian ideas. It serves for those who learn by ex- 
 perience that every scriptural Prophecy must be 
 interpreted by Prophets, who are still present in the 
 Church for the purpose, and does not admit of private 
 interpretation by those who are not Prophets, in 
 i Cor xiv accordance not only with St Paul's Rule, but with 
 the ancient and traditional rule that Prophecy never 
 was brought to man by man's own will alone, but 
 men and women uttered their Prophecies under the 
 present influence by the Holy Spirit, direct from 
 GOD. 
 
 2 Peter considered dangerous. 
 
 These last words present us with a view of 
 Prophecy which emphatically supports the Montanist 
 contention that a Prophet might speak in ecstasy, 
 and in ancient times did so. They are directly 
 traversed by the contention of Miltiades, ' That a 
 Prophet must not speak in ecstasy ' (see p. 20). The
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS.. 153 
 
 term ecstasy is not used in 2 Peter, it is true ; but we 
 cannot maintain that the present participle fapopevoi 
 admits of any other meaning. Had the word been 
 V%0evTe<;, which the author knew and has used just 2 Pet i 17, 
 above, the case would have been entirely different. 
 But having used the aorist already three times, and 
 little dreaming of the controversy to follow later, he 
 freely used the present participle with an aorist verb. 
 His use of it is quite reason enough why the Church of 
 the second and third centuries should reject the book. 
 It had committed itself decisively on the important 
 question which troubled the Church from about 100 
 to 1 60 A.D., and it has accordingly suffered the dis- 
 paragement which befell the Christian Prophets, so 
 completely that it was not even known to the 
 champion of Prophecy, Tertullian ; unless indeed he 
 referred to it in the six books upon Ecstasy, which 
 were perhaps suppressed for the same reason 1 . 
 
 1 A small sample of suppression may be found in Eus H E iii 36. 
 Eusebius is speaking of Papias who ' like Polycarp was a bishop, of the 
 parish in Hierapolis, a man of the greatest possible learning and versed 
 in the Scripture? The italicised words are omitted by the Latin version 
 of Rufinus, the very ancient Syriac version, and several Greek versions. 
 Papias was too valuable an authority for the prophetic side of the 
 Church for the opponents of that side to allow this eulogy on the part 
 of Eusebius.
 
 154 THE PROPHETS IN 
 
 Rejection of the Apocalypse and 4 CatJiolic Epistles 
 by the Syrian Church. 
 
 One of the most remarkable facts in the History 
 of the Canon of N. T. is the determination of the 
 Syrian Church, of which Antioch was the metropo- 
 lis, to reject the prophetic books, Apocalypse of 
 John, 2 and 3 John, 2 Peter, and Jude 1 . Not till 
 508 A.D. did the Syrian Church allow these four 
 Epistles to be translated into Syriac, when it admitted 
 them to the N.T. in the Philoxenian version. The 
 Apocalypse was still kept waiting a century longer, 
 till 6 1 6, when it was admitted in the revised Philo- 
 xenian by Thomas of Harkel, called the Harcleian 
 Syriac. Not even the great Chrysostom (d. 407), 
 formerly a presbyter of Antioch, and a cultured 
 Greek, has anywhere, says Westcott, noticed these 
 five works. Why were they rejected ? Presumably 
 because they were thought to be dangerous. And 
 why were they thought to be so ? Until some more 
 complete and satisfactory answer is found to this 
 question we may be allowed to hold that the pre- 
 judice against them was of old standing, and was 
 due to the opposition of the Bishops in Syria to the 
 Christian Prophets in the second century. 
 
 1 See Westcott, Canon, 6th ed. pp. 233 241, 438, Sanday, Stiidia 
 Biblica, iii p. 246, quoting Gwynne, On a Syriac MS of the Apocalypse.
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 155 
 
 2 Peter compared ivith St Paid. 
 
 We have seen that 2 Peter agrees with St Paul's 
 Rule forbidding any but Prophets present in the Church * Cor X1V 
 to discern matters of the Prophecy and decide upon 
 them. These presumably would be sometimes ques- 
 tions of interpretation and arithmetic, sometimes of 
 application, sometimes purely of expediency in regard 
 to present conditions of the Church. All sorts of 
 delicate questions, local and temporary, would from 
 time to time fall within the scope of Prophecy, but at 
 all times there would be the old Scriptural basis 
 involving the right to take a text and treat it in 
 a special manner. This right would be the matter in 
 question over which the other Prophets must preside. 
 It might seem that St Paul went near to allowing the 
 dangerous practice of speaking during ecstasy in 
 I Cor xiv 30, but the meaning rather is that a solemn 
 silence is enjoined upon all the congregation, while 
 one of the Prophets sits rapt in intense abstraction. 
 There will be time for all to speak, if due order is 
 preserved and patience is exercised. Here then is the 
 difference between St Paul and 2 Peter. It would be 
 of course a pure conjecture to suppose that this was 
 one of the hard sayings in St Paul's ' letters concerning 
 these things,' which are tortured by the unlearned and * Petiii 16 
 unstable, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own 
 destruction. At the same time it is worth observing 
 that ' stablishing,' a-Tijpi%etv, seems especially a pro-
 
 156 THE PROPHETS I A 
 
 phetic term. In Ap iii 2 John urges the angel of 
 Sardis to ' stablish the things that were likely to die.' 
 What are these things except prophetic gifts and 
 practices, which were naturally endangered by the 
 mere fact of Messiah having come ? ' Works ' do not 
 ' die,' they are incomplete perhaps or wicked. But 
 only living things can die living gifts like that of 
 
 T. Th ii 1 6, Prophecy. Again, a strongly prophetic passage in 
 St Paul concludes with the use of this term along 
 with the other usual prophetic term ' consolation,' 
 which is a very imperfect translation of the name of 
 
 Acts iv 36 Barnabas, ' Son of Prophecy.' A still more curious 
 fact is that it occurs in a prophetic passage from our 
 
 Lk xxii 32 Lord's own lips, addressing St Peter, ' stablish thy 
 brethren.' There is therefore some reason to suppose 
 that the unlearned and unstable or unstablished, 
 whom 2 Peter mentions, are the opponents of Pro- 
 phecy as a living gift in the Church, of which his 
 
 2 Pet i 12 readers themselves had had the benefit. The com- 
 plexion of 2 Peter iii throughout is that of a Prophet, 
 who is assailed on all sides by the disappointment 
 and the mockery which wait upon unfulfilled instances 
 of Prophecy. 
 
 2 Peter and its reference to St Paul, 
 
 The reference to the hard sayings is, however, only 
 part of the remark of 2 Peter on St Paul's writings, 
 which are plainly treated as already portion of the 
 ' Scriptures,' and thus receive almost contemporary
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 157 
 
 testimony. For the rejection of an epistle which con- 
 tained such testimony, very strong and cogent reasons 
 must have been entertained, such as seemed to affect 
 vitally the constitution and order of the Church, in 
 fact such as have been advanced above in connection 
 with Prophecy. But this is an opportunity to refer to 
 the admirable suggestion of the late Dr Quarry in 
 Dr Salmon's Introduction 1 , that the cause of the 
 reference to St Paul is probably Rom ii 4, and I 
 would add especially the following verses. This is 
 one of the prophetic passages in St Paul ; the long- 
 suffering of GOD is preparatory to a day of wrath and 
 apocalypse of the just judgment of GOD, when the 
 good, who along the well-known lines of endurance Ap i 9, 
 seek for glory and honour and incorruption, shall HI i' ',' 
 
 x 
 
 receive life eternal (a future blessing), while the dis- \ !o' 
 obedient shall receive wrath and tribulation. GOD'S etc - 
 longsuffering leads man to repentance. So 2 Pet iii 9. Apiij, 16, 
 Compare too the 'treasuring up' of 2 Pet iii 7 with ni' 3) / 9) 
 that of Rom ii 5. " 
 
 2 Peter emanates from Rome, and from St Luke. 
 
 But there is another point to be considered in this -i Pet iii 15 
 passage. The writer says ' Paul wrote to you.' This 
 suits the Romans better than any other Church. The 
 epistle is not addressed to any specified Church, and 
 this absence of an address we can well understand if 
 
 1 p. 358, chap, xx, 5th ed.
 
 158 THE PROPHETS IN 
 
 the writer were in or near the vast metropolis when 
 he wrote. The 'virtue,' which is GOD'S as well as 
 man's quality in this epistle, is quite as much Roman 
 as Greek in its origin, and strikes a noble chord. The 
 2 Pet ii 4 word Taprapwcras can hardly have come from the 
 Tartarus of Homer, Hesiod, and Pindar straight into 
 2 Peter : yet it can otherwise only have come through 
 Vergil and the Latin poets. Of course it is nowhere 
 else in N.T. or LXX, and the verb appears to be 
 wholly unknown. Where but in Rome would readers 
 be found to understand it ? The verse suggests the 
 Mamertine prison at Rome. Lastly, would not the 
 frequent references to fire receive far greater emphasis 
 if we supposed that Rome had lately been burnt by 
 Nero, to say nothing of many other conflagrations of 
 portions of it, e.g. the Capitol by the Vitellians, during 
 a lifetime ending about 70 A.D. 1 ? Of Gehenna there 
 is no mention at all. On the other hand there is no 
 exultation over authorities, but a law-abiding purpose 
 runs through the Epistle, which appears not only in 
 the great frequency of ' our Lord Jesus Messiah ' 
 seven times, but in ii 8, iii 17, ddea/jucov, cf. nefarii 
 homines, and ii 10, ii, 12, 19. On the whole I am un- 
 able to see why 2 Peter should not have been written 
 in the time of St Peter himself; and I believe it to 
 have been composed during a temporary absence from 
 Rome, in the near neighbourhood of it, during the 
 troublous times shortly before 70, by the Apostle's 
 
 1 fire, ii 6f, iii 7, ro, 12 : destruction, ii 1,2, 3, iii 7, 16, 6, 9.
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 159 
 
 own amanuensis, who owing to St Peter's infirmity 
 was instructed by him to treat the topics in his own 
 free literary style. 
 
 Who then was the amanuensis ? We naturally 
 turn first to him who ' became Peter's interpreter,' as 
 Papias tells us, St Mark ; but we fail to discover 
 resemblances between his Gospel and 2 Peter, either 
 in style or contents. I venture, however, upon a most 
 simple answer, so simple that it may perhaps raise 
 a smile from those who have found in the author 
 a writer of Baboo-Greek, a forger, a ' pseudepigrapher,' 
 a borrower from Josephus or Philo, or a late second- 
 century concoctor of rechauffe. Some language has 
 been expended, not only in modern times, over this 
 epistle, and Dr Salmon's account of it (Introd. to 
 N.T., chapter xxv) is still good reading. I may not 
 expect to make converts to my own humble but 
 genuine opinion when I say that the amanuensis was 
 St Luke. 
 
 Alford is quite right so far as he goes, but he does 
 not suggest St Luke, and like most commentators is 
 chiefly occupied in shewing the resemblances between 
 2 Peter and the Petrine speeches in Acts. Yet re- 
 flexion will shew us that if St Luke was able to write 
 in the Acts so much about St Paul from personal 
 intercourse with him, he probably enjoyed the same 
 advantage in the case o-f St Peter. If so, it was easy 
 for St Luke to write an epistle for the infirm Apostle, 
 in which he speaks to the Romans exactly in the
 
 l6o THE PROPHETS IN 
 
 terms of 2 Pet iii i, 2, ' In both (epistles) I stir up your 
 sincere mind by putting you in remembrance ; that ye 
 should remember the words which were spoken before 
 by the holy prophets, and your Apostles' commandment 
 of the Lord and Saviour.' The R.V. gives a true 
 paraphrase, but not a translation, in this verse. ' Your 
 Apostles,' of course, are St Peter and St Paul. We 
 can also understand at once how St Luke, after saying 
 to the Romans that ' our beloved brother Paul, accord- 
 ing to the wisdom given him wrote to you ' (2 Pet iii 
 15, 16), could proceed to speak of his epistles in terms 
 both of plain criticism and of high eulogy. To the 
 Romans at least the Epistle to the Romans by Paul 
 the Apostle would rank along with ' the other scrip- 
 tures.' 
 
 The chief parallels are as follows : 
 
 2 Pet i 13 as long as I am in this tabernacle ovc??- 
 = Lk ix 33 'Let us make three tabernacles' 
 
 2 Pet i 1 5 after my exodus = Lk ix 3 1 spake of his 
 exodus. The metaphor is found only here. 
 
 2 Pet i I have obtained by lot Xa^ovariv = Acts i 
 17 obtained by lot eA,a%ez> this ministry and apostle- 
 ship. The construction with the accusative in both 
 places is unique in N.T. Aay%dva) is found in N.T. 
 besides only in Jn xix 24 and Lk i 9. 
 
 2 Pet ii 9 the godly euVe/3et<? = Acts x 2, 7 Cornelius 
 ...a godly man: a godly soldier. Nowhere else 
 in N.T.
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. l6l 
 
 2 Pet. ii 9 under punishment Ko\ao/u.evov<; = Acts 
 iv 21 how they might punish them. Nowhere else 
 in N.T. 
 
 2 Pet i 1 6 we were eye-witnesses eVovrrat 76^17- 
 6evr<i = Lk i 2 were actual eye-witnesses avroTrrai... 
 yevopevoi. Neither word for eye-witness occurs else- 
 where in N.T. 
 
 2 Pet iii i This second epistle, in which (plural) = 
 Acts xv 36 in every city in which (plural). Winer 
 knows no other exact parallel to this anywhere. 
 
 2 Pet ii 1 6 spake ^)de^dp,evov with man's voice, 
 1 8 uttering (frOeyyofjievoi great swelling words = Acts 
 iv 1 8 nor to speak at all nor teach. Nowhere else in 
 N.T. 
 
 2 Pet ii 22 a dog that hath turned, eiTLa-rpe^ra^. 
 This is a favourite word with 2 Peter, who uses it in 
 ii 2 1 also, where he alters the LXX of Prov xxvi 1 1 
 in order to use it in the proverb. Now St Luke has 
 done the same. In Lk i 17 'to turn the hearts of 
 fathers to their children ' he is translating Mai iii 23, 
 but he has altered the LXX in order to bring in eVt- 
 a-Tpe-frai. He uses the word 18 times, whereas it 
 occurs once in i Peter and only 18 times in N.T. 
 besides. We should translate it convert. 
 
 2 Pet i i Symeon Peter. St Luke alone records 
 this form, in Acts xv 14. 
 
 2 Pet iii 3 There shall come mockers with 
 mockery efATraiy/movf} e^iraiicrat,. It may be granted 
 that this is from Zech xii 13, though not given as 
 s. AP. 1 1
 
 1 62 THE PROPHETS IN 
 
 a quotation in Westcott and Hort The same applies 
 to ^apa xaipei Jn iii 29, from Is Ixvi 10. The 
 emphasis of the verb, of strong feeling or its expres- 
 sion, by the addition of the cognate substantive in the 
 dative case is a favourite figure of speech in St Luke, 
 and he seems to have usually chosen to repeat LXX 
 passages where it is used. Thus Acts vii 34 ' I have 
 seen, I have seen,' from Ex iii 7, and Lk xxii 15 
 fatfofuq eTredvfjLTja-a ' with desire I desired ' from Gen 
 xxxi 30. But in Acts iv 17 aireik^ before a?retX 770-60- 
 yu,e#a has been given up. There still remain Acts 
 v 28 7rapa<yye\ia TraprjjyeiXa^ev ' we charged you 
 with a charge'; and Acts xxiii 14 avade/^ari dve- 
 Oefj.arLa-ap.ev eavrovs, ' we cursed ourselves with a 
 curse 1 .' 
 
 2 Pet i 17 has a particular kind of broken con- 
 struction, which finds a most remarkable parallel in 
 Acts xxiv 5. Instead of putting the genitive case of 
 a participle in agreement with a preceding noun, he 
 starts a new sentence with the participle in the nomi- 
 native. In the former case for \aftu>v yap.,.rt,fj,ijv if we 
 put Xa/3(Wo9, removing the previous stop, we have 
 the right construction at once : in the latter, instead of 
 evpovre? jap TOV avSpa if we put evpovrcov, we have it 
 again here. This instance of a deep-seated mannerism 
 is to me quite conclusive. 
 
 2 Pet ii 3 'make merchandise of you' efj,7ropev(rovTai 
 
 1 The only other case in N.T. is James v 17, where see Mayor's 
 note. The Lucan instances preponderate heavily.
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 163 
 
 with the accusative case is unique in N.T., 
 but is very like St Luke's use of evayjeXi^eo-Oai 
 rivets to evangelise people and places, Lk iii 18; Acts 
 viii 25, 40, xiii 32, xiv 15, 21, xvi 10; I Pet i 12. It 
 only occurs elsewhere in Gal i 9. 
 
 2 Pet ii 7 Lot is mentioned by no N.T. author but 
 St Luke, Lk xvii 28, 29, 32. 
 
 2 Pet i 1 6 majesty fjieyaXeior^ is only found in 
 Lk ix 43 and Acts xix 27. 
 
 The above list does not take account of the 
 nurnerous Pauline expressions in 2 Peter, such as 
 eTTiyvwcris, eTrvyvyvcocrKeiv, ' (our) Lord Jesus Christ,' 
 and many more, which need to be explained and are 
 only explained by the theory here advanced. 
 
 The Elders quoted by Irenceus. 
 
 Let us now pass to writings of another class, which 
 are often quoted by Irenseus, and which Bishops 
 Lightfoot and Harmer have been good enough to 
 present to us in a convenient collection at the end 
 of their Apostolic Fathers, the reliques of the Elders 
 quoted by Irenseus. They have indeed presented us 
 also with the reliques of several who were not Elders. 
 Thus Reliques I and II are by 6 fepeirrwv 1 a poet: 
 III is by 'the divine ambassador and herald of the 
 
 1 We may conjecture that there is a hint of the name Aristion the 
 Best, or at least the Better than we in ft 'cliques i, ii, iii and perhaps vii. 
 See p. 108. Aristion means Bester, Kpeirruv means Belter. 
 
 II 2
 
 164 THE PROPHETS IN 
 
 Truth,' also a poet : VI is by ' one of the old (gene- 
 ration)': VII is by 'those who were older and far 
 better than we': VIII is by 'some one': XII is by 
 'some one before our time': XIV the same. With 
 these eight miscellaneous unknowns we are not now 
 concerned. But there still remain nine quotations, or 
 rather quotations from nine different passages of 
 Irenaeus, which it is worth while to observe collec- 
 tively, though some have already been noticed. 
 
 Iren ii 22 (see p. 230), gives a testimony, not a 
 quotation, which concerns the age of our Lord in His 
 ministry. It is a 'witness of all the Elders who had 
 conferred with John the Lord's disciple in Asia.' This 
 is a subject on which one might expect any disciple of 
 His, whether personal or not, to be able to give some 
 answer; and anyone who had associated with a 
 disciple would be expected to have an opinion if not 
 certain knowledge. Now we are quite accustomed to 
 find the term disciple applied in the Acts to numbers 
 of people whom no one has ever supposed to be 
 personal disciples of the Lord. I do not know why 
 Bp Lightfoot speaks of Aristion and the second John, 
 both mentioned by Papias, as 'personal disciples of 
 Christ 1 .' There is no intimation whatever in Papias 
 that they were personal disciples ; rather the reverse. 
 'John the Lord's disciple' is the expression of the 
 Elders, and this may quite well apply to John the 
 Elder. Whether it is reasonable to accept as true 
 
 1 Essays on S. R. pp. 145, 149.
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 165 
 
 the next following statement, which is Irenaeus's own 
 and not the Elders', is another question: 'For he 
 remained with them until the times of Trajan.' Ac- 
 cording to Eusebius (see p. 250) he did not return from HE in 
 
 2O 
 
 Patmos till the reign of Nerva (Sept. 96 to Jan. 98). 
 Irenaeus goes on to say that 'some of the Elders saw 
 not only John, but other Apostles too.' But this 
 statement must be kept apart from that of the 
 Elders. 
 
 Iren iii 17 4, a very short relique by an Elder, who 
 'has said to us, concerning all who in any way debase 
 the things of God and adulterate the truth: It is ill 
 mixing chalk in the milk of GOD.' This reminds us of 
 the similar phrase in the Muratorian fragment on the 
 Canon : ' It is ill mixing gall with honey.' The appli- 
 cation is the same, that of combining forgeries in the 
 name of Paul with canonical writings. We cannot 
 draw a certain inference, nor be sure that the author, 
 called ' superior ' in Latin, was a Presbyter or Elder 
 in Greek. He was perhaps the one called 6 Kpeirrcav, 
 the iambic poet. 
 
 Iren iv 27 i to 28 I contains quotations first 1 
 from ' a certain Elder whom Irenseus had heard him- 
 self, who had heard from those who had seen the 
 Apostles ' (one degree further than before) ' and from 
 their (i.e. of those who &c.) disciples, and then from 
 the Elders.' It is not easy to say how much is actual 
 
 1 ' Audivi a quodam presbytero, qui audierat ab his qui apostolos 
 viderant, et ab his qui didicerant : sufficere etc.'
 
 1 66 THE PROPHETS IN 
 
 quotation and how much is written by Irenaeus in 
 this passage. But the tone is just that of the Christian 
 Prophets. The following is an abstract, the sup- 
 posed comments of Irenaeus being bracketed. ' The 
 ancients are reproved for what they did without 
 
 Ap xxii 6 counsel from the Spirit. [When David did all by 
 the suggestion of the Spirit he pleased GOD. But 
 when he sinned Nathan the prophet was sent to him. 
 Solomon spoke 3000 parables on the coming of the 
 
 Ap xv 3, Lord, and 5000 songs by way of hymn to GOD. The 
 
 iv 8 
 
 j _ Queen of the South will rise up in judgment with 
 
 1 Pet lino, Christ's generation.! The Lord descended to the parts 
 
 Ap xn 16 
 
 under the earth, announcing the gospel, and remission 
 Ap vi 10, of sins. And all who were hoping for Him believed on 
 
 xix 8, xxii . 
 
 9 , vii 5, Him ; righteous men and prophets and patnarclis. All 
 
 xxii^c men need the glory of GOD and are justified by looking 
 
 on His light. We should abstain from evils. [What 
 
 2 Pet ii 10 shall those suffer who have despised the coming of 
 Heb vi 6, the Lord ? For those who now sin l Christ shall no 
 
 more die, but the Son shall come in the glory of the 
 Ap xxii 12 Father, exacting- from His stewards the money which 
 
 He lent them with usury.] We ought to fear lest we 
 Ap xxii 14 find ourselves shut out of the kingdom. [It is one 
 Ap ii 23 and the same GOD who judged then, and searches out 
 Ap xxi 8 now. Many are called, but few chosen] The fire is 
 
 eternal. GOD'S righteousness is the same. GOD'S 
 
 1 A great source of perplexity to those who had practised John's 
 Baptism, and were accustomed to baptisms as frequent as their repent- 
 ances. See chap. VIII, p. KJJ.
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. ify 
 
 wrath is revealed from heaven. They are senseless A P xv 3. 
 
 xix 15 
 
 who try to bring in another Father, saying nothing 2 
 
 of His judgment, and of all that is in store for the 2 Pet ii 9 
 disobedient.' The marginal references, which might 
 be greatly multiplied, sufficiently shew the prophetic 
 character of this Elder and the others. The latter 
 appear in the last sentence to be protesting against 
 an extreme form of interpretation of the fourth 
 Gospel, if not the Gospel itself, as I suppose to 
 be the case, for its lack of prophetic and specially 
 eschatological elements. 
 
 Iren iv 30 I 31 I contains two quotations (in 
 Latin) from ' that Elder,' with a short passage intro- 
 duced as ' they report.' The first quotation of four 
 lines refers to charges brought against the Israelites 
 for stealing from the Egyptians the Exodus was a 
 common prophetic theme by men who ignore the Jude 5 
 justifications and the dispositions of GOD. Now 
 'justifications' would be SiKaKapara, applied to GOD 
 in Ap xv 4 and to the saints in Ap xix 8 a wholly 
 Jewish term and idea. 'Dispositions' is either Siadrjicai, 
 commonest in Heb but also in Ap xi 19 : or 8ia0e<7eis, 
 see below p. 170. Here therefore we are bordering 
 again upon prophetic ideas. The second quotation, 
 of ten lines, is still more clearly prophetic in kind. 
 ' By such statements did that Elder console us ' he 
 was another Bar-nabas, son of Consolation, or Jude, Jude 3 
 son of Rest or he was like the Prophets of I Cor i Cor xiv 
 who exhorted or consoled : ' we must not reproach the ^
 
 1 68 THE PROPHETS IN 
 
 Patriarchs or Prophets ' ; naturally, being their direct 
 
 successors : ' nor be like Ham, who scoffed at his 
 
 father's disgrace,' for in the last days there are scoffers 
 
 2 Pet Hi 3 who scoff exceedingly though Ham's righteous father 
 
 2 Pet H 5 Noah was spared from the Flood : ' and fell into the 
 
 curse ; ' contrast Teaching of the Apostles, at the end 
 
 Ap vii 12, (p. 15): 'but we must give thanks to GOD for them, 
 
 4 inasmuch as their sins were forgiven them in the 
 
 coming of our Lord,' when He went and preached to 
 
 i Pet iii 19 the spirits in prison : ' for that they glory in our 
 
 Ap xii 12 salvation.' It is indeed remarkable how every line of 
 
 this passage is crammed full of prophetic associations, 
 
 and receives illustration from the limited prophetic 
 
 literature that has survived. He proceeds: 'We must 
 
 not become accusers, for we are not more exact than 
 
 Apxxiii2, GOD, nor can we be above our master, but must seek 
 
 xviii 6 
 
 2Petii6 f r the typical meaning, as Jude has done eight or 
 nine times in as many verses of his Epistle. 
 
 Iren iv 32, a Latin quotation of five lines from ' an 
 Elder, a Disciple of the Apostles.' He declares that 
 the two Testaments (see last page, 167) are from one 
 and the same GOD (see p. 255 below). The world was 
 not made by Angels : which rather suggests Heb i, ii. 
 We are again on the outskirts of prophetic teaching. 
 
 Iren v 5, four lines of Greek from ' the Elders the 
 disciples of the Apostles.' They ' say that those who 
 were translated were translated thither (for paradise 
 was prepared for righteous and inspired men, TTVCV- 
 fj,aro<f>6poi<; which word meets us again in Claudius
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 169 
 
 Apollinaris against the Montanists whither also the 
 Apostle Paul was carried and heard words unspeak- 
 able to us at least in this present life), and that they 2 Cor xii 4 
 remain there until the end of all things, preluding 
 immortality.' All this is prophetic in the first degree. 
 
 Iren v 30, some few lines of Greek are confirmed 
 by the testimony of ' those who had seen John face to 
 face.' They are not quoted, nor are they called 
 Elders ; but it is noteworthy that they are versed in 
 the reading of our Ap xiii 18, which they testify to 
 be 666, not 616, as some erroneously stated, for the 
 number of the Beast according to the Greek numera- 
 tion. This passage is, I think, strongly in favour of 
 ' the Elders ' being associates of the Elder. It does 
 not decide, nor profess to decide, the question whether 
 the Beast is to be arrived at by means of Hebrew 
 characters or of Greek, but merely deals with the 
 reading in the Greek Apocalypse, the only form 
 known to us. Zahn 1 is here, I think, in error. 
 
 Iren v 33, 'As the Elders, who saw John the 
 disciple of the Lord, remember that they had heard 
 from him, how the Lord used to teach concerning 
 those times, and to say: The days will come, in which 
 vines shall grow...' (see p. 234). The Elders are here 
 again eminently prophetic and extremely chiliastic. 
 
 Iren v 36, nine lines of Greek followed by five of 
 Latin, by ' the Elders,' and ' the Elders the disciples of 
 the Apostles.' ' Then they which have been deemed 
 
 1 Einl. p. 622.
 
 1 70 THE PROPHETS IN 
 
 worthy of the abode in heaven go thither, while others 
 Ezekxxviii shall enjoy the delight of paradise, and others again 
 
 I 3 
 
 shall possess the brightness of the city : for in every 
 place the Saviour shall be seen, according as they 
 shall be worthy who see Him. They say moreover 
 that this is the distinction between the habitation of 
 them that bring forth a hundred-fold, and them that 
 bring forth sixty-fold, and them that bring forth 
 
 Mtxiii23 thirty-fold and that therefore our Lord has said, 
 
 Jn xiv 2 In my Father s house are many mansions : for all 
 things are of GOD, who giveth to all their appropriate 
 dwelling, [according as His word saith that allotment 
 is made unto all by the Father, according as each 
 man is or shall be worthy. And this is the banquet- 
 ing-table at which those shall recline who are called 
 to the marriage and take part in the feast]. The 
 Elders the disciples of the Apostles say that this is the 
 arrangement and disposal (adordinationem et disposi- 
 tionem) of them that are being saved, and that they 
 advance by such steps, and ascend through the Spirit 
 to the Son and through the Son to the Father, the 
 Son at length yielding His work to the Father, as it 
 is said also by the Apostle, For He must reign till He 
 hath put all enemies under His feet! This passage 
 again is characteristic of the Prophets from beginning 
 to end. .It is interesting to see that the Elders con- 
 tinued, after the appearance of the Fourth Gospel 
 amongst them, to avail themselves of any support 
 they could find in it for their own eschatological
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. I? I 
 
 purposes ; and a very suitable one they found in 
 Jn xiv 2. ' To go to heaven ' (^wpeiv TT/SO? ovpavov or 
 anything like it) is not found anywhere in the N.T. 
 applied to believers. 
 
 The Elders and the Elder. 
 
 Now the review of the above passages reveals the 
 fact that in every case where ' the Elders the disciples 
 of the Apostles' are quoted by Irenaeus they are 
 found to be treating of precisely the same themes as 
 the Prophets, and carrying on the same lines of 
 characteristic thought as 'the Elder' John. The con- 
 clusion is obvious, that they were immediately asso- 
 ciated with him. I would go further and say that 
 they drew their name from him, as the less from the 
 greater, so that our ' Priest,' ' Presbyter,' ' Elder,' are 
 the direct descendants from him in point of title. 
 This idea may perhaps supply the missing link to the 
 learned chain of authorities supplied by Dr Hatch in 
 his Third Bampton Lecture of 1888. 
 
 Harnack on the Elders, Papias, and Irenczus. 
 
 The above was written before I came upon 
 Harnack's interesting and exhaustive treatment of 
 these Elders' passages in his Chronologic,^. 333 340. 
 I must defend Irenaeus on one point, his divergence 
 alleged by Harnack from the Elders of Iren ii 22 5 
 in reference to the age of our Lord. I can see no
 
 172 THE PROPHETS IN 
 
 divergence, nor any 'artful addition' by Irenaeus. He 
 says everyone admits that 'juventus,' youth, lasts till 
 the age of 40 : so at that age we do. Servius Tullius 
 made the rule, when he ordered that soldiers aged 
 from 17 to 46 (inclusive no doubt) should be called 
 'juniores,' and above that age 'senioresV Irenaeus 
 further says, ' from the 4Oth and 5Oth year,' say in 
 most people's estimation the end of the 45th year, 'a 
 man declines into the age of a senior, and this was our 
 Lord's age as the Elders, &c. testify that John handed 
 down.' I agree with Harnack in asking what can be 
 the value of Irenaeus' authorities for the early Church, 
 if he could misplace Jesus' Death in the days of 
 Claudius ? But I think Irenaeus after all is dealing 
 fairly with his citation. 
 
 Harnack has made it highly probable that Irenaeus 
 in quoting the Elders is really quoting Papias' col- 
 lection of the Elders' sayings (see pp. 107 f.). The 
 extract about the clusters is given by Irenaeus first as 
 ' the Elders remember hearing from John,' and then as 
 a quotation from Papias' Fourth Book. In that one 
 case, therefore, we may surely conclude for unity of 
 source. Further, Irenaeus never says that he had 
 been personally in contact with the Elders who had 
 seen and heard John. Nor does he ever claim to 
 have seen Papias. That Polycarp had seen the Elders 
 appears from Eus v 20, Irenseus's letter to Florinus. 
 Harnack also thinks it rather follows from the same 
 
 1 Cell, x 28, i.
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 1/3 
 
 passage that Irenaeus had not. However that may 
 be, the connexion of Papias with chiliastic notions 
 and his fondness for anything 'traditional' of that 
 kind is sufficiently well known, and I will now refer 
 once more to what Eusebius tells us of the connexion 
 between Papias and the Prophetical tradition. Eusebius HE iii 39 
 says that among the statements that had come to 
 Papias ' from tradition ' is the sojourn of Philip the 
 Apostle and his daughters at Hierapolis. It is 
 evident that Hierapolis is more and more likely to be 
 what we call Hieropolis (Comana) on the Glaucus, 
 and not Hierapolis on the Lycus, about which Bishop 
 Lightfoot has written. At least it would be strange 
 if one Hierapolis were the prophetic centre in one 
 chapter concerning Papias, and the other the pro- 
 phetic centre in another dealing with Claudius 
 Apollinaris, who succeeded Papias. For Philip and 
 his daughters are always prophetical, whichever Philip 
 we take him to be, whether the Apostle or the Evange- 
 list-deacon. Papias writes an Account which he re- 
 ceived from the daughters, that in Philip's time a dead 
 person had been raised to life. But there is another 
 very interesting Account or Exposition of Papias, of 
 what happened to Justus Barsabbas, the Justus of 
 Acts i 23, how he drank a deadly poison without 
 enduring harm, thanks to the grace of the Lord. 
 After what has been said above (p. 147) as to the name 
 Barsabbas, we may safely conclude that Justus, if 
 not identical with Jude the Prophet, which I think
 
 174 THE PROPHETS IN 
 
 possible, was called by the same patronymic for the 
 same reason in connexion with Prophecy. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that Papias professes 
 (p. 1 08) to have collected hearsay evidence, or evi- 
 dence which ' came to him from unwritten tradition,' 
 as Eusebius puts it. 'He has further quoted some 
 strange parables of the Saviour and doctrines of His 
 and some other rather mythical things. Among 
 which he also says that there will be a certain 
 millennium after the resurrection from the dead, for 
 the kingdom of Christ is to set itself up on this our 
 earth in bodily form. Now in these things I suppose 
 he thought he had come into collateral possession of 
 the Apostles' Expositions, without having really a 
 general understanding of what they had said mystic- 
 ally in types.' The last word vTroSeiyfiaa-i, types, 
 ensamples, is the same prophetic term which is used in 
 2 Pet ii 6 (see p. 149). The fact is that Papias, being 
 himself connected with the prophetic order, or at least 
 well versed in prophetic teaching, understood them 
 fully in his own way, while Eusebius did not. 
 
 The Elders in The Acts. 
 
 Perhaps the reader will have already anticipated 
 that Elders are mentioned more than once in the 
 Acts. But perhaps he may not have observed that 
 they are mentioned in Acts ii 17, for there the R.V. 
 has concealed from him the fact that the old men, on
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 175 
 
 whom the Spirit of prophecy is poured forth, so that 
 they dream dreams, are Elders. We have already 
 seen how the Author of ' Barnabas ' addresses his 
 prophetic readers as 'sons and daughters,' in refer- 
 ence to this very quotation from Joel. The Elders 
 delighted to find in it the charter of their office. 
 Elder was Prophet, and Prophet was Elder. Thus 
 when the disciples at Antioch received the Prophet 
 Agabus who ' signified in the Spirit ' (the same words 
 as Ap i i, 10) the approaching famine, and accordingly 
 determined to send relief to the brethren that dwelt 
 in Judaea, they naturally sent forth the Prophet 
 Barnabas, and Saul with him, and naturally sent him 
 to the Elders of Jerusalem. When Barnabas and Acts xi 30 
 Paul had turned their faces to revisit the disciples of 
 Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch, they naturally 
 ' laid their hands' on Elders in every Church. *iv 23 
 
 The Council of Jerusalem. 
 
 We now come to the all-important controversy on 
 circumcision at Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas and 
 some other members of the Church at Syrian Antioch 
 are despatched on this question to the Apostles and 
 Elders at Jerusalem. They received a solemn set-off 
 from the Church at Antioch, and traversed Phoenicia 
 and Samaria, setting forth an Account eKSirjyovfMevoi. 
 Is an Account Strfyrja-is, then, a Prophetic term, as used 
 afterwards by Papias, who had set himself to collect
 
 1 76 THE PROPHETS IN 
 
 in Five Books the oral traditional Accounts of 
 Apostles and those who had heard them ? I have no 
 doubt it is, and also that when St Luke used the 
 Lk i i term he used it correctly of an oral traditional 
 Account of the doings and sayings of the great Prophet 
 who had visited His people. The envoys reported 
 the conversion of the heathen, and caused great joy 
 to all the brethren. On reaching Jerusalem they 
 were welcomed by the Church and the Apostles and 
 the Elders, and announced all that GOD had done with 
 their aid. They met however with opposition on the 
 part of some Christians of the sect of the Pharisees, 
 who urged that they must circumcise their converts 
 and charge them to keep the law of Moses. 
 
 Peters Speech prophetical. 
 
 The council is held, composed of the Apostles and 
 Elders. After much discussion Peter rose and spoke. 
 Are there any traces in his speech of prophetic 
 elements? In the eight lines of Greek into which his 
 address is compressed we cannot expect to find many. 
 Acts i 23 But we find four or five, (i) ' GOD that knoweth the 
 hearts ' is a term only found to be used once where 
 the prophetic usage of the lot is concerned, and where 
 one at least of the two candidates is a Prophet himself, 
 Justus Barsabbas (see p. 173). But the idea is exactly 
 that of Ap ii 23, based on that of the true prophetic 
 knowledge which belongs to GOD. See also p. 166
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 177 
 
 above 1 . It will be remembered that Judas Iscariot 
 was mentioned in connection with a Montanist 
 Prophet's death in Asia (p. 37). The fuller descrip- 
 tion of GOD as heart-knowing is of course to be read 
 in Hebrews which so often takes notice of current Heb iv 12 
 prophetical ideas, some of which it adopts. (2) Then 
 the expression ' bore witness ' is prophetical, though 
 not of GOD, frequently of Jesus (see p. 97). (3) Then 
 ' discerning,' ' putting a difference ' is regularly pro- 
 phetic (see p. i). (4) Then 'the faith' is the faith of * Corxiv 
 the saints. (5) The 'yoke upon the neck' is a familiar Ap xiii 10, 
 phrase in the mouth of the Prophets 2 . xlv I2> " 
 
 13 etc. 
 Ap ii 3, 
 
 1 If any one doubts that the usage of the lot was connected on that 4Esdii 12, 
 occasion with prophecy, he has only to read Dan xii 12 f. 'Blessed is 2 ?' . Acts 
 
 XXVI 14. 
 
 he that waiteth, and cometh to the 1335 days. But go thou thy way 
 till the end : for thou shall rest (Bar-sabbas, son of rest), and stand in 
 thy lot at the end of the days.' In Dan xii n it is said that from the 
 taking away of the daily sacrifice, and (? until) the setting up of the 
 abomination of desolation, shall be 1290 days. How this text would 
 be applied in a prophetic meaning, we cannot even conjecture, but I 
 venture to suggest that our information that 'the number of the names 
 was about 120' in Acts i 15 has some purpose, and that if the number 
 eleven is divided into 1335 we arrive at 121 and a fraction. 
 
 2 It is noteworthy that in the account of Saul's conversion, xxvi 14 ff., 
 we have the obvious compression of what was said by the voice from 
 heaven and what was said by Ananias, who was very close to the 
 Prophets himself, into a single account as spoken by the Lord. I 
 conclude that the words ' it is hard for thee to kick against the goads ' 
 was really said by Ananias, as were the words of the following verses 
 16 18. 
 
 S. AP. 1 2
 
 178 THE PROPHETS IN 
 
 St James s speech prophetic. 
 
 The abstracted speech of James, the president, is 
 of course essentially prophetic, being composed chiefly 
 of the prophecy of Am. ix II, 12 and a reference to 
 Moses, the first of Prophets. The substance of the 
 decrees resembles very closely the language of Ap. 
 ii 14, 20, iii iS 1 , xxi 8, xvi 6 (the last a horrible punish- 
 ment for sinners). There is a noteworthy omission 
 in the citation, which was doubtless made by James 
 from the Hebrew, since he spoke in that language : 
 ' that they may possess the remnant of Edom and of 
 all ' &c. Now it was very well known, when the Acts 
 was written, among all Jewish students of Prophecy 
 that Edom meant Rome. Thus : ' This is the offer- 
 ing that thou shalt receive from them, gold, silver, 
 and brass, Ex. xxv 3 : the gold is Babylon, the silver 
 is Media, the brass is Greece, Dan. ii: but there is no 
 mention of iron : Why ? Because wicked Edom that 
 wasted the sanctuary is that ; to teach us that GOD 
 in time to come will accept an offering from every 
 kingdom except Edom 2 .' 
 
 Now Rome was not a persecuting power when 
 James spoke or when Acts xv was written. He 
 avoids the unnecessary and possibly hostile reference. 
 
 The decrees are sent in the names of the Apostles 
 and Elders, and carried by Paul and three Prophets 
 
 1 On yvfjLfdrrjTos WlV, see Lightfoot, Hor. fleb. on Acts xv 20. 
 
 2 Shemoth Rabba 152, Lightfoot, ad loc.
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 179 
 
 not to Asia, nor to Judaea, but to the brethren in 
 Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, converted from heathen- 
 ism. The document is eminently practical and by 
 no means overdone with prophetic phraseology. The 
 Apostles and Elders shewed a very wise and large- 
 hearted care for the gathering in of the heathen 
 converts when they decided not to insist on circum- 
 cision or even to mention it. 
 
 St Paul and his companions. 
 
 Then follows the acute difference between Paul 
 and his prophetic companion Barnabas. We may 
 remark that St Mark must have been doubly related 
 to the prophetic circle, first by his relation to Barna- 
 bas, and then by his intimacy with Peter. Neverthe- 
 less I do not feel that there is much to be said for 
 Hausrath's opinion that St Mark was the author of 
 the Apocalypse. Though St Paul was unable to 
 proceed with Barnabas, he took care to keep the 
 Prophet Silas with him, and very shortly an occasion 
 for his prophetic powers offered itself. In Acts xvi 7 
 'the spirit of Jesus' forbade them to journey into Ap xix 10 
 Bithynia though they were attempting to go there. 
 Again, a dream appeared to St Paul : a man exhorting Num xii 6 
 him, like a Prophet, and saying, 'Come into Macedonia 
 and help us.' These touches of the historian throw 
 great light upon the willing obedience of the strong- 
 willed St Paul to listen to the guidance of the pro- 
 
 12 2
 
 180 THE PROPHETS IN 
 
 phetic spirit. It would seem as if he was conscious 
 of his almost headstrong will if left to himself, and 
 was unwilling therefore to be so left. The frequent 
 occurrence of all sorts of conditions of spiritual 
 Acts xvii6 possession and thraldom as at Philippi, and Ephesus, 
 
 xix 14 
 
 would increase his desire for the companionship of 
 a Prophet, as an agent of that 'Spirit which searcheth 
 i Cor H 10 all things, even the deep things of GOD.' In the 
 same passage where he writes thus, he utters a strongly 
 prophetic quotation, and indeed there are many others 
 in which he shews the fullest acquaintance with all 
 the ways of the Prophets. He has the greatest 
 sympathy with them ; if he was not one himself, he 
 was much more than a Prophet. 
 
 St Paul at Miletus. 
 
 So entirely did he possess the confidence of the 
 Ephesian Elders that they gladly obeyed his sum- 
 mons to meet him at Miletus and receive his touching 
 farewell address. Was John among them ? We can- 
 not say. Probably he was. If so, he would be 
 gratified to note the familiar terms of the close pro- 
 phetic school to which he himself belonged. He 
 would have heard St Paul say that he had been the 
 Ap xxii 9 slave of the Lord (Acts xx 1 9), testifying repentance and 
 l\\Q2i faith (21); that he was bound in the spirit (22), that 
 xxii 17 ffo $pi r it testified continually that tribulations awaited 
 vi ii him (23), that he hoped to perfect his course and his
 
 SOME APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. l8l 
 
 ministry received from the Lord Jesus (24); that he Ap ii 19 
 had preached the kingdom (25); that he testified that ^H 5 
 he was pure from the blood of all (26); that he had Hi 4 
 not shrunk^ from declaring to them all that was profit- ii 25 
 able (27); that the Spirit had set them to be overseers 
 of the flock, for them to shepJierd it (28); that it had ii 27 
 been purcJiascd with blood; that grievous wolves \^ 
 (that is, false-prophets as in Matt, x 16, but Rome Teaching, 
 too was symbolized by a wolf) should come (29); 
 that men would arise among themselves speaking ii 9, 20 
 perverse things (30) to draw away disciples : that they iii 3 
 must watch (31); that their inJteritance (see p. I3i)vi 
 was ensured among the sanctified (32); that he had Teaching, 
 coveted no man's gold, silver, or (33) apparel (see 
 p. 14); that he had taught them to labour (35), and ii 2 
 gave them an oral saying of Jesus, an oracle, for a xxii 6 
 motto. There is not a verse in this unique speech 
 of St Paul that has not some word to gratify 
 and kindle the intense prophetic ardour of John the 
 Elder. 
 
 The name 'Elders' in tJie Acts. 
 
 But it will be asked here, If these Elders already 
 existed, why should it be assumed that John the 
 Elder had anything special about him? Why sup- 
 pose that he had been a member of the Sanhedrim? 
 
 1 Shrinking is the opposite of Faith, as we learn only from Heb x 
 38, 39 quoting LXX of Hab ii 4, where the force is entirely lost unless 
 the LXX be consulted. The passage in Acts xx 27 may well puzzle us 
 without the references here given.
 
 1 82 THE PROPHETS IN APOSTOLIC WRITINGS. 
 
 How can we suppose that the Elders in the early 
 chapters of the Acts who had nothing to do with this 
 Ephesian John were called after him ? My answer is 
 that John's connection with the Sanhedrim rests upon 
 its own evidence (see pp. 1 26 ff.), and that the writer of 
 Acts simply wrote reflexively about the officers of the 
 Church in the early chapters, calling them by the 
 name 'Elders,' which they would have borne a gene- 
 ration later, without meaning of necessity to imply 
 that they were so called at the time of the events 
 Acts v 6 which he relates, when they were only distinguished 
 from the Juniors or laymen.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SOME LEADING IDEAS OF THE APOCALYPSE. 
 
 THE suggestion made by Vischer 1 that Ap i iii 
 was composed later than iv xxii appeared to me to 
 be well worth examination, and as he did not work it 
 out I determined to do so, though I had not before 
 my mind at the time the theory which has been 
 presented (see pp. 124 f.) that the latter and much 
 larger portion of the book had brought about the 
 writer's exile at Patmos, where the former portion 
 was subsequently composed and addressed to the 
 Seven Churches. It appears to me that the following 
 comparison of various passages, for which I would 
 ask the reader's careful consideration, completely 
 justifies the theory. Vischer's view was that the main 
 part of iv xxii was composed by a Jew, and then 
 received interpolation from the same Christian writer 
 who prefixed i iii and so edited the work in its 
 present form. Like many other writers, Vischer had 
 
 1 Eberhard Vischer, Die Offenbarung jfohannis, eine Jtidische 
 Apocalypse in Christlicher Bearbeitung, mit einem Nachwort von Adolf 
 Harnack,'m Texte u. Untersiuhungen, 1886.
 
 1 84 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 rather ignored the function of the Prophets and the 
 prophetic character of the Apocalypse. Harnack has 
 however followed him, adding that iv xxii was com- 
 posed by more than one Jew, and that the interpolator 
 is the author of the Fourth Gospel and the Elder, but 
 not the son of Zebedee. 
 
 The passages cited are roughly divided into those 
 which seem to me to furnish (A) more probable, and 
 (B) less probable, support to the above suggestion. 
 
 A. (i) 
 
 Apoc ii 23 And I will give unto each one of you 
 according to your works. This is said of the immo- 
 rality Tropveia at Thyatira and its followers. 
 
 Compare xviii 6 Render unto her even as she 
 rendered, and double the double according to her 
 works. This is said of Babylon and her iropvela (3). 
 Similarly Ps cxxxvii 8 of Babylon, Jer 1 29, 15 
 of Babylon. The original use therefore of the 
 quotations was naturally of Babylon, from which the 
 author extended it to Jezebel. For though Jezebel's 
 Tropveia is mentioned in 2 K ix 22, she is punished 
 primarily and especially for her blood-shedding 
 i K xxi 19, 23; 2 K ix 31, 36. 
 
 (2) 
 
 iii i He that hath the seven spirits of GOD. 
 
 Compare iv 5 And (there were) seven lamps of 
 fire burning before the throne, which are the seven 
 spirits of GOD.
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 185 
 
 Compare v 6 A lamb having... seven eyes, which 
 are the seven spirits of GOD, sent forth into all the 
 earth. 
 
 The original is in Zech iv 10 Those seven (lamps) 
 are the eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through 
 the whole earth ; iv 2 I have looked and behold 
 a candlestick all of gold with a bowl on the top of it, 
 and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the 
 seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof. 
 
 The first identification is : Lamps are eyes of the Zech iv 7 
 Lord. But the Lord is of spiritual nature. Thus we 
 get the second identification : His eyes are spirits. Ap v 6 
 
 Combining the two statements we infer thirdly: 
 Lamps are spirits. Fourthly, we arrive at the latest Ap iv 5 
 
 inference : But as lamps can be held in the hand, so Ap iii i, 
 
 ... i 16 
 
 can spirits. 
 
 As to the expression in i 4 ' and from the seven 
 spirits which are before his throne/ it may safely be 
 said that no one could write this who had not the 
 vision of iv 5 before him. 
 
 (3) 
 
 iii 7 These things saith he that is holy, he that is 
 true, he that hath the key of David. 
 
 Compare vi 10 saying, How long, O Master, the 
 holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our 
 blood on them that dwell on the earth ? 
 
 Compare Ps xciv 3 Lord, how long shall the 
 wicked triumph? 
 
 Compare Is xxii 22 The key of the house of
 
 1 86 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 David will I lay upon his shoulder ; so he shall open, 
 and none shall shut. 
 
 Compare Lk xviii 6 ff And the Lord said, Hear 
 what the unrighteous judge saith. And shall not GOD 
 avenge his elect, which cry to him day and night, and 
 he is longsuffering over them ? I say unto you, that he 
 will avenge them speedily. Howbeit when the Son 
 of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth ? 
 
 The interest of Lk xviii 6 ff is that it is an oracle 
 or saying of the Lord. It begins elirev 8e 6 Kvpios: 
 cf. Lk xxii 25, 31 (ADQtf Tregelles) xvii 6, xii 42, and 
 like so many others is prophetic, and was a portion of 
 the treasure of words of the Lord which the Prophets 
 guarded. The ' cry ' of Lk xviii 7 is parallel with the 
 cry with a loud voice in Ap vi 10. See p. 8, col. I. 
 
 It would seem that vi 10 had the full drift of Ps 
 xciv beneath it, and that iii 7 was written later. For 
 
 (1) Ps xciv deals with the chastisement of the heathen, 
 while iii 7 refers to the chastisement of certain Jews. 
 
 (2) ' The holy and the true ' suits better with the idea 
 of vengeance in Ps xciv and Ap vi than with that of 
 iii 10 I will keep thee from the hour of trial. (3) In 
 vi 10 it is of GOD, to whom it originally belongs ; in 
 iii 7 it is transferred to Christ. 
 
 (4) 
 
 iii 12 He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar 
 in the sanctuary of my GOD, and he shall go out 
 thence no more.
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 187 
 
 Compare xxi 3 Behold, the tabernacle of GOD is 
 with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they 
 shall be his peoples (or people), and GOD himself shall 
 be with them. 
 
 The idea of a pillar in iii 12 seems to be based on 
 xxi 3 which is part of the first ending of our Apoca- 
 lypse (see next page) because the Philadelphian ' who 
 overcometh' is connected with worship, and his op- 
 ponents will be brought to the true worship. It cannot 
 be that he will be made a pillar in the sanctuary of the 
 New Jerusalem as described in the second ending of 
 our Apocalypse, because there is to be none ; xxi 22 
 I saw no temple therein, for the Lord... and the Lamb 
 are the temple of it. It is possible that this consider- 
 ation points to the second and more elaborate ending, 
 with its insistence on the number 12, and its extension Ap xxi 12, 
 of Ez xxviii 13, being of later composition than i iii. X xli 2 " 
 
 (5) 
 
 iii 12, (a) and I will write upon him the name of 
 my GOD, and the name of the city of my GOD, (b) the 
 New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven 
 from my GOD, (a) and my own new name. 
 
 (b) Compare xxi 10 And he carried me away in 
 the spirit to a mountain great and high, and shewed 
 me the city, the holy Jerusalem, coming down out of 
 heaven from GOD. 
 
 Compare xxi 2 And I saw the city, the holy
 
 1 88 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 Jerusalem, new, coming down out of heaven from 
 GOD, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 
 
 Whatever be the precise relation of xxi 2 to xxi 10, 
 a question not so easy to determine 1 we must hold 
 
 1 But I think it is clear that we have a double ending to Ap as it 
 stands. The following arrangement will exhibit what I believe was 
 the earlier double form of the Seer's prophecies in the last two chapters 
 beginning after Ap xxi i : 
 
 A B 
 
 xxi 2. xxi 9 And there came... to 
 
 xxii 3, 4, 5. xxii 2 ...nations. 
 
 xxi 3 to 6 a, come to pass. xxii 6. 
 
 xxii 7. xxii 8 And I John... to 15 
 
 xxi 6 b to 8 end. ...maketh a lie. 
 
 xxii 16 11 is the close of either ending. 
 
 In short, xxi i 8 is parallel with xxi 9 xxii 15, except that the latter 
 portion contains the full description of the new Jerusalem by way of 
 extending the account of the Sabbath-rest, and that out of it are to be 
 removed some verses which are tautological where they stand in our 
 Bible, while they are almost necessary to the sense of A. Thus the 
 future verbs of xxii 35 are now joined on to the future verbs of xxi 
 3, 4. The throne of God is introduced into xxi i ( where its mention is 
 required, and removed from xxii 3 where it is absurdly tautologous 
 after xxii i. Again, the tautology of xxii 50 after xxi 25 is avoided, 
 while xxii 3 5 is useful after xxi 2. 'They have no need of candle' 
 is tautologous in xxii just after xxi 23, but makes good sense at the 
 beginning of xxi. Moreover either account will now have Behold I 
 come... followed by Blessed is he... instead of one account having them 
 twice over. Either account has These words are..., I am the Alpha... 
 and the exclusion of the wicked classes at the close. Perhaps also the 
 invitation to him that is athirst in xxii 17 should be transposed earlier, 
 in order to correspond more closely with that of xxi 6. The cause of 
 the dislocation may have been some accident to the autograph of the 
 book, or a later addition in Patmos, or some other reason. But it is 
 noteworthy that in our Bible 'the Lamb' occurs nowhere in xx n 
 xxi 8, and occurs seven times in xxi 9 xxii 5. One of these seven 
 mentions I should place in A, leaving six in B.
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 189 
 
 that xxi 2 was certainly in the mind of the writer of iii. 
 The full picture is not developed later in order to 
 explain the reference to its part, but the part pre- 
 supposes the existence of the whole picture. 
 
 (a) Compare vii 3 until we have sealed the ser- 
 vants of our GOD on their foreheads. 
 
 Compare xiv I having his (the Lamb's) name, 
 and his Father's name written on their foreheads. 
 
 Compare xxii 3, 4 and his servants shall do him 
 service ; and they shall see his face ; and his name 
 (shall be) on their foreheads. 
 
 Compare Is xliv 5 One shall say, I am the Lord's, 
 and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob... 
 This text would not seem to be in John's mind but 
 that the next verse in Isaiah contains ' I am the first 
 and I am the last,' which occurs in Ap xxii 13. 
 
 Compare Ez xlviii 35 And the name of the city 
 from that day shall be, ' The Lord is there.' 
 
 Compare Is Ixii 2 Thou shalt be called by a new 
 name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. 
 
 It is observable that there are three stages of 
 thought here : 
 
 (a) seal. . .upon their foreheads : cf. Ez ix 4, Ap vii 3. 
 
 (&) his name upon their foreheads (with no verb at 
 all) xxii 4. 
 
 (c) with his name and his Father's written upon 
 their foreheads xiv I. 
 
 After which comes iii 12 adding 'the name of the 
 city.'
 
 1 90 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 (6) 
 
 iii 21 He that overcometh, I will give to him to 
 sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, 
 and sat down with my Father in his throne. 
 
 Compare Jn xvii 21 23 for the sense, but not the 
 image. 
 
 Compare iv 2 After this I beheld, and behold a 
 throne was set in heaven, and upon the throne one 
 sitting. 
 
 . The end of iii seems to have been adapted to form 
 the transition to iv, especially when we compare 'the 
 door' iii 20 with 'a door' iv I, where of course the door 
 is different, being merely the means by which John 
 enters heaven. It seems plain that in writing iii 21 
 John was conscious that iv I was lying before him, 
 written. 
 
 B. (i) 
 
 i 4 from him which is and which was and which 
 cometh. 
 
 Compare the fuller praise of iv 8. 
 
 Compare xi 17 we give thee thanks, O Lord GOD, 
 the Almighty, which art and which wast ; because 
 thou hast taken thy great power, and didst reign. 
 So xvi 5 which art and which wast. 
 
 In iv 8 GOD is still ' coming ' to judgment. In xi 
 17 He has 'come,' and hence the triumph-song of xi 
 15 Come (to pass) is the kingdom! By xvi 5 the 
 sentence of judgment is gone forth. Hence in the
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 19 1 
 
 latter places ' and which comest ' is omitted. In xvii 
 the sentence is being announced by the angel. But in 
 i 4 John naturally prefixes ' and which cometh ' in 
 accordance with iv 8. 
 
 (2) 
 
 i 1 6 and out of his mouth a sharp two-edged 
 sword proceeding. (There is no construction of these 
 words either with the ' having ' which precedes, or 
 with the following ' and his countenance shineth.') 
 
 Compare ii 16 I will make war against them with 
 the sword of my mouth. 
 
 Compare xix 15 And out of his mouth (the 
 warrior-chieftain The Word of GOD, which has not 
 the faintest resemblance to John i i) proceedeth a 
 sharp sword, that with it he may smite the nations : 
 and he shall shepherd them with a rod of iron... 21 
 and the rest were killed with the sword of him that 
 sat on the horse, (the sword) which came forth out of 
 his mouth. 
 
 Compare the originals Ps ii 9, LXX, Thou shalt 
 shepherd them (the heathen) with a rod of iron. 
 
 And Ps cxlix 6, 7 Let the praises of GOD be in 
 their throat and a two-edged sword in their hand ; to 
 execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punish- 
 ments upon the people. 
 
 It is evident that the sword has a full meaning in 
 xix where the picture of the armed horseman is com- 
 plete. In i the figure is not on horseback, but the
 
 192 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 garment down to the foot betokens the Judge 1 of 
 Daniel vii 9. The ideas of the Psalmist have come 
 into Ap i, ii through the picture of Ap xix, which 
 was written before i, ii. 
 
 The fact that the Judge in i 16 is furnished with a 
 sharp two-edged sword proceeding out of His mouth 
 may well suggest that the explanation given on p. 83 
 above is wrong, and that we must admit after all that 
 the Word of GOD there is Messiah advancing to His 
 ruthless and gruesome work of slaughter, and is also 
 identical with the Judge of i 16. Nevertheless I am 
 disposed to think there is a difference between the 
 two passages. In xix 15 the Warrior's sword is sharp, 
 with an edge for smiting the heathen. But in i 16 
 the phraseology is extended from xix, for the Judge's 
 sword is two-edged, the second edge being intended 
 for the rebellious within the Church. So says Ps 
 
 1 With Lightfoot on Ign. Mag. 9 and against Zahn, Einl. ii p. 604, 
 I think we should hold that ' the Lord's Day' in Ap i 10 does not mean 
 Sunday, the Resurrection Day, but the Day of Judgment of the Lord. 
 In 57 A.D. the expression KI//HCI/OJ had not come into use for the first 
 day of the week : had it done so, we should expect to find it in i Cor 
 xvi 2. Those who hold the Domitianic date of Ap will contend for 
 the meaning ' Sunday ' here. But there is nothing to shew that the 
 Seer would originate any new terminology in the Church, and every- 
 thing to shew that he would be conservative. In view of ii 9 and iii 9 
 is it likely that he would single out the first day of the week as the 
 most important? Yet the seventh day is not called 'the Lord's day.' 
 On the contrary, if we translate ' the Judgment Day,' the presence of 
 the Judge of Daniel vii 9 is natural enough. The ' Teaching' 1 has the 
 remarkable expression Kara KvpiaK^v Kvpiov ' on the Lord's day of the 
 Lord.'
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 193 
 
 cxlix / b 'and punishments upon the people,' i.e. of 
 Israel. This may seem fanciful, but we must re- 
 member that every word of the O.T. would to the 
 Seer be crowded with meaning. Two figures bearing 
 different swords, though either sword proceeds out of 
 the mouth, and fulfils a like purpose, are not of 
 necessity to be identified as one person. 
 
 (3) 
 
 i 14 and his eyes as a flame of fire (no verb). 
 Compare xix 12 (the same) from Daniel x 6, 
 which has ' lamps ' instead of ' flame.' 
 
 (4) 
 
 ii 1 1 shall not be hurt of the second death. 
 
 Compare xx 14 This is the second death, the 
 lake of fire. So xxi 8. The passage in xx was 
 written first. 
 
 (5) 
 
 ii 17 a white stone, and upon the stone a new 
 name written, which no man knoweth but he that 
 receiveth it. 
 
 Compare Zech iii 9 Behold the stone that I have 
 laid before Joshua : upon one stone seven eyes : 
 behold I will engrave the graving thereof. . . . 
 
 Compare Ap xix 12 he hath a name written 
 which no man knoweth but he himself. 
 
 Here the comparison of 'himself xix 12 and 'he 
 that receiveth it' ii 17 is very suggestive of xix 12 
 
 s. AP. 13
 
 194 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 being the original, and ii 17 derived from it. The 
 ' new name' is from Is Ixii 2, Heb, and Is Ixv 15, LXX. 
 
 (6) 
 
 ii 26, 27 He that overcometh, and he that keepeth 
 my works unto the end, to him will I give authority 
 over the nations (heathen) ; and he shall shepherd 
 them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter 
 are broken to shivers. 
 
 Compare xii 5 And she was delivered of a son, a 
 man child, who is to shepherd all the nations with a 
 rod of iron. 
 
 Compare xix 15 quoted above, p. 191. 
 
 Compare Ps ii 8, 9. 
 
 Here ii 26 is the fuller quotation, including 
 Ps ii 8 b, while xii 5 and xix 15 give only Ps ii 9. In 
 xix 1 5 ' strike ' is an imperfect translation by John of 
 the Heb V53- In xii 5 and xix 15 the Ps ii is most 
 appropriate. But how does it harmonise with the 
 ideas of ii 26 ? It is there unnecessary, and indeed 
 out of place. If we omit all the words after 
 ' heathen,' we obtain good sense undisturbed ; for the 
 following words 'as I... morning star' bear direct 
 relation to the heading of the letter ' He that hath his 
 eyes as a flame of fire.' 'Star' is from Daniel xii 3. It 
 seems that the idea is that of Daniel xii 3, and may be 
 expressed thus : He that overcometh and keepeth my 
 works shall be rewarded by shining as the brightness 
 of the firmament, and shall turn many (heathen) to
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 195 
 
 the righteousness of GOD'S own people, as many and 
 as bright as the stars, over whom he shall be a 
 shepherd, wielding the authority given me by my 
 Father when he said to me, Thou art my Son, &c. Ps ii 7, 8 
 But the verse following completely upsets the con- p s ii 9 
 text. The converted heathen are not to be ' shattered 
 in pieces,' but to be tended as lambs and tender sheep 
 of the flock. No wonder we have a deliberate correc- 
 tion of this terrible sentence offered us in John xxi 
 15 I/! It was needed. But how did the terrible 
 sentence come into the passage at all ? The writer 
 (or I would fain think the early copyist) was so 
 familiarised with the quotation in its true Messianic 
 sense in xii and xix that he allowed it to follow in 
 ii 26 also, at the cost of interrupting the context and 
 destroying the sense. 
 
 Did John the Seer Jiold the Baptism of John ? 
 
 There is a passage in the history of the Acts to 
 which I will now refer as possibly connected with the 
 labours of John the Elder in Ephesus during the years 
 preceding 68 A.D. The inference from it is somewhat 
 conjectural, and if it does not commend itself to the 
 reader, it will at any rate not militate strongly against 
 the theory here maintained that the Elder wrote the 
 Apocalypse. In Acts xix I 7 we have an account 
 of some Christian disciples whom Apollos found at 
 Ephesus. They had like Apollos himself who had the Acts xviii 
 
 t% r 
 
 prophetic gift and had perhaps belonged to their body ' 
 
 132
 
 I9 6 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 received John's Baptism without ever having heard 
 that there was a Holy Spirit. The question arises 
 how this form of baptism had made its way to Asia 
 Minor. It is quite likely that it was brought by John 
 the Elder. That he preached and practised Baptism 
 of Repentance is plain from his frequent insistence on 
 Repentance ii 5, 21, iii 3, 19. The white garments of 
 iii 1 8 seem to be closely connected with 19: while the 
 eye-salve is probably something more material than a 
 mere reference to Ps xix 9 would imply. It was the 
 outward use of the sacred oil, or chrism, which 
 Tertullian tells us distinctly was used in his time 
 immediately after baptism. He says: 'After stepping 
 out of the laver we are anointed duly (perungimur) 
 with the blessed unction according to the ancient 
 discipline, by which they were wont to be anointed to 
 the priesthood by oil from the horn 1 .' If Tertullian 
 speaks of the ancient discipline, of which he was 
 always so conservative, in prophecy as in other 
 matters, what reason is there to doubt that I Jn ii 20 
 refers to the same outward practice? Bp Westcott 
 says, " There is not any evidence to shew that ' the 
 chrism ' was used at confirmation in the first age." 
 And perhaps he would not accept Ap iii 18 as a 
 reference to it, but I venture to think that it is such, 
 plainly enough. The observation however that should 
 also be made is this : Ap does not notice the inner 
 meaning of the ceremony so fully as I Jn ii, which 
 
 1 De J3aft. 7, quoted by Westcott on i Jn ii 20-
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 197 
 
 indeed was written in order to correct the inadequacy 
 of Ap iii 1 8. The whole verse is about baptism ; the 
 ' gold ' is there put for what is better than gold the 
 fear of the Lord or faith, the garments and chrism are J ob xxviii 
 properties of the baptised. There is no reason to i Pet i 7 
 suppose that John's baptism was administered only 
 once in a life-time ; it was probably as frequent as 
 repentance 1 . On the other hand Ap xvi 15 is a 
 passage which does not refer to baptism, but to the 
 duties of priests to watch their own cleanliness and 
 neatness of apparel. It was a deadly offence not to 
 have their apparel complete and clean-. 
 
 The Holy Spirit in Apocalypse. 
 
 There are many other references in Ap to repent- 
 ance, but it will be urged that it is inconceivable that 
 the author should not have insisted on the teaching of 
 ' the Holy Ghost ' to his disciples. It is however not 
 quite inconceivable. He himself believed in the 
 plurality of spirits who were holy. It is a fact that 
 
 1 This I think is made certain by the plural (' baptisms,' not 
 'washings') used in Heb vi 2, and the conviction grows upon one that 
 the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews is Apollos himself, whose 
 Alexandrine touch is visible on every page, and whose preparatory 
 equipment in prophetic knowledge is frequently apparent, together with 
 a standpoint which is no longer merely prophetical. The transition 
 from the frequent baptisms under John's Baptism to Christian Baptism 
 is the only way to explain Heb vi i 8. Cf. x 22. 
 
 2 Sanhedrin 83, i.
 
 IpS SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 ' the Holy Spirit ' is never mentioned as such in Ap. 
 On the contrary in i 4 where John prays grace and 
 mercy from GOD and from Jesus Christ he mentions 
 in the second place ' the seven spirits that are before 
 his throne.' So iii i, iv 5, v 6 ; and in xxii 6 GOD is 
 'the GOD of the spirits of the Prophets.' So xxii 17. 
 Consequently we are quite entitled to infer that when 
 he says ' Hear what the spirit saith unto the churches' 
 he means the spirit in himself (as i 10, iv 2, xiv 13, 
 xvii 3, xix 10, xxi 10) as Prophet, one of the spirits of 
 xxii 6. We have no right to print this word with S 
 in one place in Ap more than in another, nor may we 
 prejudge the question by importing the belief of a 
 later time. It is likely that the Elder had not, when 
 he wrote, passed into a clear idea of the unity of the 
 Spirit, and that he regarded its plural manifestations 
 as signs of its nature, ignoring it as a Person. We 
 ourselves usually fail to realise the effect of the neuter 
 term irvev^a upon the mind, as compared with that of 
 the masculine term Spiritus, which has impressed our 
 Western Christianity. Lastly, these Ephesian men, 
 who numbered about twelve, had been instructed in 
 Prophecy, for as soon as St Paul laid his hands upon 
 them, they were speaking with tongues and pro- 
 phesying. The Elder's influence was not lost.
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 199 
 
 The Elder's references to tJie Apostles. 
 
 Perhaps it should here be observed, as it has been 
 by many writers, that the author of Ap never calls 
 himself an Apostle, and speaks of the Apostles in 
 such an objective way that one can hardly think that 
 he belongs to the Twelve. ' Upon the twelve founda- 
 tions were the names of the twelve apostles of the 
 Lamb.' ' Rejoice over her, O heaven, and the Saints Ap xxi 14 
 and the Apostles and the Prophets.' Of these two xviii 20, 
 passages the former at least must be a stumbling- 
 block to any who hold that the writer was an Apostle, 
 one of the Twelve. It is vain to appeal to such a 
 passage as Eph ii 20 as a parallel. There the idea is 
 that of the foundation laid by the Apostolic body as 
 charged collectively with the great historical work. 
 Here it is that of individual names being posted and 
 honoured with eternal distinction. As to the second 
 passage, it appears that the writer distinguished the 
 Apostles from the Prophets, with precedence for the 
 former ; while we may suppose that he mentions the 
 Saints first as the multitude of believers who are 
 guided by the two orders which he mentions next. It 
 would seem that ' the Saints and the Apostles and the 
 Elders,' and Elder is Prophet (see p. 175), would 
 have expressed the entire Church of those days (see 
 p. 178), and conveyed exactly the same meaning as the 
 text. But had the date been 98, would it have been 
 possible to omit the Bishops ? We have therefore to
 
 200 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 choose between a self-conscious author recording his 
 own name on the foundations of the New Jerusalem 
 if he were the Apostle, and one who honours the 
 Apostles as a higher order than his own if he is the 
 Elder. In the latter case we can understand his 
 address in 2 Jn I and 3 Jn I as the Elder. In the 
 former case we cannot. 
 
 The omission of Dan from the Twelve Tribes. 
 
 Any attentive reader of Ap vii must have been 
 struck by the fact that the tribes of Israel are given 
 there as 12, but the number is attained by the omis- 
 sion of Dan, and the substitution of Manasseh for him. 
 There can be no right for Manasseh to come in by 
 himself as well as under Joseph. Simcox says, after 
 referring to several wholly unsatisfactory explanations: 
 'Probably there is a reason, but we had better confess 
 that we do not know it.' But those who are not 
 content to sit down with folded hands in front of a 
 difficulty will examine the Jewish ideas which have 
 gathered round the Holy Scripture of the O.T. and 
 which represent in many cases much older thoughts 
 than the date of their committal to writing. Now 
 Rabba, born in 250 A.D. at Hini, near Pumbaditha in 
 Babylonia, began the collection of Palestinian Haga- 
 doth on Genesis, which has come down to us under 
 the name of Bereshith Kabbah 1 . It tells us of Dan : 
 
 1 B. R. on Gen xlix 16; Schottgen, Hor. Heb. p. 98.
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 2OI 
 
 ' This is Messiah who is to judge, like GOD Holy and 
 Blessed, who is One. Dan shall judge his people, as 
 one of the tribes of Israel. For just as GOD judges 
 without hearing and without seeing, so does Messiah, 
 as is proved by Is xi 3.' Let us now look at the 
 Targum (i.e. interpretation) of Onkelos, who used to 
 be called a proselyte from heathenism, and a disciple 
 of Gamaliel, and was a well-qualified Hebrew and 
 Chaldee scholar, and reputed a correct theologian of 
 the age of John the Elder. He says on Gen xlix 16 
 ' From the house of Dan will be chosen and will arise 
 a man in whose days his people shall be delivered, 
 and in whose years the tribes of Israel have rest 
 together. A chosen man will arise from the house of 
 Dan, the terror of whom shall fall upon the peoples.' 
 The terms ' chosen/ ' delivered,' ' rest,' are sufficiently 
 Messianic for any understanding. But it does not say 
 that Dan is the Messiah, and its origin is not Palestine 
 but Babylonia. Then we turn to the Targum of 
 Palestine, commonly entitled the Targum of Jonathan 
 ben Uzziel, on Genesis. He was reputed a disciple of 
 Hillel the Elder, who died A.D. 8, and if so he was 
 somewhat earlier than John the Elder. This Targum 
 says on Gen xlix 16 of Dan : ' He will be the deliverer 
 who is to arise, strong will he be and elevated above 
 all kingdoms.... Our father Jakob said, My soul hath 
 not waited for the redemption of Gideon son of Joash 
 which is for an hour, nor for the redemption of Shim- 
 shon (Samson) which is a creature redemption, but
 
 202 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 for the Redemption which Thou hast said in Thy 
 Word shall come for Thy people the sons of Israel, 
 for this Thy Redemption my soul hath waited' (see 
 Gen. xlix 18). There is some confusion between the 
 Targum of Jerusalem and that of Jonathan, but it is 
 very remarkable that the Palestinian idea that Dan 
 was to be Messiah is older than John, and shews the 
 divergence from the Babylonian line of interpretation, 
 that he should produce Him from his tribe. The 
 traditional view 1 was that the Targums of Onkelos 
 and Jonathan were written about A.D. 50, but this 
 view is now given up 2 . It appears to be possible that 
 John the Elder had heard or seen the Targum ; and 
 
 1 See Schiirer i i, p. 156 E. T. 
 
 2 Zunz changed his mind in 1832 about the date of the Onkelos and 
 Jonathan Targums, and is followed by Schiller- Szinessy, whose articles 
 in the Encyclopedia Britannica on Targums, Talmud, Mis/inah, &c., 
 are of the first importance, and referred to by Dr Stanton, Jewish and 
 Christian Messiah. Dr Schiller-Szinessy says, 'The Targums have only 
 one thing in common, all of them rest on oral traditions, which are 
 hundreds of years older than the earliest form of the written Targums 
 now in our hands.' E. B. vol. xxiii p. 63. He suggests that ' Onkelos 
 is a deliberate perversion of Evangelus, a Greek proper name svhich 
 exactly translates the Babylonian-Jewish name Mebasser...It must be 
 remembered that Hillel and other great fountains of Palestinian learning 
 were of Babylonian origin... Several of the pieces formerly found in the 
 Jerusalem Targum (now in T. Yonathan) were in the 2nd and 3rd 
 centuries distinctly quoted with disapprobation.... The T. Yonaihan on 
 the Pentateuch is Palestinian, and was undertaken to combine the finest 
 parts of what early T. Onkelos and T. Yerushalmi contained ' (ib. p. 64). 
 Here then in the Targums are the words quoted above, which certainly 
 did not come into them from the Apocalypse, and probably embody 
 what was taught centuries before the Targums assumed their present 
 form.
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 203 
 
 to be certain that the identification of Dan with 
 Messiah had begun before he wrote. And this I have 
 no doubt is the reason why he has omitted Dan in his 
 list of the tribes. His proper place is after Naphtali, 
 and there is put Manasseh instead. Dan, the Judge 1 , 
 
 1 Since writing the above I have referred to the most interesting 
 and learned, though somewhat confusing, work of W. Bousset, Der 
 Antichrist, Gbttingen, 1895 (well translated by Mr A. H. Keane, 
 F.R.G.S., 1896) ; to which I thank my friend Dr M. R. James for 
 introducing me. Bousset however seems to start with Irenaeus and 
 Hippolytus, and I hold that these writers, followed by a crowd of later 
 ones, have only darkened counsel by absurd and d priori conclusions. 
 Hippolytus however does start with the dim idea that somehow Christ 
 was a lion (Keane p. 25), and proceeds, 'A lion is Antichrist' &c., the 
 process being sometimes reversed, and properties assumed from some 
 scriptural or other ground to be Antichrist's being attributed to Christ : 
 
 in other words they reason that if Christ be x, Antichrist is - . I do 
 
 not see why Bousset says 'The Lord gave a seal' &c. is inferred by 
 contrast from Antichrist. It is surely plainly given in Ap vii 3 &c. 
 But the fact of Antichrist being expected to be Dan (as also he was a 
 lamb), for which reason Dan comes in for severe treatment, is only 
 another proof to me that somehow Hippolytus had got the echo of the 
 idea that Christ was of Dan or was Dan himself. Between 70 and 220 
 much water had flowed under the prophetic bridge, and the ideas which 
 must in every age contribute to the conception or interpretation of 
 Antichrist were greatly altered. We cannot possibly hope to gain 
 accurate explanation of the Apostles' meaning from a study of the 
 Fathers of 170 onwards. Their intellectual light was dim at first, and 
 it became darker and darker. Bousset 's statement (p. 30 E. T.) that 
 'the eschatological revelations have been passed on, not in written records 
 but in oral tradition, as an esoteric doctrine handled with fear and trem- 
 bling,' is an assumption absolutely fatal to historical inquiry into the 
 original meaning of an early document. We might as well say that the 
 Vatican interpretation of the mistranslation ' unum ovile et unus pastor' 
 was justified as the original meaning of pla Trolfivi) efs iroipriv. Thus 
 when Bousset quotes Iren v 30 'And for this reason (because Antichrist
 
 204 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 is gone to judge his people; and instead of there 
 being 12,000 of his tribe sealed, it may be that we are 
 presented instead with ' the great multitude which no 
 Ap vii 9 man can number,' but of this last I do not feel so 
 sure. 
 
 The Lamb. 
 
 However there is now a still more interesting 
 enigma to solve, and we are already provided with 
 the solution in the above remarks on Dan. The 
 figure of the Lamb is naturally one of the most 
 mysterious and baffling features of the book. It 
 appeared to most readers of Vischer's theory that to 
 eliminate the Lamb from the Apocalypse, and to 
 assign to a Christian interpolator all the passages in 
 which the Lamb is mentioned, was a bold proceeding 
 in itself, indeed much worse than to leave the play 
 of Hamlet without the ghost. What weakened the 
 theory still more was that Vischer admitted he was 
 unable to suggest what had been there before the 
 supposed interpolation took its place. Nevertheless 
 Vischer came very near the mark when he suggested 
 that the passage in Ap v 4 6, as we read it, leads us 
 to expect that the Lion is about to open the Book. 
 Moreover he says, what is true, that a Lion might well 
 
 was expected to come of his tribe) Dan is not numbered in Ap among 
 the saved,' I think he is arguing just the wrong way. Irenjeus was 
 unaivare of the ideas of Ap and of the Jewish ideas of 100 years earlier 
 than his own time, and jumped at a conclusion. Bousset's Art. Apocalypse 
 in the Encyclopedia Biblica, ed. Cheyne and Black, should be read by 
 all who are interested in the subject.
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 205 
 
 have seven horns and seven eyes as a symbol of 
 exceeding strength in a strong animal 1 . And lastly he 
 suggests that the very singular word apviov for Lamb 
 may have some connection with the Hebrew for Lion, 
 *"!8 or n*"]K, and even be a sort of transliteration of it, 
 with of course a change of sense. I think if he had 
 seen the solution of the omission of Dan from the list 
 of tribes and the Messianic meaning of it, he would 
 have gone further and observed that in the song of 
 Moses Dan is distinctly called a lion's whelp. It 
 is impossible to doubt that here is the clue to the 
 puzzle. 
 
 Here again we come upon very remarkable traces 
 in Ap i and xix of the influence of the Targums. 
 The Targum of Onkelos on Gen xlix Judah says: 'Of Deutxxxiii 
 goodly purple will be his (Messiah's) raiment, and his 2 ' 
 vesture of wool dyed bright with colours': cf. Ap xix 
 14, also i 14, though the latter may be quite accounted 
 for by Daniel vii. The Palestine Targum is as before 
 much nearer : ' How beauteous is the King Messiah ! 
 Binding his loins and going forth to war against them 
 that hate him, he will slay kings with princes, and 
 make the rivers red with the blood of their slain, and 
 his hills white with the fat of their mighty ones' 
 
 1 Bousset, E. T. p. 108, observes that even in the late Jewish 
 tradition represented by the Book of Zorobabel and the Mysteries of 
 Simon (? 1050 A.D.) 'there is much more in common with Ap than is 
 found in the Christian tradition.' The Christian fathers took lines of 
 their own. Thus Hippolytus: Dan is a serpent. But the serpent 
 beguiled Eve. Therefore &c., Bousset, p. 140.
 
 206 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 (instead of which the peaceable and literal Targum of 
 Onkelos interprets the red as of vineyards, and the 
 valleys as white with corn and sheep), ' his garments 
 will be dipped in blood, and he himself like the juice 
 of the winepress.' Afterwards it draws a picture of 
 peace like the other, but it is warlike first. Now this 
 is obviously the original of Ap xix 13 'his garment 
 dipped in blood.' 
 
 So far from there being in vii 6 a trace of a purely 
 Jewish Apocalypse altered and translated and inter- 
 polated by a Christian, the view that commends itself 
 to me is rather this. John the Elder knew, when he 
 wrote the Apocalypse, that Dan and also Judah were 
 Messianic figures: out of Judah the lion Shiloh should 
 come at last: he therefore identified Dan as the lion's 
 whelp of Deuteronomy with Shiloh of Gen xlix 10, 
 where LXX has rd diroKeipeva avrq). He also knew 
 that nns, lion, in sound resembled the Latin aries, 
 ram, and he deliberately put the strange Greek word 
 apviov for it : and the apviov, which has hitherto been 
 diroicLfAi>oi>, 'stored away,' as we are to suppose, he 
 places now ev /xecrw, produced in the midst 1 for all to 
 see. But where did he obtain the word dpviov? 
 There is only one possible source, Jer xi 19 LXX 
 eya> 8e o>? apviov a/ca/cov d<y6/j,evov rov OvecrQai OVK 
 <yvci)v, 'but I was like an innocent lamb brought to be 
 slaughtered and I knew it not.' The context in LXX 
 
 1 Zahn says 'half way up the throne,' but I think the true explana- 
 tion is given above.
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 207 
 
 continues in a purport most remarkably and quaintly 
 apposite to the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus: ' They 
 devised against me a wicked device, saying, Come and cf. Lkxxiii 
 let us cast a tree ('cross' Acts v 30, x 39, xiii 29, Gal 
 iii 13) upon his bread, and let us bruise him from the cf. Lk xiv 
 land of the living, and his name shall be no more ^ Is ^ 
 remembered. O Lord who judgest righteously, who cf. Is liii 8 
 triest reins and hearts, let me see thy vengeance 
 upon them, for unto thee I reveal my righteous cause.' 
 The Lamb is to him, as to us, the symbol of inno- 
 cence, obedience and sacrifice for the sins of the whole 
 world, while it corresponds to and fulfils the Messianic 
 predictions of the time. The very juxtaposition of 
 the Lion 1 and the Lamb was in accordance with 
 Messianic Prophecy. Finally we observe that the Is xi 6 
 idea of a ram, which might have been suggested as a 
 type of strength, and which was suggested by Daniel 
 viii 2 ff LXX icpibv eva peyav earwra cnrivavrt, rf)<? 
 TTvX-rj^, standing before the gate, with which Heb xiii 
 12 presents a remarkably attractive parallel, is entirely 
 left on one side by John the Elder. It is however a 
 question whether the idea of 'standing' Ap v 6 is not 
 derived at the same time from this very passage Daniel 
 viii 2. The perfect participle e<rrco? appears hardly 
 anywhere in the LXX, and there is no other imaginable 
 
 1 Vischer aptly compares Testamentum Josephi 19 'And he saw that 
 out of Judah was born a virgin, having a linen robe ; and from her 
 came forth a lamb without blemish, and from his left side as it were a 
 lion.' But the amount of Christian interpolation in this work is so 
 doubtful that we cannot base any inference on it at present.
 
 208 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 origin for it. The words ' as having been slain ' are 
 suggested of course by Jer xi 19. The Lamb is 
 also 'standing' in Ap xiv I. 
 
 The Angel or Messenger of the Church. 
 
 The explanation of the Angel of the Church in 
 Ephesus &c. is simple enough and in accordance with 
 the Jewish associations of the Author, though it 
 throws no further light upon his special position as an 
 ex-member of the Sanhedrim. Zahn has drawn 
 attention to the treasure of Talmudic knowledge in 
 Schottgen's Horae Hebraicae*, which (p. 1089) con- 
 tains an account of the Messenger or Legate of the 
 Church (IITV rvbE>). His function was to be what 
 i Pet v 2 calls ' an ensample of the flock.' ' The 
 messenger of the Church induces on all the rest the 
 obligation of doing the same 2 .' 'On the new year and 
 the day of Atonement the Angel of the Church begins 
 the prayers in order to lead the rest to a like obliga- 
 tion 3 .' An instance is found in Ex xxxiv 6 ' The 
 Lord, the Lord GOD...' to shew that GOD appeared 
 like an Angel of the Church to shew Moses how to 
 lead the prayers, which the congregation were to 
 repeat in silence after him 4 . To do this, he stood 
 before the Ark containing the Law. ' How long are 
 prayers for rain to be continued ? Until the Angel of 
 
 1 Alas there is no Lightfoot Hor. Heb. on Ap ! 
 
 2 R. Gamliel. 3 Gemara 34, i. 
 4 Rosh hashana 17, 2.
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 209 
 
 the Church has passed the first time (in front of the 
 ark) ; this he does on the first day of the Passover 1 .' 
 After prayers came the lesson, which he read with a 
 clear, strong voice. He also gives rubrical directions ; 
 e.g. ' Let the people give thanks.' They respond, ' We 
 give thanks to thee, O Lord our GOD, that we are 
 able to give thee thanks.' He is not to call the priest cf - J C 
 
 xiv 16 
 
 to give the blessing till the whole Church has said 
 Amen after the prayers. In the priest's absence he 
 gave the blessing himself, turning first to the centre 
 ' The Lord bless thee,' then to the right ' and keep 
 thee,' to draw the thread of grace over the whole 
 people, then to the left 'The Lord make His face &c. 2 ' 
 His qualifications are, according to R. Jehuda 3 , 'To 
 have many children and no money: to work hard 
 on the soil, yet have his house empty (this is said by 
 Raf to mean 'empty of sins'): to be of sound age, 
 and humble, popular, well-mannered : to have a good 
 voice : to be practised in the study of the law, the 
 prophets, and the psalms : able to expound the 
 allegoric meaning, traditions and histories : exercised 
 in all kinds of prayers, in short a man on whom the 
 Rabbis cast their eyes.' The name is no doubt 
 based on Mai iii I chiefly, because the chief function 
 of the Angel was to ' prepare the hearts ' of the 
 congregation. We may compare I Tim iii I 13. 
 
 1 Taanith 4, i. - Sohar chadasch 40, 3. 
 
 3 Gemara 16. 
 
 S. AP. 14
 
 210 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 The clue to the date of composition. 
 
 We have already seen that it was usual in Apoca- 
 lypses to give some clue to the date of composition 
 by a more or less enigmatic symbol in some part of 
 the vision. Thus Daniel ix 24 ff following and ex- 
 plaining Jer xxv n, Enoch xc &c., Assumption of 
 Moses vi, Ap of Baruch xxviii, xxxii, Fourth Esdras 
 xi, xii, Ep of Barnabas 4, and other similar works of 
 antiquity, not to mention the innumerable Christian 
 writings which followed 1 after 200 A.D., if carefully 
 compared together in respect of their enigmatic 
 chronology, would yield interesting results for the 
 learned. The corresponding date-clue offered in Ap 
 can alone occupy any space in the present discussion, 
 and it is meant to be within the comprehension of all 
 
 Ap xvii understanding readers. ' Here is the mind that hath 
 wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, where 
 the woman sitteth upon them. And there are seven 
 kings ; five of them are fallen, one of them is, the 
 remaining one is not yet come, and when he comes he 
 must remain a short time, and the Beast which was 
 and is not. And he is an eighth, and is one of the 
 seven, and goeth into destruction.' There is not the 
 smallest doubt that these kings are Roman emperors. 
 Nor can it be doubted, I think, that the number of 
 
 xiii 18 the Beast is Nero Caesar. In spite of the fun that is 
 made of this and other solutions by Dr Salmon 2 , and 
 
 1 See Bousset, Antichrist Legend. 
 - Intr. to N. T. pp. 224 ff 205.
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 211 
 
 in spite of the objection brought by Zahn and others 
 that we have no right to suppose that the number is 
 based on Hebrew letters instead of Greek (see p. 169), 
 it seems to me conclusive that the very early various 
 reading 616 is accounted for so remarkably simply 
 upon that hypothesis. 3 = 50, i = 200, 1=6, 3 = 50, 
 p=ioo, = 60, 1 = 200, total 666: but deducting 
 the final and unnecessary 3 of Neron we have 
 666 50 = 616. The 616 reading is commented on 
 by Irenaeus, who gives however some Greek solutions 
 which will not commend themselves to anyone, and 
 did not even to himself; for though John said, ' Here 
 is the wisdom,' Irenaeus says, ' Had it been necessary 
 to proclaim the name at the present time it would 
 have been uttered by the lips of the Seer of the 
 Apocalypse.' I do not think it is a valid objection 
 that we should require Caesar to be written with * as 
 -iD'p, making 676, for (i) doubtless Caesar would some- 
 times be spelt Cesar ; and (2) the preference for a 
 symmetrical integer would turn the scale in favour of 
 666, which is next door to 777, which of course would 
 be very sacred ; and (3) the number 666 had already 
 an evil association with mammon in i Kings x 14. 
 We have then to consider the five Caesars as being 
 Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius, Claudius. We can- 
 not suppose that the first to bear the name of Caesar 
 would be omitted from the numeration, at any rate in 
 the mind of the author when he first wrote the pass- 
 age. But what was the passage in its original form ? 
 
 142
 
 212 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 If we pursue the theory given above, that Ap iv 
 xxii was written in 68 or 69 and caused the author's 
 banishment in the early part of 70, we are of course 
 landed in the midst of a crisis of government in which 
 rulers passed quickly into and out of view. The dates 
 are: Nero killed (Qua/is artifex pereo /) June 9, 68: 
 Galba proclaimed Apr 3, 68 : Galba killed Jan 15, 69 : 
 Otho acclaimed the same day : Otho killed himself 
 Apr 17, 69: Vitellius acclaimed Apr 25, 69: Vitellius 
 killed Dec 21, 69 : Vespasian receives the oaths of the 
 legions at Alexandria July I, 69. It seems to follow 
 from these dates and the history which they sum- 
 marise that while Galba might appear to a resident 
 in Asia to rank among the Caesars, neither Otho nor 
 Vitellius would deserve the name. 
 
 Now I do not think it needs proving that Nero's 
 cruelty and profligacy had prompted the writing of the 
 Apocalypse containing as it does the attack upon 
 Rome, and the prophecy of its fall. But Tacitus shall 
 be cited, and though he writes in the days of Trajan 
 he was old enough to remember Nero's burning Rome. 
 ' In order, if possible, to remove the imputation Nero 
 determined to transfer the guilt to others. For this 
 purpose he punished, with exquisite torture, a race of 
 men detested for their evil practices, who were called 
 vulgarly Christians.... He found a set of profligate 
 and abandoned wretches, who were induced to confess 
 themselves guilty, and on the evidence of such men a 
 number of Christians were convicted, not indeed upon
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 213 
 
 clear evidence of their having set the city on fire, but 
 rather on account of their sullen hatred of the whole 
 human race. They were put to death with exquisite 
 cruelty, and to their sufferings Nero added mockery 
 and derision. Some were covered with the skins of 
 wild beasts, and kept to be devoured by dogs ; others 
 were nailed to the cross ; numbers were burnt alive ; 
 and many covered over with inflammable matter were 
 lighted up, when day declined, to serve as torches Ap xviii 8 
 during the night 1 . For the convenience of seeing 
 this tragic spectacle, the emperor lent his own gardens. 
 He added the sports of the circus, and assisted in 
 person, sometimes driving a car, and mixing with the xviii 13 
 rabble in his coachman's dress. At length the cruelty 
 of these proceedings filled every breast with compas- 
 sion. Humanity relented in favour of the Christians. 
 Their manners were, no doubt, of a pernicious tend- 
 ency, and their crimes called for the hand of justice : 
 but it was evident that they fell a sacrifice, not to the 
 public good, but to glut the rage and cruelty of one 
 man only.... Meanwhile to supply the unbounded pro- 
 digality of the prince, all Italy was ravaged.... In xviii 7, 9, 
 Greece and Asia rapacity was not content with seizing I2> I3 
 the votive offerings of the temples, but even the 
 statues of the gods were deemed lawful prey 2 .' 
 
 1 It is fair to conjecture that this punishment was devised for those 
 who professed to 'shine as lights in the world,' and there is a pointed 
 reference to it in 2 Pet i 19, \v~xy <$ lamp. 
 
 - Tac. Ann. xv 44, 45, Tr. Murphy.
 
 214 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 This was in 64, and far more monstrous crimes 
 were to mark the next four years of Nero's reign. If 
 no attack was directed after this against Jews or 
 Christians, it must not be supposed that they would 
 escape the violence of which Caesar had set the 
 example. The sufferings of either Jews or Christians 
 would inflame the indignation of John the Seer, for 
 he had strong sympathy with those who were Jews 
 Ap Hi 9 indeed. The ruin of Jewish trade is not forgotten by 
 xviii 17 ff. him in his Apocalyptic Elegy, and the voice of the 
 harp-players 1 is the first of those which shall be heard 
 ib. 22 no more at all in Rome 2 . We may conclude that 
 if the Apocalypse was written under the bitter ani- 
 mosity provoked in a Jewish-Christian breast by 
 Nero, the provocation was enough not only to justify 
 the writing, but to make it probable that it would pass 
 the Roman censorship at Ephesus, where a strong 
 section would be found among the heathen which 
 detested Nero. They would hate him among other 
 things for his destruction of Bareas Soranus, late pro- 
 consul of Asia, who had there been eminent for his 
 justice, integrity and enterprise. Nero procured 'his 
 accusation for having opened the port of Ephesus, and 
 left unpunished the obstinate resistance of the people 
 
 1 Coins were stamped representing Nero as a harpist, also Suet. 
 Nero 25. Merivale, p. 353, says 'flute-player,' meaning 'lute-player.' 
 
 2 Those who seek in Domitian's lime for anything approaching the 
 severity of Nero's persecution of Jews or Christians will fail to find it. 
 Eus H E in 17 19. See Ramsay, The Church and the Roman 
 Empire, xi, xii.
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 21$ 
 
 of Pergamos, who had refused to allow the infamous 
 freedman Acratus, Nero's spy, to carry off the statues 
 and pictures that adorned their city 1 .' 
 
 This was in 66. At the end of that year Nero 
 went to Greece and might have crossed to Asia at 
 any time during 67. His sole object was plunder, and 
 ' every day proscriptions and confiscations revealed 
 the prince's necessities. If these for a moment slack- 
 ened for want of victims, his hands were laid on the 
 monuments of art, on every object on which money 
 could be raised throughout the devoted land 2 .' But he 
 visited neither Athens, nor Sparta, nor Ephesus. The 
 hours he could spare from plunder he spent in win- 
 ning the contests at the four centres of games, which 
 altered their usual dates to celebrate his visit He 
 ordered a Roman consular to proclaim as herald : 
 'Nero the Emperor is victor, and he crowns the people 
 of Rome, and the world which is his own 3 .' The year 
 67 would therefore not be exactly the year for the 
 Elder to publish his Apocalypse at Ephesus. But 
 the end of Nero was not far off, and in 68 or early 69 
 the imminent peril would be over. Still even then 
 the anti-Neronic feeling at Ephesus alone saved John 
 from forfeiting his head for treason against Rome. 
 I conclude the reign of Galba is the time when 
 Apocalypse was published, and Galba the Caesar of 
 
 1 Tac. Ann. xvi 23. 
 
 2 Merivale, Romans under the Empire, vi p. 349. 
 
 3 Ib. 342. Dio Cass. Ixiii 14.
 
 2l6 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 Ap xvii 4 Ap xvii 10, 'the one is.' Galba was 72 when he 
 assumed the purple, and considering the turbulence of 
 the times, it is not going too far to suppose that when 
 Apocalypse first appeared his successor was men- 
 
 xvii io tioned in it as 'the remaining one is not yet come.' 
 
 I am disposed to think that possibly we may go 
 a step further and say that the following words, 
 ' and when he has come he must remain a short time,' 
 were also original, because the end of the world was 
 shortly expected ; but I should be willing to admit 
 that this might be one of the touches which the Elder 
 added to the Apocalypse in Patmos. It must be re- 
 membered that at the beginning of 68 the empire 
 was anybody's, and nobody's for long. C. Julius 
 Vindex, prefect of Farther Gaul, was in revolt. Vir- 
 ginius Rufus, commanding in Lower Germany, was 
 offered the empire three times. Claudius Macer was 
 proclaimed by his soldiers in Africa, Fonteius Capito 
 in Lower Germany. None of these assumed the 
 purple. Galba had governed for several years in 
 Hither Spain. He at once adopted Piso Licinianus 
 as his successor and son, and this may be the explana- 
 tion of the original meaning of 'the last who has not 
 yet come.' Otho was in command of Lusitania. 
 Licinius Mucianus was proconsul of Syria. Under 
 him Vespasian held Egypt, the granary of Rome. 
 Galba sent Vitellius to succeed Fonteius on the Rhine. 
 T. Vinius was a consul, and Cornelius Laco head of 
 
 xvii 12 the Praetorian guard. The 'ten horns, ten kings, who
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 2i; 
 
 do not yet receive a kingdom, but are receiving 
 authority as kings for one hour along with the Beast,' 
 are not very far to seek, if they are perhaps not ex- 
 actly the ten mentioned. 
 
 But ' the Beast which was and is not : and he is 
 an eighth and is one of the seven, and goeth into 
 perdition ' is undoubtedly Nero. I do not see any 
 doubt about this conclusion. Nor do I see any ques- 
 tion that the words were in the first draft of the 
 Apocalypse in 68 or early 69. The idea that Nero, 
 the last of the Julian Caesars, was not dead, but 
 spirited away by the Muses or Apollo, and would 
 return at length to Rome, originated at once upon his 
 death. In spite of a thrill of popular joy at that event, 
 ' hands were not wanting,' Suetonius 1 is careful to tell 
 us, 'to adorn his grave for a long time with spring 
 and summer flowers ; and to bring forth his robed 
 statues on the rostra, or else his edicts, as if he were Ap xiii 3, 
 alive and certain to return soon to discomfit his 3 
 enemies at home. Moreover Vologesus, the Parthian 
 king, in sending envoys to the senate to renew his 
 alliance with Rome, particularly begged that honour 
 should be done to Nero's memory. Finally when 
 20 years later a pseudo-Nero arose, of doubtful 
 origin I was then a youth his name was so favour- 
 ably received by the Parthians, that he was greatly 
 assisted and his surrender was hard to obtain.' After 
 this clear and independent statement of the Roman 
 
 1 Nero, 57.
 
 2lS SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 biographer I am afraid I must confess myself quite 
 unmoved by the statements of Mommsen 1 , Harnack 2 , 
 Zahn 3 , and others who insist on the Domitianic date. 
 Space forbids me to enter into the tangle of interpre- 
 tations. The true explanation I hold to be simple 
 enough. Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, and Domi- 
 tian do not enter into it at all, but Galba does. 
 
 As to what later interpretations began almost at 
 once, owing to Galba's speedy death, to be read into 
 the passage, that is another story. We can easily 
 obtain a small or a large number of heads from the 
 Caesars. Thus: without Nero the Julians are either 
 5 or 4 according as we count Julius among them or 
 not : Nero may be counted or not : then comes 
 Galba with or without Otho and Vitellius : then 
 comes Vespasian with or without his two sons. Add 
 5 or 4, to i or o, to I or 3, to I or 3, and how many 
 or few do we obtain ? Any total from 6 to 12. Light- 
 foot considers, for instance, that in the Epistle to 
 Barnabas the three kings in one are the three 
 Flavians associated together in empire. And yet 
 I think that there is a right and a wrong way of 
 interpretation, and that Harnack has got hold of the 
 latter, because he has here pinned his faith to Irenaeus 
 whom he so entirely sets aside concerning Papias and 
 the Elders, and to the common understanding of ' the 
 reign of Domitian ' (see note, p. 121). 
 
 1 Provinces of Roman Empire, ii 197. 
 
 2 Chronologie, p. 245. 3 Einl. p. 619.
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 2ig 
 
 Harnack says, "The writer of xvii 10 wrote it under 
 Nero ; but what then shall we say of the next verse 
 1 1 ? The writer of 1 1 wanted to bring in another 
 Caesar without giving the lie to the traditional number 
 7. While then the total 7 had caused difficulties to 
 the writer of 9 and 10, because it was too great, it 
 troubled the writer of 1 1 because as a historical fact 
 it had been exceeded, and was now too small. He 
 must have his 8th Caesar, and has therefore with the 
 art of a Rabbi read it out of the 7 : the Beast is the 8th 
 Caesar. It follows with great probability that the 
 writer of 1 1 is not identical with the writer of 10, and 
 that he wrote under Domitian: so that Nero is the 5th, 
 Vespasian 6th, Titus 7th, and Domitian the 8th. This 
 seems to me a simple explanation. It is obvious that 
 an obscurity remains : but who can illustrate the 
 statement that 7 + i remains = 7 without leaving 
 behind a certain obscurity?" Who indeed? I should 
 be sorry to accuse the Seer of either such simplicity 
 or such ingenuity. I should have to use a harder 
 word. If the interpolator by Harnack's theory were 
 some unknown and unimportant copyist, the case 
 would not be so serious. But when we read some 
 400 pages further in Harnack's work 1 that the interpo- 
 lator is the Evangelist of the Fourth Gospel and is 
 John the Elder (but certainly not John the Apostle, 
 son of Zebedee, though somehow related to him histo- 
 rically), the imputation is very serious. It will take 
 
 1 Chronologic, p. 675 if.
 
 220 SOME LEADING IDEAS 
 
 much more to convince me that the Evangelist could 
 or would stoop to such a clumsy expedient as this 
 view implies, in order to pass off a Jewish Apocalypse 
 as a Christian work by his own hand. Harnack 
 builds upon the non-integrity of the Apocalypse and 
 the acceptance of Vischer's or some similar theory, 
 but neither of these foundations is secure. 
 
 Zahn by means of special pleading endeavours to 
 
 leave us in the uncertain condition as to the seven 
 
 heads, (i) He argues that if the Apocalypse regarded 
 
 Rome as the antichristian empire of the last time, it 
 
 Mt xxii 11 would depart from the line followed by Jesus, by Peter, 
 
 ^Pet 11 13 by p au j an j t h e ear jy Christian propJieteia sanctioned 
 
 Romxiiii, by Paul, and further Clement of Rome, Melito, and 
 
 Irenaeus. I reply that undoubtedly it does so depart. 
 
 This is its main feature, and I account for it by its 
 
 circumstances as given above in these pages. Another 
 
 writer before or after would adopt a different attitude 
 
 to the great Roman power, which after all in the 
 
 hands of good rulers was capable of justice. Zahn 
 
 admits that the Roman Empire was the sixth horn : 
 
 i Pet v 13 that Rome is Babylon : that Nero spilt the blood of 
 
 saints and apostles : that the seven hills are those of 
 
 Rome. He denies that a Roman Emperor in the near 
 
 future is Antichrist. But neither does the Apocalypse 
 
 call him by that name. 
 
 (2) He says that the Beast, which must be the 
 Roman monarchy, cannot be a future phenomenon, or 
 non-existent as Ap xvii 8 11 implies: for it never
 
 OF THE APOCALYPSE. 221 
 
 ceased to exist. I do not think we can hope that the 
 Prophet should distinguish so sharply between the 
 monarchy and the monarch : nor need we do so in the 
 varying scenes of Apocalypse. 
 
 (3) Zahn says that the slaying of a head is not the 
 slaying of the Beast. This is not worth arguing. He 
 was slain, but his wound was healed. There is no 
 explanation of these statements nearly so good as 
 that which rests on the legend of Nero redivivus. No 
 doubt the legend continued till the second century, 
 long after it ceased to be probable that Nero, born in 
 37, was still alive. But was it ever probable f Do 
 legends arise or die by probability ', by the higher reason? 
 This legend merged soon into folk-lore and the cycle 
 of Messianic ideas. No wonder a Christian Sibyllist 
 of 150 160 A.D. combined Ap xiii 3, 15, xvii 8, 11 
 with Jewish ideas and introduced greater confusion 
 into the Christian world. That is just what he would 
 do. Cest son metier. All we have to deal with in 68 
 is the ideas of 68 for determining the meaning of 
 words written in 68. 
 
 (4) Zahn urges that the ten crowned horns of 
 xiii i, xvii 3, 12 17, xii 3 forbid any preterist expla- 
 nation. I have referred to this on p. 216. They are 
 evidently the heads of the provinces of the empire, 
 related to it as the kingdoms of the Diadochi were 
 to that of Alexander, referred to in Daniel vii, viii.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 
 
 READERS of Bp Westcott's Commentary of St John 
 will remember how in the Introduction, p. Ixxxvi, he 
 lays down the axiomatic truth, that, of the two works 
 which he considers to be by the same author, the 
 Apocalypse is earlier than the Gospel of St John. 
 ' It is less developed both in thought and style. The 
 material imagery in which it is composed includes the 
 idea of progress in interpretation. The symbols are 
 living. On the other hand, to go back from the 
 teaching of the Gospel to that of the Apocalypse, to 
 clothe clear thought in figures, to reduce the full 
 expression of truth to its rudimentary beginnings, 
 seems to involve a moral miracle, which would intro- 
 duce confusion into life.' These words of a beloved 
 and revered teacher, at whose feet we of the present 
 generation have sat, and wish that we could sit again, 
 appear to me incontrovertible, nor could they be put 
 better. It may be a tenable theory that the Apoca-
 
 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 22$ 
 
 lypse was the early work of an author who went on 
 later to write the Gospel with the exception of two or 
 three passages, but it is impossible that the Gospel 
 could have been written by any human pen which 
 afterwards wrote the Apocalypse. It is therefore as- 
 tonishing that Zahn should now have proposed 85 A.D. 
 for the Gospel and 95 for the Apocalypse of St John. 
 Moral miracles we have often heard of, and sometimes 
 meet with : but ' a moral miracle, which introduces 
 confusion into life' is a thing unknown, and when 
 rested chiefly on a statement of Irenaeus, 100 years 
 after the events recorded, is also a poor thing. 
 
 The Apocalypse not by tJie Evangelist. 
 
 But great and deep as my regard for Bishop 
 Westcott and his teaching and writing is, I have in 
 these pages to differ from him and his point of view, 
 and I do so with less regret in following out a line 
 which he has deliberately reserved, namely, ' the dif- 
 ference of the Apocalypse and the Fourth Gospel on 
 special points of doctrine 1 .' At the same time I 
 would refer the reader to that masterly Introduction 
 for all that it contains. If I could be convinced that 
 the author of the Apocalypse was not a Prophet, was 
 not the Elder who wrote 2 and 3 John, was not an 
 ex-member of the Sanhedrim, was not the author of a 
 literary attack on Rome written with the bitterest 
 
 1 Intr. to Gospel of St John, Ixxxvii a.
 
 224 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 
 Jewish acrimony in 68 69, was a fairly young man 
 then, and possessed of more Greek scholarship than 
 he chose to exhibit ; if I could believe all this, I could 
 believe that nearly 30 years later the same man com- 
 posed the Fourth Gospel with some general reservations 
 in the circumstances described in the Muratorian 1 
 fragment. But as it is I must say that it needs ' a 
 moral miracle which introduces confusion into life ' to 
 suppose that John who wrote the Apocalypse in 68 
 wrote the Gospel in 98 or any other year. They are 
 two persons who wrote the two books, and only an 
 ancient error has caused us to suppose that they are 
 one. The writer of the Apocalypse cannot conceivably 
 have been so deeply impregnated with Judaism at the 
 age of 60 as a close examination of the book shews 
 him to have been, and then have changed his deep- 
 seated convictions, and at 90 have written a book 
 in which he speaks of ' the Jews ' as a people he had 
 nothing to do with ! A savage pro-Jew at 60, and 
 a stranger to his race at 90 ! A pro- Jew at 60 and 
 yet the Jews had crucified his Lord and bosom-friend 
 at 30 ! Impossible. If we imagine St John's feelings, 
 I mean the son of Zebedee's, at 68 A.D., can we 
 
 1 " The Fourth Gospel was (written by) John (ex discipulis), one of 
 the disciples. At the exhortations of his fellow-disciples and bishops 
 (John) said: 'Fast with me for three days from this time, and whatever 
 shall be revealed to each of us, let us relate it to one another.' On the 
 same night it was revealed to Andrew, one of the Apostles, that John 
 should relate all things in his own name, aided by the revision of all." 
 (Westcott, Canon, p. 212.) Lightfoot translates the concluding words, 
 'and that all should certify' (recognoscentibus). But see p. 241.
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 22$ 
 
 seriously think that he was burning to see the fall of 
 Rome in revenge for Rome's treatment of the Jewish 
 people ? ' St John knew in 68 (what he was going to 
 write in 98 or thereabouts) that the Chief Priests 
 themselves had said in 33, ' If we let him thus alone, 
 all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall 
 come and take away both our place and our nation.' Jn xi 4 8 
 Now by 68 multitudes had believed on Him. Caiaphas 
 indeed had prophesied. The Sanhedrim was still the 
 Sanhedrim, temporising with Rome, a prey to internal 
 dissensions. We should have to believe that in 68 
 St John himself would side with the chief priests 1 of 
 that day in bitterly deprecating what he knew was 
 the certain result of their predecessors' action, the just 
 reward of their iniquity, in sacrificing one innocent 
 Life to stave off the destruction of their people ; that 
 he would pronounce for those who would fain thwart 
 in 33 the unswerving law of the Providence of GOD, 
 by joining with their successors in 68, and pouring 
 out an unstinted vocabulary in exultation over the 
 fall of their sovereign Rome. We can imagine St 
 
 1 The Fourth Evangelist never mentions the Elders. The word 
 ' elders ' occurs once in Jn, but only in the later addition called the 
 Pericope vii 53 viii n, and there it only means 'seniors in age.' He 
 only uses the word <rvv5pi.oi> in xi 47 without the article, ' a meeting of 
 the Council. ' This abstinence from reference to the Elders as such is 
 an undoubted sign that he was unwilling, or his disciples were un- 
 willing, to wound the feelings of the Seer or his disciples by any hint 
 that the Seer had once, under the same title which he still bore, con- 
 sented however remotely, or ignorantly, or after the event, unto the 
 counsel and deed of those who destroyed Jesus. 
 
 S. AP. 15
 
 226 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 
 John in 98 writing his Gospel from the point of view 
 which Bishop Westcott describes : we can imagine 
 John the Elder writing in 68 the Apocalypse from 
 the point of view which I have tried to set forth. But 
 to combine the two ideas by identifying the authors is 
 a vain undertaking. A John at 60 is incapable of the 
 conversion which is possible to a Saul at 30 or 25. 
 It would be difficult to reconcile the writing of Jn xi 
 48 in 98 A.D. by the author of the Apocalypse 30 years 
 before with his own loyalty to his Master in 68 A.D. 
 and with his belief in the law of GOD. 
 
 The Apocalypse by the Elder. 
 
 But the case is quite the contrary if John the 
 Elder wrote the Apocalypse. He might conceivably 
 have belonged to the Sanhedrim in 33, but more 
 probably he belonged to it earlier or later. He was 
 then convinced through his own profound study of 
 prophecy or by other means that Jesus was the 
 Messiah. As Saul was in the employment of the 
 Sanhedrim when he was converted, so John was 
 actually a member of it, and after conversion could no 
 more be content to belong. Perhaps he knew Ananias 
 of Damascus, Saul, Barnabas, or other Prophets. He 
 migrated to Ephesus, where he taught still on his own 
 intensely conservative prophetic lines. To him the 
 'testimony of Jesus/ the testimony which Jesus, Him- 
 self a Prophet, bore, and which He still and all the 
 Ap i 18 more, as the Risen Christ, continued to bear, was the
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 22/ 
 
 ' very breath of Prophecy.' And so he persevered in 
 faith and patience, surviving perhaps to the year 98, 
 till he descended to his grave at Ephesus. 
 
 Zahn on the Date of Apocalypse. 
 
 The history of the Christian Church loses nothing 
 whatever by the transference of the authorship of the 
 Apocalypse to John the Elder. Where John the 
 Apostle was between 40 and 80 A.D. we do not know. 
 According to the identity theory he would be learning 
 Greek, which he wrote so imperfectly in Ap and so 
 adequately in Jn. But Zahn suggests that he was 
 not really a good Greek scholar when he wrote Jn : 
 he was prompted by those who were such. ' I hold 
 it,' says Zahn 1 , 'not impossible that he submitted his 
 other works ' (has he considered 2 and 3 Jn ?) 'to a 
 revision of style by friends who were better linguists, 
 which he omitted to do in the case of the Apocalypse.' 
 ' A prophetic writer holds a much less free attitude 
 towards his object than anyone else. He has, 
 especially if his Prophecy rests upon Visions which 
 he has experienced in the ecstatic state, received 
 everything, not merely the matter but the form. He 
 has only to convert what he has seen into words, and 
 will therefore be much less inclined than a narrator 
 and teacher of history to polish the form of his first 
 draft or allow it to be polished afterwards. The 
 original representation, sketched under the immediate 
 
 1 Einl. II, pp. 615, 617. 
 
 '52
 
 228 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 
 impression of the vision, is the best because it is the 
 truest. The more important the contents, the more 
 indifferent the form.' Is the Apocalypse then the 
 more important ? More important for whom ? Only 
 for bad grammarians ? only for the solecists of 
 Ephesus in 68 ? only for the faex Dianae ? not for the 
 Asiarch and the Proconsul? Was the Gospel, which 
 Zahn says appeared in 85, for the better educated, and 
 the Apocalypse in 95 for the less? Was the latter 
 more important for anyone in 95 than the Gospel 
 in 85 or later? Or is an Elder, like an Emperor, 
 et supra Grammaticam ? The more important the 
 contents, the more important the grammar, is the 
 common belief of men. Good grammar is always 
 worth something, because without it we cannot have 
 good sense. Zahn's Evangelist spoke ill grammar, 
 and when he came to see visions and hear the words 
 of heaven, they were given in the language he spoke. 
 That we can understand. ' With what measure ye 
 mete, it shall be measured to you again.' But was 
 there ever a theory which so dishonoured the Evange- 
 list? As a historian and teacher he was willing to 
 submit his writings to the file of correction : as a 
 Prophet he was unwilling ! There was a shade of 
 truth to be sacrificed in the corrected History : there 
 was none in the correction of the Prophecy ! At the 
 age of 80 he was amenable to correction, at the age of 
 90 he was not ! 1 doubt if Zahn's opinion will on this 
 point commend itself to many of his readers.
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 229 
 
 Irenceus on John tJie Disciple, and on Polycarp. 
 
 We note that the fragment on the Canon, so far as 
 it concerns St John, speaks unmistakeably of the 
 gathering of the disciples. Bp Westcott considers the 
 meeting to have taken place ' in Asia 1 .' And he says 
 it was ' probably of Ephesian elders 2 .' But I cannot 
 see any ground for choosing Ephesus or Asia except 
 the idea that St John was in Asia, which rests upon 
 the identity theory of the authors of Apocalypse and 
 John. Certainly it has been in my mind a fixed idea 
 that this meeting did take place in Asia; but the idea 
 can only rest upon Bp Westcott's and Bp Lightfoot's 
 statements 3 . A fresh examination of the authorities is 
 well worth making, especially as we are apt to take a 
 small piece of Irenaeus away from its context, and 
 this is never the safest way to proceed. I will now 
 take the authorities to which Lightfoot 4 has referred. 
 
 1 Introd. xxxvi. 2 Comm. onjn xxi 24 f. 
 
 3 e.g. Essays on Supernatural Religion, VII. The later school of 
 St John. 
 
 4 The text of this Chapter was written before I had seen Harnack's 
 Chronologic, pp. 651 680, which I refer to in the footnotes. I am 
 glad to find my conclusions very similar to his, though I differ entirely 
 from him as to the date of Ap. He says, p. 675, 'Not till the 3rd 
 century do we find the story of two Johns in Asia, and quite dimly 
 then apparently as the conciliation of two traditions. That the 
 Disciple- Apostle was converted into the Disciple-Elder will be assumed 
 by none ; only the converse assumption is tenable, if we are obliged to 
 decide. Therefore, unless there were two Johns, disciples of the Lord, 
 in Asia, who survived to 98 A.D. (Trajan), the Disciple-Elder alone was 
 there. 1 see no way of avoiding this conclusion.' Harnack still holds
 
 230 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 
 Iren ii 22, 5, ' How was the Lord teaching unless 
 He had reached the age of a Master ? For when He 
 came to be baptized He had not yet completed His 
 thirtieth year, but was beginning to be about 30 years 
 Lk ill 23 of age, and (according to these Gnostics) He preached 
 only one year 1 , reckoning from His baptism, suffering 
 before He completed His 3Oth year, being in fact still 
 a young man of by no means advanced age. Now 
 that the first stage of a young man's age is 30, and 
 that a young man is still so-called at 40, everyone 
 will admit ; but from 40 and 5O 2 a man begins to 
 decline towards old age, which our Lord possessed 
 while He still fulfilled the office of a teacher, even as 
 the gospel and all the elders, who had conferred in 
 Asia with John the disciple of the Lord, testify that 
 John had handed on this tradition. For he survived 
 among them until the times of Trajan. Some of them 
 moreover saw not only John, but other Apostles too 
 (sed et alios Apostolos), and heard the very same 
 
 ' the critical heresy that assigns the Gospel and Ap to the same author 
 upon the assumption that the Evangelist took an Apocalypse, indeed 
 several Jewish Apocalypses and interpolated them. ' He still agrees 
 mainly with Vischer in his demarcation of the Christian passages, but 
 he adds that these present no feature which points to a personal relation 
 of the author with Jesus Christ during His earthly life. I cannot accept 
 this view at all, and yet there are not many whose opinion on the 
 contents of these pages I should value more than Harnack's. 
 
 1 So says also Clement of Alexandria. 
 
 2 There is little doubt he said from 45, 'et quinto' should be read 
 for 'et quinquagesimo, 1 according to the well-known Roman rule of 
 age. See p. 164.
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 231 
 
 account from them, and testify about a statement of 
 this kind.' Now when we come to this positive state- 
 ment in Irenaeus as regards the age of Jesus, we do 
 not hesitate to set it aside. Bp Westcott indeed says 
 on Jn viii 57, 'This opinion (that Christ was about 50 
 years old at the Passion) was said to be derived from 
 Jn viii. However strange it may appear, some such a 
 view is not inconsistent with the only fixed historic 
 dates which we have with regard to the Lord's life, the 
 date of His birth, His baptism, and the banishment of 
 Pilate.' Nevertheless by common consent it is treated 
 with neglect. Yet what right have we to treat half of 
 Irenaeus's statement with neglect and insist on the 
 other half in which he gives his 'authorities'? If those 
 'authorities' are worth consideration, why have we not 
 long ago rewritten the chronology of the Saviour's 
 Life, on the Irenaean basis ? Meanwhile until that is 
 done, be it observed that Irenaeus says that this John 
 in Asia was the Disciple of the Lord ; he does not say 
 Apostle, nor can we be sure that his following remark, 
 ' sed et alios Apostolos,' is meant to imply that John 
 was an Apostle. It might only be for KOI aXXou? 
 aTToo-roXou?, meaning ' and others, Apostles.' 
 
 Iren iii 3, 4, ' But Polycarp too not only became a 
 disciple of Apostles, and conversed with many of those 
 who had seen the Christ, but also was constituted by 
 Apostles bishop in Asia, in the Church at Smyrna ; 
 whom I also have seen, in my first youth (rf) Trpdory 
 ia, in prima nostra aetate), for he survived a very
 
 232 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 
 long time and departed from life in very old age by a 
 glorious and most notable martyrdom, having ever 
 taught the things which he had learnt traditionally 
 from (Trapa not a?ro) the Apostles, which also the 
 Church hands down, which also alone are true. These 
 things are testified by all Churches in Asia, and those 
 who down to this day have succeeded Polycarp, who 
 was a much more trustworthy and safe witness of the 
 truth than Valentinus and Marcion, and all such 
 wrong-minded men. He also when on a visit to 
 Rome, in the days of Anicetus, converted many to the 
 Church of GOD from following the aforenamed 
 heretics, by preaching that he had received from the 
 Apostles this doctrine and this only, which was handed 
 down by the Church, as the truth. And there are 
 those who have heard him tell how John, the disciple 
 of the Lord, when he went to take a bath in Ephesus, 
 and saw Cerinthus within,' &c. We must infer from 
 this that Irenaeus had not himself had the story from 
 Polycarp's own lips, of Cerinthus and the bath. But 
 the whole gist of the passage is that apostolic tradition 
 was preserved by episcopal succession. ' Since it 
 would be very tedious in such a volume as this ' 
 (Iren.neus wrote no less than five long books amount- 
 ing to hundreds of pages) ' to reckon up the succes- 
 sions of all the Churches,' he contents himself with 
 giving the succession at Rome. ' Ad hanc enim 
 ecclesiam propter potentiorem principalitatem ne- 
 cesse est omnem convenire ecclesiam/ a somewhat
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 233 
 
 dangerous remark for all future time 1 , whatever its 
 meaning may be. The character of the whole state- 
 ment is vague to a degree. Polycarp is said to have 
 received traditions from the side of the Apostles, not 
 directly from them. Which Apostles ? There is a 
 world of difference between the traditional irapd and 
 the direct CLTTO when we come to hearsay. What 
 Apostles appointed Polycarp bishop in Asia ? Why 
 this general plural, if Irenaeus knew the names? And 
 here again he calls John, tlte disciple of tlie Lord, 
 which so far as the term goes would apply to John 
 the Elder as well as to the Evangelist. 
 
 Ireneeus on the tradition of John. 
 
 Nor does the substance of this tradition, in one of 
 the few cases where we can test its value, appear to 
 be worth very much as history. For instance let us 
 take a well-known passage 2 . Irenaeus v 33 3 says: "The 
 predicted blessing (of Isaac) therefore belongs un- 
 questionably to the times of the kingdom, when the 
 righteous shall bear rule, upon their rising from the 
 dead ; when also the creation, renovated and set free, 
 shall fructify with an abundance of all kinds of food, 
 from the dew of heaven and from the fertility of the 
 earth ; as the elders wJio saw John, the disciple of the 
 Lord, relate that they had heard from him ' (' ab eo 
 
 1 See Wordsworth, St Hippolytus and the Church of Rome, xii. 
 
 2 Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, 533.
 
 234 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 
 may be OTTO or Trapd; we should like to know which) 
 ' how the Lord used to teach in regard to those times, 
 and say : The days will come in which vines shall 
 grow, each having 10,000 branches, and on each branch 
 10,000 tendrils, and on each tendril 10,000 twigs, and 
 on each twig 10,000 clusters, and on every cluster 
 10,000 grapes, and every grape when pressed will yield 
 25 measures of wine. And when any one of the saints 
 shall lay hold of a cluster, another shall cry out: I am 
 a better cluster; take me ; bless the Lord through 
 me. In like manner the Lord declared that a grain of 
 wheat would produce 10,000 ears, and every ear have 
 10,000 grains, and every grain would yield 10 pounds 
 of clear, pure, fine flour ; and that all other fruit-bear- 
 ing trees, and seeds, and grass, would produce in like 
 proportions; and that all animals feeding on the pro- 
 duce of the earth should in those days become peace- 
 ful and harmonious among each other, and be in 
 perfect subjection to man.' And these things Papias 
 too, a hearer of John and a companion of Polycarp, an 
 old-fashioned 1 man (ap^alo? dvrfp), testifies in writing 
 in his fourth book, for there were five books compiled 
 by him. And he has added the remark: These things 
 are credible to those who believe. And when the 
 traitor Judas did not believe and asked : How then 
 will such productions be accomplished by the Lord? 
 
 1 We think of Mnason in Acts xxi 26 'an old-fashioned disciple.' 
 'Disciple' is especially Palestinian, as Harnack points out. Chron. 
 p. 660.
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 235 
 
 the Lord said: They who shall come to those times 
 shall see." Most of this extraordinary passage is in 
 the Apocalypse of Baruch, which was probably not 
 composed till after 70. Even if it were earlier, can 
 anyone suppose that it was ever uttered by our Lord? 
 Yet this is a sample of what 'Papias a hearer of John' 
 gives us in his 'Exposition of the oracles of the Lord' 
 as a saying of Jesus. This is what the Elders who saw 
 John the disciple of the Lord heard from John as a 
 saying of Jesus. 
 
 I r en ceu s mixed up the two Johns. 
 
 Now here the explanation is really simple enough. 
 Jesus did not say these things. John the Evangelist 
 did not say them. It is a pity that Lightfoot does 
 not stop to offer a remark ; but he says, ' I shall not 
 stop to enquire whether there is any foundation of 
 truth in this story, and if so, how far it has been 
 transmuted, as it passed through the hands of the 
 Elders and of Papias 1 .' It is always worth while to 
 do this when we are dealing with the scanty authorities 
 available for 75 150 A.D. Let us stop one moment 
 to ask if it is not possible that John the Elder, being 
 a Prophet, had in the natural order of events related 
 this as something revealed to him or to another ? jude 14 
 The Prophets dealt in myriads, and in myriads ofApvn, 
 myriads, and there is even a verse in the Apocalypse xiv 18 
 which is not unlike the notion in Papias, and which 
 
 1 Essays on Supernatural Religion, p. 159.
 
 236 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 
 duly receives its correction by the Evangelist in 
 Jn xv. The notion is, as Lightfoot observes, an 
 extension of Mt xix 29, Mk x 29 f, Lk xviii 30. 
 Irenaeus is perhaps as milliarian and millenarian as 
 Papias ; but he did not understand Papias's investi- 
 gations, which had for their object the oral traditions, 
 prophetical or others, current in his lifetime. In any 
 case the line of tradition of this ' hearer of John ' is 
 plainly that of John the Elder. 
 
 Irentzus to Florinns. 
 
 Undoubtedly Irenaeus believed that John had seen 
 the Lord, and that Polycarp had seen John. In his 
 Epistle to Florinus 1 he says he can describe the very 
 place in which the blessed Polycarp used to sit when 
 he discussed,... and how he would describe his inter- 
 course [with] John and with the rest who had seen 
 the Lord, and how he would relate their words. But 
 let us note what he says next : ' And whatsoever 
 things he had heard from (vrapa) them about the 
 Lord, and about His miracles, and about His teaching, 
 Polycarp, as having received them from (wapd) eye- 
 witnesses of the life of the Word, would relate 
 altogether in accordance (Trdvra av^wva} with the 
 Scriptures. To these (discourses) I used to listen... 
 noting them down (i>Trofj,vr)fj,aTi,6[j,evo$), not on paper, 
 but in my heart ; and by the grace of GOD, I con- 
 stantly ruminate upon them faithfully.' Unfortunately 
 1 Lightfoot, Essays on S. Jt. p. 96.
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 237 
 
 here is a difficulty about the reading 1 . And as in the 
 former extracts, the use of irapd will not count as if it 
 had been airo ; the traditions are indirect, and are of 
 less value accordingly. 
 
 Was Papias a hearer of John the Apostle? 
 
 When we turn to Papias, the companion of Poly- 
 carp, we find that Papias's own preface to his work 
 ' lends no support to the belief that he, Papias, was a 
 personal disciple of John the son of Zebedee 2 .' And 
 ' the possibility remains that Irenaeus was guilty of 
 the confusion that Eusebius lays to his charge ' when 
 he says that Irenaeus has no ground for his assertion 3 . 
 
 1 It concerns the reading of perhaps the most important word 
 [with]. Stieren reads fj.erd, which is not a very usual word, ' his inter- 
 course in conjunction with John': it should be <nV: for /uerd is only of 
 separable conjunction, and crtiv is already in the substantive ffvvava- 
 ffTpo<prjv. But the Oxford text of Dr Bright reads /card 'ludvvov, which 
 means 'his intercourse with (elders) down from John.' This would put 
 Polycarp's discourses some further distance away from John. The 
 following words would then be 'and the intercourse of the rest (TIJV 
 T&V \OITTUV Stieren), who had seen the Lord, with the Lord,' but these 
 perhaps had not been seen by Polycarp. It may be that there is no 
 genuine preposition before 'ludvvov. This would make the sentence 
 simpler, and the meaning would be ' the intercourse of John with the 
 Lord and that of the others who had seen Him ' : and then the chain 
 between Polycarp and John becomes still less direct. In this last case 
 the John mentioned would be the Evangelist. But Polycarp was only 
 born in 70. The proof of his connexion with John is a frail thing 
 at best. 
 
 2 Lightfoot, Essays, p. 144. 
 
 3 Lightfoot, ib. Harnack (Chron. p. 340 note) points out what a 
 close resemblance there is between Irenseus's quotation (iii 3, 4) of Papias
 
 238 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 
 If the words of Papias (p. 108) are read carefully and 
 without a prejudice in favour of the identity of the 
 two Johns, it will be found that they are perfectly 
 clear in the sense which Eusebius gives them, that 
 Papias was a hearer of John the Elder, whose words 
 he himself remembers hearing 1 ; and whose Apocalypse 
 we know that he used 2 , while as for John the Apostle 
 he had to enquire what he had said (eli 
 
 The Elders were Prophets. 
 
 The use of such vague expressions as ' the Elders 
 who have their succession from the Apostles,' and ' the 
 Elders, disciples of the Apostles' by Irenseus 3 really 
 does not advance our historical knowledge of his 
 authorities, but only as to the belief of Irenaeus and 
 his time. In the former of these two passages he is 
 urging obedience to the Elders. But the latter does 
 throw some light upon the prophetic character of ' the 
 Elders,' which Irenaeus does not seem to appreciate at 
 all. Speaking of the expulsion from Eden, Irenaeus 
 says : ' Wherefore also the Elders who were disciples 
 of the Apostles tell us that those who were translated 
 
 'John surviving among them till the times of Trajan,' and Irenaeus' own 
 statement (ii 22 5) 'John survived among them until &c.' The latter 
 seems to rest simply upon the former. 
 
 1 \tyovfftv. Lightfoot is not satisfactory upon this present tense, 
 Essays, p. 150. 
 
 2 So says Andreas of Gesarea, Routh, Rell. i 15. 
 
 3 iv 26 2, v 5 i.
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 239 
 
 (Enoch, &c.) were transferred to that place (for Para- 
 dise has been prepared for righteous men, such as 
 have the Spirit ; whither also the Apostle Paul was 
 carried and heard words unspeakable, to us at least in 
 this present life), and that they who are translated 
 remain there until the end of all things, preluding 
 immortality.' This was the teaching of John the 
 Elder and all the other Prophets, his fellow-disciples. 
 It is only Irenaeus who says that they were disciples 
 of ' the Apostles.' He had no conceivable object in 
 not telling us which Apostles or Apostle they were 
 disciples of, if he knew. The silence or half-silence of 
 Irenaeus is not a thing to be afraid of, and we may 
 safely say he did not know. 
 
 Iren&ns on St Johns sojourn in Asia. 
 
 But finally we come to the statement of Irenaeus 
 concerning the Fourth Gospel 1 : 'Afterwards John the 
 disciple of the Lord, who also lay upon His breast, did 
 himself publish the gospel, while Siarpi/Bwv, com- 
 moraiiS) at Ephesus in Asia.' This is a good round 
 statement, following as it does three similar good 
 round statements upon the three other Gospels, and 
 there is a straightness and simplicity about it which 
 his other remarks have so often lacked. I must enter 
 a respectful protest .against the vague translation of 
 the participle by Lightfoot 2 , for which he gives us 
 
 1 Iren. Hi i, r. 2 Essays, p. 182.
 
 240 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 
 1 living/ as if to imply that he usually lived there. 
 But everyone knows that Biarpifieiv is correctly trans- 
 lated by commorari in the Latin version, and that 
 either word means ' to sojourn.' John was sojourning 
 in Ephesus according to Irenaeus, but not residing 
 there. He was passing time, but not his life, nor the 
 remainder of it, there. He was on a visit. He was 
 not a dweller, nor had he a house 1 . 
 
 Muratorian Fragment on St John. 
 
 This brings us back to the Muratorian Fragment, 
 which is conjectured to be the work of Caius by 
 Muratori, of Papias by Simon de Magistris (1772), of 
 Hegesippus by Bunsen, of a 4th century writer by 
 Credner 2 , of some one earlier than Irenseus by Hesse. 
 What it says about the composition of the Fourth 
 Gospel has been already quoted 3 . There is nothing to 
 shew in what relation it stands to the statement of 
 Irenaeus 4 , or whether either writer had seen the words 
 
 1 Let any one contrast dia.Tplj3eiv, to sojourn, in Jn iii 22, xi 54; 
 Acts xii 19, xiv 3, 28, xv 35, xvi 12, xx 6, xxv 6, 14, with KaroiKe'iv, 
 to dwell in a house, Mt iv 13; Acts i 19, vii 4, ix 32, xix 10, 17; 
 Mk v 3 &c. Or let him compare the fine expression of Cic. de Sen. 
 ad fin. 'Commorandi natura diversorium nobis, non habitandi dedit': 
 or pro Quinct. 6 'Romae dies xxx fere Quinctius commoratur, &c.' To 
 translate this 'living' is to leave an erroneous impression of what St 
 John did. I must say this, though I believe that Bp Lightfoot was 
 so full of the identity of the two Johns that it did not occur to him 
 how important the difference was just here. But accuracy compels the 
 remark upon one whose memory I venerate and love. 
 
 2 See Westcott, Canon, p. 210. 3 p. 81. 4 iii i.
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 24! 
 
 of the other. There is no doubt that the Fragment 1 is 
 
 a translation from the Greek, and as Westcott points 
 
 out, it probably belongs to the Church of Rome (ab 
 
 urbe). Now the words which occur as possibly giving 
 
 a clue to further knowledge are to my mind as follows: 
 
 (i) Fast with me at once takes us back to the fastings 
 
 of the Prophets, an almost invariable preparation for 
 
 any serious undertaking. John the Baptist of course Mt ix 14 
 
 was a Prophet. (2) Revealed takes us distinctly back Lk vii 16, 
 
 to prophecy, and shews that we are now in a circle ^ S 2 * 3 3 ' 
 
 of Prophets. (3) The revision of all is the right *'. v ?> 
 
 Lk a 37 
 
 translation, I agree with Bp Westcott. That of Bp 
 Lightfoot, ' and that all should certify,' appears to 
 give rather an erroneous touch. Recognoscere has no 
 
 1 The following is the passage about the Fourth Gospel in the frag- 
 ment according to Bp. Westcott's collation (translated p. 244 below) : 
 Quarfi Euangeliontin Johannis ex decipolis 
 cohortantibus condescipulis et efs suis 
 dixit conieiunate mihi odie triduo et qtiid 
 citiquc fuerit 1'euelatum alterutruin 
 nobis ennaremus eadem node reue 
 latum andreae ex apostolis ttt recognis 
 centibus cuntis iohannis suo nomine 
 cunta discribret et idea licit varia sin 
 culis eiiangeliorum libris principia 
 doceantur nihil tamen differt creden 
 tium fedei cum uno ac prindpali ~spu de 
 clarata sint in omnibus omnia de natiui 
 tate dc passione de reswrectione 
 de comiesatione cum deciptilis suis 
 ac de gemino eius adiientu 
 primo in htimilitate dispectus quod fo 
 it secundttm potetate regali pre 
 
 clarum quod fotonun est. quid ergo 
 
 S. AP. 1 6
 
 242 THE APOCAL YPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 
 such meaning as this. The revision is that of the 
 
 Prophets in their Session, and exactly corresponds 
 
 i Cor xiv with the Rules laid down by St Paul, ' let the other 
 
 *2Q 
 
 Prophets discriminate' (p. 2), or review, and if necessary 
 correct, what is said. The Prophet's deliverance must 
 needs run the gauntlet of criticism. (4) Colwrtantibus 
 at the beginning is probably TrapaKakovpevwv, mutually 
 giving prophetic exhortations. 
 
 It is therefore plain that according to this docu- 
 ment the meeting was a prophetic meeting subject to 
 the usual prophetic Rules, and from this some will be 
 disposed to infer that after all St John was a Prophet 
 himself, and that he was the author of the Apocalypse. 
 This inference however would be rash. Apart from 
 all the other difficulties which appear to me to follow 
 from what has been already urged, it is to be observed 
 that the meeting was composed of St John's Bishops as 
 well as (his) Fellow-disciples. I cannot help thinking 
 that ' Fellow-disciple ' is a term which comes very near 
 to John the Elder's own description of himself in Ap i 
 9, compared with Acts xiv 22 (a prophetic circle), 
 xi 26 (the same), ix 10 (Ananias was a Prophet him- 
 self), and xxi 26 (Mnason an ' old-fashioned disciple,' 
 compared with the expression used by Irenaeus of 
 Papias, who was a student of prophecy 1 , ' an old- 
 fashioned man).' But if Fellow-disciples represents the 
 Prophetic side of the Church, it seems certain in any 
 case that Bishops belong to the other and the con- 
 
 1 Above, p. 234.
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 243 
 
 trasted side, the growing and reforming and organising 
 side, who felt that Prophecy was becoming a danger 
 to the order of the Church. The position then is that 
 the meeting was held by St John and his disciples in 
 some centre of the Prophets' activity, Irenaeus says 
 Ephesus, the Fragment names no place : held under 
 the rules of the Prophets : attended by the Apostle 
 Andrew (who had survived his preaching in Scythia: Eusff 
 but is Andrew's presence credible at all?): and result- "' 
 ing in the Fourth Gospel being produced and pub- 
 lished. It would have been a delicate matter to 
 obtain the consent of the Prophets to the acceptance 
 of another Gospel, when the three existing Synoptic 
 Gospels were so strongly influenced, as they are, by 
 prophetic elements, without some such meeting being 
 held, and I can see no reason why it should not have 
 been held at Ephesus some time about 95 A.D. 
 
 Still we have not yet arrived at a clear understand- 
 ing of what may have happened, nor of what the 
 Fragment says. If it said that St John did according 
 to what was revealed to Andrew, describe all things 
 and write them out in the form of the Fourth Gospel 
 that same night, of course it would forfeit its claim to 
 be believed. But perhaps the lacuna (which I am 
 willing to admit may follow discribref) conceals what 
 it said upon that subject. We can only try to make 
 something of the preceding and following words. 
 Now, bearing in mind the very rough and uncertain 
 character of the Fragment as it stands, we may as 
 
 16 2
 
 244 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 
 fairly read it in the light of one theory as in that of 
 another. I suggest then that we read it thus : Quar- 
 tum Evangeliorum 1 . Johannis ex discipulis. This is 
 closer to the MS than Bp Westcott's emendation of his 
 own text, for he has altered Johannis to Johannes. I 
 translate : ' The Fourth of the Gospels. It proceeds 
 from the Disciples of John 2 . While the Fellow-disciples 
 (that is the Prophets) and his bishops (suis is used for 
 avrov some lines lower down and ipsius and eius are 
 interchanged in the Ambrose fragment by the same 
 scribe in this MS) were holding their exhortations 
 (some one) said : Fast with me three days and what- 
 ever shall have been revealed to each let us announce 
 either of the two revelations to ourselves.' The punc- 
 tuation is strictly in accordance with the MS. I admit 
 the absence of a subject to dixit, but would suggest 
 a very simple explanation. The missing word is 
 quis. The word in its place according to the editions 
 is suis. Between S and Q the change is very slight. 
 If it should prove that the MS does not justify the Q, 
 it is not improbable that the copyist after writing suis 
 imagined he had written quis and passed on to the 
 next line. But as Dr Westcott says : ' the text from 
 
 1 It is only fair to count the full stop as worth something. Westcott 
 ignores it; but in the MS a full stop represents a true full stop 15 times, 
 a lesser stop 6 times, and no stop at all only 3 times. 
 
 - When this was written I had not seen Harnack's conclusion in his 
 Chronologic, p. 680: 'That the Gospel is not composed by the Apostle 
 John may be called an incontrovertible conclusion from its internal 
 evidence.' He thinks, however, that it is somehow 'the Gospel of John 
 the Elder according to John the son of Zebedee.'
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 245 
 
 the copy was made was either carelessly written 
 or much injured.' Now this suis occurs at the end of a 
 line, and is immediately above a quid'vn. the following 
 line. A point omitted in Bp Westcott's and Bp Light- 
 foot's translation is that alterutrltm means ' either of 
 two things ' and is for etcdrepov. It may be in the 
 wrong case perhaps, for alterutri, but the word is 
 rightly used of two parties, and only two, which are in 
 this case the Prophets' and the Bishops' with their 
 respective ' revelations 1 .' 
 
 But what was the sequel ? ' The same night it was 
 revealed to Andrew (one) of the Apostles, subject to 
 the revision of air (this may mean a relaxation for 
 the nonce of the rule that the Prophets alone revised 
 the Prophets' utterances) 'that John cuncta describeret 
 should be the historian in his own name. And there- 
 fore although '...(see p. Si above for the apologetic 
 remarks which follow). Now the point 'I contend for 
 here is that St John was dead. His disciples guarded 
 his precious Gospel. But could they venture to put it 
 forward as the Gospel of John with or without com- 
 ment or attestation ? Could they on the other hand 
 venture to put it forward in the name of the disciples 
 of John ? The other three Gospels had each a single 
 author : should the fourth be known under a plural 
 
 1 Those who reject my explanation will observe that by that of 
 Bp Westcott the John in question is called 'disciple,' /j.a9t}T^, not 
 Apostle, as Andrew is called. It follows that the document has to be 
 classed with all the other passages in Papias, Irenseus, and the Elders, 
 who decline to use the term John the Apostle.
 
 246 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 
 authorship ? Or under what form should it be pub- 
 lished ? 
 
 It will, I think, hardly be denied that Jn xxi 20 
 25 was all written after St John's death, not merely 
 xxi 24, 25 1 . The meaning of 23 does not appear if 
 written while St John was yet in the flesh. We 
 cannot suppose, in justice to St John, that he himself 
 would take notice of the saying about him in 23. We 
 can see at once why his disciples should do so for 
 him after his death. Bp Westcott, who does not take 
 this view, is nevertheless clear that xxi ' is an ap- 
 pendix to the Gospel, which is completed by xx. It 
 is impossible to suppose that it was the original 
 design of the Evangelist to add the incidents of xxi 
 after xx 30 f, which verses form a solemn close to his 
 
 record The occasion of the addition is probably to 
 
 be found in the circulation of the saying of the Lord 
 as to St John, xxi 23'V He agrees of course that 
 xxi 19 was written after the death of St Peter. 
 
 Other evidence on St John in Asia. 
 
 But it will be urged that this is against the 
 evidence of Clement of Alexandria (200 A.D.) 3 , who 
 gives us the famous story of the young Robber. 
 
 1 Harnack points out that the passage not only assumes his death, 
 but his natural death, in contrast to St Peter's martyrdom. Chron, 
 p. 666. 
 
 2 Comm. on St John, xxi i. 
 s Clem. Al. Quis dives, 42.
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 247 
 
 The story has only to be read in the original, 
 where it is introduced by pvdov ov pvQov, a\X' ovra 
 \oyov 1 , a myth which is not a myth but a real story 
 how many of this sort do we not know ? to see that 
 it is a very good story and bad history. Yet I do 
 not understand why the first part of it should be 
 treated as historical by Lightfoot 2 , unless he was 
 going to maintain the whole, including the preter- 
 natural agility of the aged Evangelist. 
 
 The statement of Poly crates, Bishop of Ephesus Eus HE 
 about 195, is of quite equal value : "We then continue v 24 
 to spend our day in unslothfulness, neither adding nor 
 taking away. (Comp. Ap xxii 18.) For in Asia too 
 there are great luminaries fallen asleep" (i.e. to rise 
 again like heavenly bodies), " such as shall arise at the 
 day of the Lord's coming, in which He cometh with 
 glory from heaven, and will raise up all the saints, 
 Philip of the twelve Apostles, who is fallen asleep in 
 Hierapolis, and two daughters of his who had grown 
 old in virginity, and his other daughter having served 
 her citizenship in the Holy Ghost rests in Ephesus 3 : 
 
 1 See Plato, Phccdms, 276 E with Thompson's note. Clement Al. 
 was imbued with Plato. His counter-statement in Strom, vii 17 is 
 much more deliberate: 'The teaching of His Apostles concludes with 
 the public ministry of Paul under Nero ' (reXeioDrat /u^X/" 7 e '"fa 
 \tiTovpyias). 
 
 2 Essays, p. 218. 
 
 3 The utter confusion which reigned in the Christian mind of the 
 second century in Asia and elsewhere upon Philip and his three or four 
 daughters who prophesied, and which has never been cleared up, offers 
 a close parallel with the confusion of the two Johns. Is it conceivable 
 that there were two Philips, one an evangelist-deacon, the other an
 
 248 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 
 and also John, who lay on the Lord's breast, who had 
 Ex xxix 6 been (made) a priest (tepevs) wearing the gold plate 
 'crown' an( J a martyr and a teacher: he is laid to rest in 
 Ephesus. And moreover Polycarp in Smyrna, etc." 
 I regret that this simple, earnest, touching testimony 
 of the Bishop of Ephesus has been condemned by 
 Bp Lightfoot, who says 1 : ' The whole passage is a 
 very rude specimen of the florid Asiatic style, which 
 even in its higher forms Cicero condemns as suited 
 only to the ears of a people wanting in polish and 
 
 apostle, both having daughters who prophesied, but one having three 
 and the other four, all long-lived, and all living in Asia Minor as pillars 
 of the Church about 70 120 A.D. ? I think the congregation of these 
 two Philips and seven daughters of Philip will be beyond the belief of 
 any reader. The unprejudiced mind will determine that there was one 
 family and only one. Papias does not suggest there were two. It 
 follows then that the ignorance and confusion of our authorities is very 
 great indeed, and if so it follows further that we need not be surprised 
 at the duplication of Johns in Asia. 
 
 The question of the Philips may be seen discussed by Lightfoot, 
 Coloss. pp. 45 f. When Eusebius can identify the Apostle and the Evan- 
 gelist, and Lightfoot can only maintain their difference, which he does 
 very strongly, we are left with the dilemma that either the confusion of 
 Eusebius and his authorities was great, so that their apparent nearness 
 of time to the events availed nothing : or else that there were two 
 families, the one Philip the Evangelist who had four daughters who 
 prophesied in Acts xxi 8 but never came to Asia, and the other Philip 
 the Apostle who had at least three daughters who prophesied and did 
 come to Asia, and were buried at Hierapolis, except that one daughter 
 was buried at Ephesus, Eus HE iii 30, 31, 39, v 17, 24. Harnack, 
 Chron. 669, points out that the passage in Acts occurs in the IVe- 
 document (part of xx, xxi), which is 'the most trustworthy portion of 
 it.' Lightfoot's latest view is that there were seven daughters of Philip's 
 who prophesied, but only three in Asia. The confusion is certain. 
 
 1 Galatians, 6th edition, p. 362 note.
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE, 249 
 
 good taste.' Let any one read the extract in Greek 
 and say whether it is not as good in style as all 
 the other Christian remains of the second century, 
 far better than some, and infinitely superior to the 
 Apocalypse. (See the Appendix to this chapter.) 
 The Bishop of Ephesus did not essay to rival the 
 orators of 250 years before his time, nor should he 
 be tried by their standard and condemned. However 
 Lightfoot admits that it is possible that John wore 
 the gold plate. This might seem to point to a claim 
 similar to that made by James, the Lord's brother, at 
 Jerusalem, if we were to regard the statement of 
 Epiphanius 1 . At the same time it is certain that the 
 gold plate was a remnant of the high-priest's dress, Ex xxviii 
 which marked him both as Prophet, using his own ' 
 Urim and Thummim for prophetical purposes, and as Num xxvii 
 belonging to the Sanhedrim of which he was always xxxiiiT 
 head (Nasi). There is no meaning at all in the state- J s * 
 
 xxvin 6 
 
 ment if applied to John the Evangelist; who certainly 
 was neither a Jewish nor a heathen priest, and tepey? 
 could not in those days mean a Christian priest. But 
 there is quite meaning enough in it, if applied to the 
 Seer John who had belonged to the Sanhedrim and 
 who was Prophet as well as Elder, though not of 
 course High-priest. In a distant country like Asia, he 
 might have worn, or more probably been supposed to 
 wear, a symbol, which after 70 A.D. there was no living 
 man to wear. It was but a memento ! The difficulty 
 
 1 Heer. 78, Routh ii 28.
 
 250 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 
 of supposing this John to be the Evangelist when this 
 John was a Quartodeciman, and the Gospel is the 
 reverse, is obvious at a glance. 
 
 Lastly we are told by Philippus of Side 1 that 
 Papias said in his Second Book that ' John the Divine 
 and James his brother were killed by the Jews 2 .' 
 Although there were Jews in Asia hostile enough, it 
 is I think certain that Papias meant Jews in Judaea or 
 possibly in Alexandria. 
 
 Eusebius on St John in Asia. 
 
 Now it is true that Eusebius held that St John 
 himself was present in Asia after his exile at Patmos, 
 but he depended upon tradition which is not further 
 
 HE Hi 20 specified, and upon the statements of Irenaeus and 
 Clement which have been mentioned. He says : ' In 
 Nerva's time also the Apostle John, according to the 
 tradition of the ancients that we possess had received 
 
 HE Hi 23 back his sojourn at Ephesus after his exile in the 
 island.' ' In Ignatius' and Simeon's time John the 
 Apostle and Evangelist, the same whom Jesus loved, 
 was still surviving in Asia, and he governed (StetTrev) 
 the Churches there, on his return from the exile in the 
 island after Domitian's death. His survival to these 
 times is sufficiently proved by two witnesses. I think 
 
 1 Lightfoot, Ap. Fathers, p. 531. 
 
 2 Harnack, Chron. p. 666, throws great doubt on the authenticity of 
 this statement.
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 251 
 
 these are trustworthy (ma-Tol av elev), as having 
 presided over the true doctrine of the Church, as 
 doubtless they did (et Srj roiovrot), namely Irenaeus 
 and Clement of Alexandria.' He then quotes Iren 
 ii 22, 5 (see p. 230), and iii 3, 4 (see p. 231) and Clem 
 Alex Quis dives 42 (see p. 246). 
 
 It must however be remembered that Eusebius 
 thinks it reasonable to hold that Symeon son 
 Clopas ' one of the eyewitnesses and earwitnesses of 
 the Lord ' also survived, according to Hegesippus, 'to 
 the days of Trajan, when he was falsely attacked by 
 the heresies and accused on the same pretext (as our 
 Lord) under Atticus the proconsular. After being 
 tormented many days he died a martyr, so that all 
 were amazed, even the proconsular himself, that a 
 man of 1 20 years of age should still endure : and he 
 was ordered to be crucified.' It may be admitted 
 that Eusebius, having before him the expositions of 
 Papias (?6$ to ? 145 A.D. Lightfoot 1 : wrote 140 
 i6oA.D. Harnack) in five books, and the Ecclesiastical 
 History of Hegesippus (? 120 ? 180 A.D.) also in five 
 books, has relied rather more upon the latter, and has 
 disparaged the former as a person ' of very small 
 capacity.' Nevertheless Eusebius says with perfect Eus HE 
 candour that Papias ' had been the contributing cause "' 
 why the great majority (TrXe/o-rot? 00-0*9) of the eccle- 
 
 1 If Papias was born so early and was really a companion of 
 Polycarp, it is very strange that he never saw St John, who is said to 
 have been so active throughout proconsular Asia to the time of Trajan !
 
 252 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. . 
 
 siastical writers who succeeded him were of the same 
 opinion, having taken into consideration his antiquity; 
 as for instance Irenaeus, or any other who has ex- 
 hibited similar tendencies of mind.' It must then, 
 I think, remain for the present an open question 
 whether Papias, who never says that he himself had 
 seen St John, was not more trustworthy than Hege- 
 sippus or anyone else of the time in his statement 
 that St John was put to death by the Jews. If he 
 was, he never came to Asia at all after the Apocalypse 
 was written, but had perished before 95 A.D., while his 
 disciples alone attended the meeting perhaps in Asia 
 about 95 A.D. and produced the Gospel as his, upon 
 their guarantees which we read in John xx 30, 31, 
 xxi 24. 
 
 The modern name of Ephesus is after all the 
 name of the Seer. 
 
 Rarity of external testimony to the Fourth Gospel 
 100 170 A.D. 
 
 It is doubtful whether any theory of the origin of 
 the Fourth Gospel hitherto propounded has fairly ac- 
 counted for the strange fact of its being quoted and 
 yet being so seldom quoted, in the first half of the 
 second century. Let us suppose that St John's Gospel 
 appeared in 85, as Zahn argues ; or that it appeared 
 'not before 80 and not later than no,' as Harnack 
 thinks, and that it was really the ' Gospel of John the
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 253 
 
 Elder according to John the son of Zebedee ' : what a 
 chorus of welcome would have greeted it ! What- 
 ever value was set upon the Synoptists it could not 
 be denied that the disciple whom Jesus loved would 
 command higher respect than any of the three authors 
 of earlier Gospels. His work would have been 'known 
 and read of all men ' in Asia upon the hypothesis that 
 St John came to Asia, and not only in Asia but in 
 Syria and Alexandria and Rome also. How comes 
 it then that Clement (after 95 A.D.) can make unmis- 
 takeable use of the Synoptists 1 , and can quote the 
 story of the Phcenix in proof of the resurrection, yet 
 has no room for Jn xi or any other reference to the 
 Gospel ? If it should be necessary to allow more than 
 five years for such an important work of the great 
 Apostle to reach Rome, we may ask why should the 
 author of the so-called Second Epistle of Clement 
 (120 140 A.D.) be able to quote the Synoptists fre- 
 quently, and the supposed Gospel of the Egyptians 
 thrice, but have no reference to St John ? Why 
 should Ignatius quote Acts once and St Matthew 
 four times and St Paul often, but cite no word of 
 St John except the very tentative and hesitating 
 reference to Jn iii 8? His words are 'Yet the spirit 
 is not deceived, being from GOD, for it knoweth 
 whence it cometh and whither it goeth, and it 
 searcheth out the hidden things.' This remark 8 pre- Ap ii 23 
 supposes Jn iii 8, but appears to be a correction or 
 
 1 Clem. Cor. 13, 24, 46. '* See also p. 170 above.
 
 254 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 
 supplement of its meaning by the addition of a strong 
 statement in favour of prophetic readers who might 
 consider the Evangelist unfair to the prophetic spirit 
 which had ruled the Asiatic Churches for so long, 
 under the authority of John the Elder. We have 
 observed above (p. 12) that Ignatius' letters are 
 strongly charged with episcopal authority in fact 
 he recognises the secondary 1 position of the Elders 
 but it would be a mistake to suppose that he is 
 thereby the more able to enhance the Fourth Gospel 
 which was competing for the Elders' acceptance in 
 115 A.D. Perhaps he would have done so had it been 
 available for his purpose. It was not available only 
 because it was still hard for them to accept it. 
 
 Let us take another instance. Lightfoot, as we have 
 seen, fixed 70-79 as the date of the Epistle of Barna- 
 bas. If so, all the supposed references in it to the 
 Fourth Gospel are probably only imaginary 2 . The 
 
 1 Eph. 2 'submitting yourselves to your Bishop and body of Elders,' 
 Eph. 20 see p. 8. 
 
 Magn. 2 'the Deacon Zotion is subject to the Bishop as unto the 
 grace of GOD, and to the Elders as unto the law of Jesus Christ.' 
 
 Magn. 6 ' the Bishop presiding after the likeness of GOD and the 
 Elders after the likeness of the council of the Apostles, with the Deacons 
 also who are most dear to me.' 
 
 Magn. 7 'do nothing without the Bishop and the Elders.' 
 
 Magn. 1 3 ' with your revered Bishop and with the fitly wreathed spiri- 
 tual circlet of your Elders, and with the Deacons who walk after GOD.' 
 
 Trail. 13 'submitting yourselves to the Bishop as to the command- 
 ment, and also to the body of Elders.' 
 
 2 See the quotation from Keim, Jesu von Nazara, i 141 ff. in 
 Sanday's Gospels of the Second Century, p. 2 70.
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 2$$ 
 
 scope of this work prevents me from treating of this 
 question here, but I venture to think that in fixing 
 so early a date Lightfoot surrenders several points 
 which would seem to make in favour of the author 
 of Barnabas knowing the Fourth Gospel. I hazard 
 the theory that the author of Barnabas is a genuine 
 Prophet writing to Prophets in order to disillusion their 
 minds of Jewish preconceptions or rather to eradicate 
 if possible their strong Jewish prejudices. He treats 
 the Jews as a people who have for ever forfeited all 
 right to preeminence. On the one hand he delivers 
 the time-honoured command of the Christian Prophets, 
 ' Thou shalt guard the things which thou didst receive 
 by tradition, neither adding to them nor taking from 
 them.' On the other he says, of the Jewish Prophets, Bar 19 
 'The Prophets prophesied concerning Him having ^uii'li ' 
 their grace from Him. But He himself endured 
 that He might destroy death and shew forth the 
 resurrection of the dead, for that He must needs be 
 manifested in the flesh.' On the one hand he says, Bar 5 
 ' He hath given the covenant, but they themselves 
 (' the first people,' meaning the Jews) were not found Bar 14 
 worthy to receive it by reason of their sins.' On the 
 other, 'He was made manifest in order that they might 
 be perfected in their sins, and we might receive the # 
 covenant through Him that inherited it.' On the one 
 hand he says, ' It is written, Ye shall hallow the 
 Sabbath of the Lord with pure hands and with a Bar 15 
 pure heart ' : on the other, 'We keep the eighth day for
 
 256 THE APOCALYPSE AND ST JOHN. 
 
 rejoicing, in the which also Jesus rose from the dead 
 Bar 15 and having been manifested ascended into the heavens.' 
 Bar 16 On the one hand, ' these wretched men (the Jews) set 
 their hope on the building (of the temple)': on the 
 other 'GOD truly dwelleth in our habitation within us.' 
 And so on. Many more passages might be quoted. 
 There is no quotation of the Fourth Gospel, but there 
 are thoughts on every page which exhibit the same 
 point of view which that Gospel takes. If we were 
 told by authority that the author of Barnabas, who is 
 said by Lightfoot to be an Alexandrian, wrote it in 
 order to prepare the way for an Alexandrine Gospel, 
 the statement would be hard indeed to reject. I 
 believe that the author had seen the Gospel ; that he 
 wrote nearer to no than to 70 A. D. ; and that his 
 object was to dispose the minds of Prophets and pro- 
 phetical congregations towards the reception of it. 
 
 I must however content myself with saying in view 
 of the above-mentioned phenomena, and those of 
 Justin's quotations and others, that the reason why 
 the Fourth Gospel is not more often and freely quoted 
 is that it came forward as a controversial work in the 
 higher sense, a work directed against some of the 
 most cherished doctrines of the Asiatic Christians, a 
 work of a far more philosophical kind, and of a more 
 organised purpose than that of the Synoptists, whose 
 colouring and whose sayings are freshly gathered, but 
 whose cast of mind was (to use the phrase of Irenaeus 
 and of Acts) archaic and old-fashioned. Though the
 
 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 257 
 
 opinion be conjectural that St John went to live at 
 Alexandria himself, it is certain that the author of the 
 Fourth Gospel was acquainted with much Alexan- 
 drine thought ; and as it used to be supposed that he 
 emigrated from Palestine to Asia, so now it may 
 become in time quite as easy to habituate the mind to 
 the idea that he migrated to Alexandria, in which 
 busy hive of Jewish life and early cradle of Christian 
 belief he was surrounded by disciples who induced 
 him to 'write these things.' Their high endeavour Jn xx 31 
 was to bring the Christian life, expressed as it had 
 been hitherto in terms of Judaic thought, into fuller 
 and closer relation with the highest thought of all 
 the ages. How far St John himself was enabled by 
 the spirit of Christ that was in him to perform this by 
 writing 'the Gospel according to John,' we may be still 
 unable to discover : and doubtless before it was equal 
 to the task, his mind must have undergone conversion 
 since the years 33-36. Nevertheless we are no longer 
 bound to increase the difficulty by supposing that 
 between the action of Acts viii 14 and the writing of 
 Jn xx 31 we must make room for the destined his- 
 torian of the Light of the World to pass first into a 
 lurid phase of intense ardour for prophetic Apoca- 
 lypse, and afterwards out of it into the daylight again. 
 
 s. AP. 17
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTE TO CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Solecisms of the Seer's Greek. 
 
 THE solecisms, or grammatical errors, of the Seer 
 pervade every page of Ap, and not only distinguish it 
 from every book of the Bible except 2 Jn and 3 Jn, 
 but serve as a guarantee for the unity of its authorship 
 in its present form, for they are more or less regular 
 and recurrent irregularities. One of the strongest 
 points of Vischer's hypothesis is that it fully recog- 
 nises their ubiquity, and accounts for this by the 
 theory that the book as we have it was translated 
 from Hebrew into Greek, and at the same time inter- 
 polated by one and the same hand. And in fact their 
 ubiquity finally disposes of every theory which would 
 represent Ap as composed by different Greek writers 
 at different times from 68 onwards. 
 
 In order to give the English reader some idea of 
 the extent of these blunders, which are such that they 
 would disgrace the exercise of an English fifth-form 
 school-boy, an attempt is here made to reproduce 
 some specimens. We may grant that one or two are
 
 ADDITIONAL NOTE TO CHAPTER IX. 259 
 
 intentional ; but it is undeniable that most are hope- 
 lessly bad Greek, and serve no purpose of the author 
 whatever. There are very many besides (see Art. 
 ' Apocalypse ' in Encyclopedia Biblicd) ; some are not 
 reproducible without too great an effort of language. 
 
 i 4 from he that is and the was and he that 
 cometh. 
 
 i 5 and from Jesus Christ, he who is the true 
 witness. 
 
 ii 1 8 thou allowest thy wife Jezebel, she who calls 
 herself prophetess. 
 
 iii 12 He that overcometh I will make him a 
 pillar. 
 
 iii 12 The name of the new Jerusalem, she that 
 cometh down... 
 
 vii The number of them was 10,000 times 10,000, 
 they saying,... 
 
 vi i And I saw when the Lamb opened one of 
 the seals. 
 
 vii 4 And I heard the number of them that had 
 been sealed, 144,000, they that had been sealed from 
 every tribe. 
 
 vii 9 Behold a great multitude, which no man 
 could number it [this Hebraism occurs often],... they 
 standing before the throne and before the Lamb, 
 them clothed with white garments, and palms in their 
 hands. 
 
 viii 9 And there died the third part of sea- 
 creatures, they that had life. 
 
 172
 
 260 ADDITIONAL NOTE 
 
 ix 14 I heard one voice from the horns of the 
 golden altar before God, a man saying to the sixth 
 angel, he that hath the trumpet. 
 
 x 8 And the voice which I heard from heaven 
 again speaking with me and saying... 
 
 xi i And there was given me a reed like a rod, 
 which saith... 
 
 xiv 6 And I saw another angel flying... he which 
 saith... 
 
 xiv 12 Here is the endurance of the saints, they 
 which keep the commandments... 
 
 xiv 14 And upon the cloud one sitting likened 
 a Son of Man. 
 
 xvi 12 And its water was dried up, that the way 
 of the kings may be prepared. 
 
 xvii 8 And they that dwell on the earth shall be 
 astonished, ...of those which see the beast... 
 
 xviii 12 their merchandise of gold and of silver 
 &c....and every (accusative case) wood &c....and of 
 horses &c., and souls (accusative case) of men. 
 
 xix 6 And he subdued the dragon, he that is the 
 serpent. 
 
 xxi 27 And there shall not enter into it anything 
 that is unclean and he who maketh abomination and 
 falsehood, except they whose names &c.... 
 
 iv 7 And the third living thing, a man having the 
 face as of a human being. 
 
 v 6 A lamb, a thing standing as slain, a man 
 having seven heads....
 
 TO CHAPTER IX. 261 
 
 v 6 which are the seven spirits of GOD, men sent 
 into all the earth. 
 
 v 13 and all things in them, I heard men saying... 
 
 ix 4 that they may not kill them, but that they 
 shall be tormented. 
 
 xi 15 And there were great voices in heaven, men 
 saying... 
 
 xvii 3 I saw a woman seated on to a scarlet beast, 
 a man full of names of blasphemy, he having seven 
 heads.... 
 
 xvii 1 6 And the ten heads which thou sawest 
 and the beast, these men shall hate the harlot. 
 
 iii 2 Stablish the last things which was about to 
 die. 
 
 iii 4 A few names in Sardis which has not defiled 
 their garments. 
 
 iv 5 Seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, 
 which is the Seven Spirits. 
 
 iv 8 The four living things is full of eyes... 
 
 iv 14 The four living things was saying Amen. 
 
 ix 20 The devils and the idols... which is not able 
 to see &c. 
 
 xi 13 There was killed in the earthquake 7,000 
 names of men. 
 
 xv 4 Because thy just sentences was declared. 
 
 xvi 14 For they is spirits of devils doing signs. 
 
 xviii 3 For all the nations has drunk of the 
 wine 
 
 xviii 23 For all the nations was seduced.
 
 262 ADDITIONAL NOTE 
 
 Misuse of participles has been referred to above. 
 Misuse of prepositions is common. Appalling false 
 concords of gender occur in xiv 9, where ' the wine- 
 press ' is feminine and masculine in one breath ; in 
 xix 20, where ' the fire ' is of the same two genders at 
 once : in xxi 14, where ' the wall ' is neuter and mascu- 
 line at once. 
 
 One concluding instance must be cited. In iv 1 1 
 the words of the Seer overcame the A.V. translators, 
 who boldly took refuge in ' for thy pleasure they are 
 and were created,' Bia TO #e\?7/ia crov r\crav ical eVcTi<r#?7- 
 a-av. This position, however, was abandoned in the 
 R.V., which says more literally, ' they were, and were 
 created.' The false concord, however, can only be 
 given literally as ' they was, and was created.' Un- 
 fortunately no Greek writer of any age could possibly 
 allow that 'all things were,' because things become 
 and are transitory, whereas realities alone have eternal 
 existence. The whole of life is comprehended to a 
 Greek mind under the great distinction between Being 
 and Becoming. This is one of the peculiar features 
 of the Greek mind, and separates it from every other 
 mind. The horror which such a statement of Ap 
 would produce upon the mind of the Evangelist of 
 the Fourth Gospel, quite apart from the false concord, 
 can hardly be imagined. He has solemnly and beau- 
 tifully set forth the truth : ' In the beginning was 
 the Word... all things became through Him (i i, 3).' 
 Things all things certainly to him ' were not '; they
 
 TO CHAPTER IX. 263 
 
 became ; they were created. The only explanation 
 of the solecism of Ap iv 1 1 is that the Seer was no 
 Greek scholar. And it is quite impossible that the 
 Evangelist can have gone over and interpolated the 
 Apocrypha without correcting this and the other 
 solecisms. We must therefore hold that Harnack's 
 present view (pp. 219, 229 n.) is untenable.
 
 INDEX OF REFERENCES TO N.T. IN 
 PAGES OF THIS BOOK 
 
 Mt iv 13 ........................... 240 
 
 vii 15 ........................... 50 
 
 xi s' .......................... 137 
 
 80 
 80 
 
 170 
 80 
 61 
 
 138 
 
 Lk iii 18 ........................... 163 
 
 - J5 
 xiii 9 
 
 - 23 
 
 - 43 
 xvi 3 
 
 xix 20 ........................ 116 
 
 - 29 ........................ 236 
 
 xxi 9 ........................... 137 
 
 - 12 ........................ 91 f 
 
 xxii 21 ........................ 220 
 
 xxiii 39 ........................ 137 
 
 xxiv i r .................... 14, 50 
 
 12 ..................... 14, 80 
 
 - 15 ........................ 80 
 
 - 22 ........................ 80 
 
 2 4 ..................... 14,50 
 
 - 30 ........................ 14 
 
 xxvi 65 ....................... 129 
 
 Mk v 3 .......................... 240 
 
 x 29 ........................... 236 
 
 xiii 14 ........................ 80 
 
 Lk i i .............................. 176 
 
 ii 17 ........................... 161 
 
 - 6-jff ........................ 10 
 
 ii 25 ........................... 6 1 
 
 - 36 .......................... 10 
 
 - 37 ........................ 6l 241 
 
 V34 f ........................ 9 1 
 
 vi 26 ........................... 50 
 
 viii 8 ........................... 80 
 
 ix 31 ..................... 151, 160 
 
 - 33 ........................... 1 6 
 
 - 43 ........................... 163 
 
 xiv 15 ........................ 207 
 
 - 35 ........................... 80 
 
 xvii 28 f ........................ 163 
 
 xviii 6 f ........................ 1 86 
 
 - 8 ........................... 10 
 
 3 ........................ 236 
 
 xxi 12 ........................ 14 
 
 - 19 ........................ 157 
 
 xxii 15 ........................ 162 
 
 - 25 ........................ 186 
 
 - 32 ........................ 156 
 
 xxiii 51 ........................ 207 
 
 Jn i r ........................... 84, 262 
 
 - ii .............................. 86 
 
 - 12 
 
 - 14 
 
 - 15 
 
 - r8 
 
 -27 
 -29 
 -36 
 -5o 
 ii r 
 
 119 
 
 9 6 "5 
 
 87, 137 
 
 84 
 
 137 
 87 
 
 88 
 91 
 97
 
 266 INDEX OF REFERENCES TO N.T. 
 
 Jn ii 18 93 Acts ii 17 162, 174 
 
 -23 97 iv i8 161 
 
 iii 5 94 - 21 161 
 
 - 8 253 - 36 156 
 
 - 14 94 v6 182 
 
 - i6f 95 -30 207 
 
 - 29 162 vi 13 129 
 
 .- 3i 95. J 37 vii 34 162 
 
 iv 22 105 ix 10 242 
 
 V39 60,97 x 2 161 
 
 vi t 4 137 - 10 42 
 
 - 22 ff 99 - 30 241 
 
 - 63 101 - 39 207 
 
 37 99 xi 5 42 
 
 ioi -24 60 
 
 225 - 26 242 
 
 v 32 143 -27 10 
 
 - 38 97 -.3 175 
 
 - 44 118 xii i f 10, 103 
 
 - 51 ioi xiii i f 6of, 146, 241 
 
 - 57 231 - 13 n 4 
 
 X9 ioi f - 32 163 
 
 -12 33 xiv 11 60,242 
 
 xi 27 137 - 23 61,175,241 
 
 -47f 225 - 27 60,102 
 
 - 5 2 119 xv 14 161 
 
 xii 12 105 - 22 146 
 
 - 36 119 ~ 32 ii, 146 
 
 - 38 105 - 36 161 
 
 xiii 2 118 xvi 7 7, 179 
 
 xiv 2 170 - 10 163 
 
 - 9 84 - 16 180 
 
 - 15 ff. 116 xviii 25 195 
 
 xv toff 116 xix i f 195 
 
 - 15 97. 104 - 10 7, 240 
 
 - 16 74 - 14 180 
 
 xvi 20 73 - 27 163 
 
 xvii 12 74 - 31 ff 124 
 
 19 143 xx 6 56,240 
 
 xviii 4 137 - 19-35 i8of 
 
 xix 7 129 - 27 181 
 
 - 37 *5 - 33 21 
 
 xx 31 82,115,246,252 xxi 8 248 
 
 xxi 16 ioi, 195 - 10 ii 
 
 - 20 ff 246,252 - 16 ii 
 
 - 26 234, 242 
 
 Acts i 15 177 xxii 17 5 
 
 -17 160 xxiii 14 162 
 
 - 23 146, 173, 176 xxiv 5 f 129, 162
 
 IN PAGES OF THIS BOOR'. 267 
 
 Acts xxvi 14 177 i Th v 20 3, 10, 49 
 
 xxviii 20 60 
 
 II Th ii 3 f 15 
 
 Rom i 17 jo -6 220 
 
 "4f 157 -7<" 80 
 
 iv 3 10 - 16 f 156 
 
 yi J5 ff 7 ff , 15 
 
 1x33 10 I Tim i 18 10 
 
 xiii 10 116, 220 iii 1-13 209 
 
 xvi 26 5 iv 14 10 
 
 i Cor i 7 5 ii Tim iv 1 3 56 
 
 ii 10 180 
 
 viii 10 4 Ileb ii 15 104 
 
 xi 5 10 iv 9 ff 147 
 
 xii ro 177 - 12 177 
 
 - 28 3 vi 2 197 
 
 xiii i, 8 f 4 - 6 60, 166 
 
 xiv 1-6 1,43 ix 4 65 
 
 - 16 209 - 16 f 131 
 
 - 22-26 1,3 x 22 197 
 
 - 2gff 49,155,167, -38 181 
 
 177,242 xii 9 60 
 
 3 - ' r - ~ * * ...<.. -44' 
 
 - 37 10 - 23 60,131 
 
 xv 15 49 xiii F2 207 
 
 xvi i f 56,192 - 14,20 60 
 
 - 19 56 
 
 I Pet i 2 f 53, 56 
 
 II Cor ii 12 56 -5 5 
 
 xii i ff 4, 42, 169 -7 5, 197 
 
 xiii 13 56 -12 163 
 
 -13 5 
 
 Gal i 9 163 ii 13 ff 200 
 
 -uff 5 -17 36 
 
 ii 2 5 iii 19 166, 168 
 
 iii 13 15.207 iv 13 5 
 
 iv 26 44 vi 5 
 
 - 2 208 
 
 Ephi3 53 -13 220 
 
 ii 20 199 
 
 iii2ff 5 ii Pet i if 150 f, 160 f 
 
 - 12 156 
 
 Col i i 56 - 13, 15 160 
 
 ii i 56 - 16 161, 163 
 
 iv 13 56 17 162 
 
 - 19 15 1 
 
 Phil iii 15 5 ii i 50, 158 
 
 hrg. 131 -3 i 6 3
 
 268 INDEX OF REFERENCES TO N.T. 
 
 II Pet ii 4 149, 158 in Jn 7 134, 144 
 
 -5 '68 12 135 
 
 -6 149,158,168,174 14 135 
 
 -it 158, 163 
 
 -9 149, 161, 167 Jude 3 167 
 
 - lof. 149 f, 158, 166 5 167 
 
 - 16 161 6 148 f 
 
 - 18 161 9 70,148 
 
 - 19 158, 213 ii 148 f 
 
 -20 166 12 f 149 
 
 -22 151, 161 14 70, 148, 235 
 
 iii i 161 15 70 
 
 - 2 160 iff 148 
 
 - 3 162, 168 
 
 - 4 167 
 
 - 7 !57 f 
 
 - 9 157 f APOCALYPSE. 
 
 - ii 151 
 
 - 15 i57> l6 i i 5. 41, 54 f. "4.97. 
 
 - 16 155.158 104,175,181 
 
 - 17 158 -2 49, 96 
 
 -3 54 f. 80 
 
 I Jn i i 96, 115, 138 - 4 52, 56, 114, 1 1 8, 185, 
 
 -3 "5 190,198,259 
 
 ii 3 ff " 6 - 5 { 53' J 3. 181, 259 
 
 -7 J 44 -7 553. J 66 
 
 -12 144 -8f 54, 137 
 
 -20 196 -9 53, n 4 , 134, 138, 
 
 - 22 145 157, 242 
 
 - 24 . 144 - 10 42, 175, 192, 198 
 
 iii i f 119 -ii 42, 50 f, 55 
 
 - 8 ff 118 - 13 62, 88 
 
 - ii 144 ~ 14 193. 205 
 
 - 18 143 - 16 66, 185, 191 f 
 
 - 23 f 116 - 17 51 
 
 iv i 50, 139, 144 - 18 226 
 
 -2 136 -19 ....: 42,51,66 
 
 - 3 115 i 42, 51, 66, 148 
 
 v i 136, 139 - 2 i57 181, 199 
 
 -2 f 116, 119 -3 73, 157, 177 
 
 -4 "9 - 5 67, 157, 196 
 
 - 6 136, 145 - 7 54, 56, 73, 80 
 
 -8 51 
 
 ii Jn 2 136 -9 181, 192 
 
 7 139 - 10 118, 180 
 
 S-" 133 ff . H3 ff -" 54.73.80,101,193 
 
 - 12 51 
 
 nijns 145 -13 7. 73. 9 6 . "9. 177 
 
 6 ..134,145 - 14 50, 54, 88, 124, 148, 178
 
 IN PAGES OF THIS BOOK. 269 
 
 ii 16 67, 157, 191 vi 9 76 
 
 - 17 65, 80, 97, 193 - 10 62, 166, i8sf 
 
 - 18 88, 259 - n 74, 180 
 
 - 19 9 6 > "9- J 57> i8of - 14 15, 130 
 
 - 20 10, 50, 77, 104, i23f, vii 3 76, 99, 189 
 
 148,178,181 - 4 88,259 
 
 - 21 157, 180, 196 - 5 166 
 
 -22 67,157 - 9 76,84,105,204,259 
 
 -23 54,166,176,184,253 - 12 168 
 
 -25 73, 181 - 14 74,76,103,168 
 
 - 26 194 viii 9 259 
 
 -27 78,101,181 - 10 77 
 
 -29 80 - 13 77 
 
 iii i 19, 66, 185, 198 ix 4 261 
 
 - 2 74, 156, 261 - ii 15, 144 
 
 - 3 67, 73, 157, 181, 196 - 14 260 
 
 - 4 74, 181, 261 - 15 121 
 
 - 5 74f - l6 85, 235 
 
 - 6 80 - 20 157,261 
 
 -7 185 f x2 130 
 
 - 8 74 -4 42, 52 
 
 - 9 124, 192, 214 - 7 51, 104 
 
 - 10 157, 186 - 8 260 
 
 - ii 74, <%5 ~9 13 
 
 - 12 67, 74, i86f, 189, 259 - ii 48 
 
 - 13 80 xi i 71, 91, 260 
 
 - 14 67 - 2 86 
 
 - 18 178,196 -9 86 
 
 - 19 157, 196 - 13 261 
 
 - 20 101, 190 - 15 95, 190, 261 
 
 - 21 190 - 17 190 
 
 - 22 80 - 18 86, 104 
 
 iv i 15, 42, 88 - 19 66, 167 
 
 - 2 42, 190, 198 xii 2 7 f, 105 
 
 -3 84 - 3 221 
 
 - 4 129 - 5 9, 86, 88, 101, 194 
 
 - 5 56, 185, 198, 261 - 9 9, 15, 118 
 
 -7 260 - 10 9, 83, 93, 97, 131 
 
 - 8 62, 166, 190, 261 - 12 9, 118, 131, 168 
 
 - ii 262 - 16 9, 166 
 
 - 14 261 - 17 97 
 
 vi 130, 181 xiii i 221 
 
 -4f 204 - 3 217,221 
 
 -6 56, 185, 198, 206 f, 260 f - 7 86 
 
 - 10 : 93 - 8 95 
 
 -ii 235,259 - 9 80 
 
 -12 74 - 10 15,96,119,157,177 
 
 -13 261 - 13 217 
 
 vi4f ?6f - 14 15
 
 270 INDEX OF REFERENCES TO N.T. 
 
 xiii 15 221 xix9 42,52,76,90 
 
 - 18 169,210 - 10 42^90,97,134, 
 
 xiv i 66, 76, 189, 208 179 f, 198 
 
 - 5 49 - it 84 
 
 - 6 86, 260 - 12 < 193 
 
 - 8 86 - 13 82,84,136,147,206 
 
 - 9 262 - 14 205 
 
 - 12. ..15, 96, 119, 157, 177, 260 - 15 64, 86, 101, 167, 191 f 
 
 - 13 42,52,56,99,198 - 16 83 
 
 - 14 88 - 18 82,90 
 
 - 18 235 - 20 15,50,262 
 
 - 20 77 xx 2 118 
 
 xvi 51 -3 15,86,94 
 
 - 3 i4> i66f - 4 97 
 
 - 4 167, 261 - 5 16 
 
 xvi 5 190 - 8 15, 86 
 
 - 6 178 - 9 64 
 
 - 9 86, 157 - 10 15, u8 
 
 - ii 157 - 13 95 
 
 - 12 I2I,26o - 14 193 
 
 - 14 261 - 17 99 
 
 - i5 i97 - 3 r "5 
 
 xvii i 42 xxi 2 5,90,1871 
 
 - 3 198,221,261 -3 90, 187 f 
 
 - 4 216 - 4 73 
 
 - 8 95, 220 f, 260 - 5 42, 52 
 
 - 9 210 - 6 188 
 
 - 10 216, 219 - 7 119, 145 
 
 - 12 216,221 -8 124,166,178,193 
 
 - 15 86 - 9 42, 90, 145 
 
 - 16 261 - 10 187,198 
 
 xviii 2 64 - 12 88, 187 
 
 - 3 86,261 - 14 187,199,262 
 
 - 6 168 - 16 92, 187 
 
 - 8 213 - 21 187 
 
 - 9 15,64,213 -23 166,188 
 
 - 12 260 - 24 77 
 
 - 13 213 - 27 49, 90, 260 
 
 - 14 15 xxii i 90 
 
 - i? 214 -2 73,90,187 
 
 - 18 15 -3 l8 9 
 
 - 20 199 - 4 189 
 
 - 22 214 - 5 181, 188 
 
 - 23 86,261 -6 42,54,76,104,166, 
 
 xix 2 104 181, 198 
 
 - 5 83, 104 - 7 43. 1 88 
 
 - 6 64, 260 - 8 42f, 53, 114 
 
 - 7 76 -9 3,134,166,180 
 
 - 8 166 f - 10 -42f
 
 7.V PAGES OF THIS BOOK. 27 t 
 
 xxii 12 54, 99, 144, 1 66, 168 Bk iii 2-. 138 
 
 - 14 73, 103, 166, 168 - 28 44 
 
 - 15 49> I2 4- '66 - 3of 248 
 
 - 16 42, 53 f, 96, 188 - 32 251 
 
 - 17 54i 56, J 45> 8o, 198 - 37 16 
 
 - 18 17, 43. 49- 54- 247 - 39 107, 139, 173^ 
 
 - 19 43. 255 248, 251 
 
 - 20 54 iv 2 35 
 
 - 21 53, 118, 136 - 18 23 
 
 - 27 29, 4 o 
 
 v 3 20 
 
 - 16 16, 20, 26, 33, 36 
 
 - 17 16, 20, 248 
 
 PASSAGES FROM _ ^ 21,33 
 
 EUSEBIUS H.E. -19 32 
 
 - 20 172 
 
 Bkiii i 243 - 24 247 f 
 
 - 17 214 vi 14 142 
 
 - 20 165, 250 - 25 139 
 
 - 23 250 vii 22 112 
 
 - 24 109 - 25 ....113, 138
 
 INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS. 
 
 Account, prophetic 175 
 
 Accuser 97 f., 131 
 
 Adoption as sons 118 
 
 Adulteration of truth 165 
 
 Agabus 10 f., 20, 175 
 
 Age of Jesus 164, 172, 230 
 
 Alcibiades 20 
 
 Amen 53, 129 
 
 Ammia 16, 20 
 
 Ananias 242 
 
 Ancyra 19, 27, 38 
 
 Angel 41 f . ; angels 148 f., 168 
 
 ,, of church 123, 208 
 Anointed; anointing 71, 196 
 Anonymous Antimontanist 26 
 
 3- 34 f- 
 
 Antichrist 118, 203, 220 
 Antioch 10 
 
 Apamea Cibotus 32 f., 37 
 Apocalypse, frequent i ; prophetic 
 
 2, 41 ff., 241; Jewish 5 ; in 
 
 Didache 14 
 predictive 44 ; object of 
 
 41 ff. ; read in church 54 ; not 
 
 mere literature 47 ; universal 
 
 56, J57 
 
 Apocalypse of John, Title of 55. 
 comp. with 4 Ezra 72 f. ; au- 
 thor 109, 226 (see John the 
 Seer) ; criticised early 169; and 
 by Dionys. Al. 114 ff. ; not 
 written by the Evangelist 82 ff., 
 223, 199 ; style and language 
 
 1 14 ff. , 1 28, 227, 258 ; date 119 
 
 ff., 2ioff. ,227; not Jewish 206 ; 
 
 not interpolated 184, 219, 263; 
 
 priority of iv xxii to the rest 
 
 183 ff., 216; double ending of 
 
 188; not bya XII-Apostle 199 ; 
 
 corrected by St John Ev 82 
 
 1 06, 197 ; rejected by Syrian 
 
 Church 154 
 Apocalypse of Barach 70, 235 ; of 
 
 Peter 151 
 Apocalyptic, term 45 ; literature 
 
 68 ff. 
 
 Apocryphal statements 65 f. 
 Apollonius 21 
 Apollos 60, 195, 197 
 Apostles 151, 165, 168 f., 175 f., 
 
 199, 231 ff. 
 Ardabau 18, 38 
 Aristion 108 f., 163 f. 
 Asia 18, 2r, 38, 229; limits of 
 
 32 ; favourite of Rome 77, 122 ; 
 
 plundered 214 f. ; see Ephestis 
 Assumption of Moses 69 f., 148 
 Athenagoras 22, 68 
 Avircius (Abercius) Marcellus 17, 
 
 28, 32, 39 
 Azazel 67 
 
 Babylon 184 ; see Rome 
 Balaam 148 f. 
 
 Baptism 197 : of John 166, 195 ff. 
 Barnabas 60, 79, 167, 175 f., 179,
 
 INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS. 273 
 
 242 ; Epistle of 68, 72, 78 ff., 
 
 175, 218, 254 f. 
 
 Barsahbas 146 ff., 167, 173, 176 f. 
 Beast 169, 210 f., 219 f. 
 Bensly, Prof. 72 
 Birth of Christ 7 ff. 
 Bishops 14, 17, 32, So, 82, 127, 
 
 134, 199, 242 
 Book 130 
 Bousset, Dr W., 86, 94, 203, 205, 
 
 210 
 Burning 15, 158, 166 
 
 Caesars 210 f., 216 
 
 Canon of N.T. 154 
 
 Cave of Treasures 8 
 
 Cedron 92 
 
 Cerinthus 44 
 
 Charles, Dr 45, 60, 66 ff., 148 
 
 Chiliasm 71, 169, 173 f., 234 
 
 Chrism 196 
 
 Chronology of Montanism 26 40; 
 of Apoc. of John, see Dates 
 
 Circumcision 86, 93, 175 
 
 Claudius Apollinaris 16 20, 26 
 29; works of 29^, 168; dio- 
 cese 31 34, 173 ; is the Anony- 
 mous 3437 
 
 Clement of Rome it, 80, 220, 
 
 253 
 
 Clement of Alex. 68, 72, 79, 114, 
 116, 247, 251 
 
 Comana 27, 31 ff., 37 f., 173 
 
 Confirmation 132 
 
 Consolation, see Barnabas 
 
 Crucifixion 105, 207 
 
 Cry of the Agony 8 ; cry pro- 
 phetic 101, i 86 
 
 Curse = Christ 15 
 
 Dan 200 ff., 205 
 
 Date of Ap. 119 ff., 210 ff. ; of 
 
 Caesars 212; of Jesus, see Age. 
 Deacons 14, 134 
 Death 94, 101, 193 ; of Christ 9, 
 
 206 
 
 Demetrius 124, 135 
 Descent to Hades 9, 166, 168 
 De Soyres, 17 n, 23 n. 
 
 S. AP. 
 
 Despisers 156, 162, 166, 168 
 
 Devil 118 
 
 Diadochi 221 
 
 Didache 12 16, 21, 79, 134, no, 
 
 168, 192 and see Teaching 
 Dionysius Al. 44, no ff., 138 
 Disciples 97, 90, 104 
 Discrimination, Discretion 2, 49 f., 
 
 132, 177, 241 
 Domitian 119 ff., 192, 214, 218, 
 
 250 
 Door of faith 5, 102 ; of heaven 
 
 190 
 
 Double ending of Ap. 188 
 Dreams 24, 95, 135 
 Duas 140 
 
 Ecstasy 5, 12 n., 22, 42, 48 52; 
 its opposite 12, 17; Montanist 
 17, 24 ff. ; not to speak in 
 ecstasy 20 23, 42, 50 f., 152 f., 
 155; Tertullian on 24, 153 
 
 Edom, Rome 178 
 
 Elders 107, 126 ff., 163 ff., etc. ; 
 name 171, 181 f. ; are prophetic 
 164171, 175, 199, 238; in 
 Acts 174, 1 80; ' had seen John ' 
 
 169, i72;arethey = Papias? 172; 
 ordained 1 75 ; not mentioned 
 by John Evang. 225 ; Jewish 
 126 ; ' disciples of Apostles ' 
 165170, 238 
 
 Elder, the, not an Apostle 199 f., 
 229 ; see John 
 
 Emperor-worship 122 f., 215 
 
 Enoch, Book of, 66 ff., 79, 147 f. 
 
 Ephesus 77, 108, 115, 122 ff., 135, 
 180, 198, 214 f., 229, 243, 248, 
 252, 256 ; tombs at 247 f., 252 
 
 Epiphanius 23 n., 40 
 
 Epiphany 7 f., 105 
 
 Episcopacy 12 ; see Bishops 
 
 Epitaph of Abercius 39 
 
 Eumeneia 37 ; Eumenes 7 
 
 Everlasting life 94, 101 
 
 Exodus 150 f., 160, 167 
 
 Exposition, see Papias ; prophetic 
 
 175 
 
 Eye-salve 196 
 
 18
 
 274 INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS. 
 
 Eye-witness 150, 161 
 
 Faith 5, 116, 177, 180 f. 
 False Prophets 13, 17, 21, 50 
 Farnell, Mr L. R. 7 
 Fasting, prophetic 10, 61, 91, 241 
 Feast of Paradise 90, 170 
 Florinus 172, 236 
 Flute-player 22, 214 
 Forgiveness of sins 118 
 Fourth Esdras 72 ff., 151 ; is it a 
 
 reply to Ap ? 75 ; chaps, xv, xvi 
 
 not Christian 77 ; Asiatic origin 
 
 of 77 
 Fourth Gospel, origin of 81, 115, 
 
 240 ff., 252 ff., 257 ; corrects 
 
 Ap 82 106, 195, 262 
 
 Gaius, Rom 44, of 2 Jn 134 
 Galba 212, 215, 218 
 Galilee 100 
 Gigantomachia 7 
 Gloag, Dr, quoted 45 
 Greek style of Ap 114, 133 f., 
 136 f., 144, 258 ff. 
 
 Habakkuk 83 
 
 Harnack, Prof. Ad. 20 n., 30, 34, 
 
 38, 150, 171 f., 184, ai8f.i 229, 
 
 237, 244, 248, 250 f., 252, 263 
 Hatch, Dr 171 
 Hausrath 71, 121, 179 
 Heart-knowledge 166, 176, 180 
 Heathen 63, 86, 112, 176, 179, 
 
 186, 192, 194 (Gentiles) 
 Heaven, heavens 4 
 Hebrews 58, 60, 147, 177 
 Hermas (Shepherd of) 31, no 
 Herodotus 55, 77 
 Hierapolis, Hieropolis 27, 31 
 
 34, 39, 56, 153, 173 
 Hilgenfeld 70 
 Hort, Dr 36, 84, 135 
 
 Ignatius 7 f., n f., 80, 253 
 Inequality of souls 89 
 Inheritance 105, 131, 181 
 Inspiration of prophets 22 ff., 43, 
 46 ff. 
 
 Irenaeus, rejected 94, 99, 203, 
 211, 231, 235, 251; did not 
 know Papias 172, 236, 242 ; 
 nor the elders 172, 238 ; ex- 
 amined 230, 237, 239 ; emended 
 230 ; evasive and confused 101, 
 113, 231, 237 f. ; chiliastic 233, 
 236; defended 95, 171, 245; 
 Elders in Ir. 163 ff. 
 
 Jacob's ladder 89 
 
 James of Jerusalem 178 
 
 James, Dr M. R., 72 ff. , 150 
 
 Jeremiah 55, 61, 65 
 
 Jewish-Christian 5, 84 f. 93 
 
 Jezebel 123, 184 
 
 John Baptist 87 f., 95, 97, 196 f. 
 
 John Evangelist 25, i ro, 219, 
 250; opposed by prophets, 243, 
 253 f. ; corrects Judaism 87, 94, 
 98, 102; disparages prophets, 
 99, 101, 236; on O.T. prophecy 
 105 ; not interpolator of Ap 
 219, 263 ; nor writer of Ap 
 225 ; not a prophet 101 ; not 
 the Seer 99, 249 ; whereabouts 
 250, 252 f., 257 ; legends of 
 247 ; dead 245 
 
 John the Disciple 164, 229, 231 ff.; 
 not Apostle 231, 245; Disciple- 
 Apostle 229 
 
 John of 2 and 3 Epistles no, 133 
 144 
 
 John the Elder 108, 114, 164, 
 180, 195, 200, 224 f., 254 ; 
 converted 105, 224; strong Jew 
 124, 181, 192, 202, 224 ; mem- 
 ber of Sanhedrim 128, 136, 225, 
 249 ; not an Apostle 199 ; Seer 
 and Prophet 46, 48, 219, 226, 
 235, 242, 249; banished 120, 
 124, 215 ; returns 165 ; at Ephe- 
 sus (?) 1 80; cannot be Evange- 
 
 . list 224 f. ; 249 f. 
 
 Johns, two 229, 248 
 
 Judah 205 
 
 Judas Iscariot 37, 177, 234 
 
 Jude 20, 70, 146 ff. ; see Bars- 
 abbas
 
 INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS. 2?$ 
 
 Judge, unrighteous 186 ; Christ 
 
 192 
 
 Judgment 95, 167, 190, 192 
 Julian of Apamea 19, 33 
 Justin, M. 12, 16, 22 f., 68 
 Justus, see Barsabbas 
 
 Key of David 185 
 Kings, ten 216, 221 
 Korah, 150 
 
 Lamb 87 f., 90 f., 98, 188, 204 ff. 
 
 Lawless 14 f., 79 
 
 Laying on of hands 10, 132 
 
 Lewin, Mr T. 92 
 
 Lightfoot's Hor. Heb. 93, 99, 178 
 
 Lightfoot, Bp 9, 26, 28, 30, 39, 78, 
 126, 164, 218, 229, 235, 237 f., 
 239 f., 245, 247, 248 ff., 251, 
 
 255 f - 
 
 Lion 204 f., 207 
 Living creatures 130 
 Logos 82 ff. see Word 
 Logion 181, 186 
 Longsuffering 157 
 Lord's Day 192 
 Lot 163 ; the lot, 160, 176 f. 
 Luke, wrote 2 Peter 159 163 
 
 Maclear, Dr 148 
 Manna 65, 98 
 Mark 159, 179 
 
 Martineau, Dr Jas quoted 89, 102 
 Martyrs 18, 21, 29, 37 
 Maximilla 19, 21, 33, 36 39 
 Messenger of Church 208 
 Messiah, Dan 201 ; Lamb 205 f. 
 Michael 70, 131, 149 
 Millennium (of St Paul 6), 44 
 Milligan, Dr 44 
 Miltiades 20, 23, 152 
 Mnason u, 234, 242 
 Mommsen, Prof. 123, 218 
 Montanism 16, 28 40 
 Moses 97, 104, 178, 208 
 Mucianus 121, 216 
 Muratorian Fragment 81, 140 f., 
 165, 224, 240 ff. ; emended, 244 
 Mystery 5 f. ; mysteries 8 
 
 Nero 120, 212 217, 220 f., 247 
 Nerva 165, 250 
 
 New Jerusalem 25, 44, 92, 187 f. 
 Nicolaitans 65, 123 
 
 Onkelos 201 f. 
 Oracles 181, 186 
 Orthodox writers 23, 50 
 Otrous 27, 34 
 Outspreading 15 
 
 Palms 105 
 
 Papias 71, 153; quoted 107, 234, 
 250; hearer of John the Elder 
 109, 235; expositions 107, 172 f., 
 234, 238, 251 ; of Hieropolis 
 153 ; prophetic 173 f., 238, 242 ; 
 not disciple of John Evang. 235, 
 237 f., 245, 252 
 
 Paradise 4, 24, 167 f., 170 
 
 Patience 15 
 
 Patmos 124 f., 183, 1 88, 212, 216 
 
 Paul, St, prophetic apocalypse 4 f., 
 
 42, 169, 179 ; his writings are as 
 scriptures 155 f. ; at Miletus 180; 
 quotes O.T. 58 ; trial 103 ; more 
 than a prophet i8of. ; his faith- 
 door 102 
 
 Pepuza 21, 34 
 
 Pergamon 7 Satan's seat; 18, 65, 
 
 73. 123, 215 
 Perry, Mr W. C. 7 
 Persecutions of Nero and of Do- 
 
 mitian 214 
 
 Peter, 2nd Ep. of 149 ff. 
 Philadelphia 16, 187 
 Philip and daughters 16, 20, 173, 
 
 247 f. 
 
 Polycarp 172, 229, 231, 236 f. 
 Priests 80; Jewish 196 f., 209, 
 
 248 f. 
 
 Prophecy, after Apocalypse 4, 42 f., 
 47 f. ; at infancy 10; at ordina- 
 tion 10; traditional 17, 100, 256; 
 interpreted by prophets only 2, 
 T 52, X 55> 2 45; not extinct 16, 
 
 43, 47, 62, 100, 156, 198 ; points 
 back to Jesus 43 ; literary 46, 
 52 f., 48 ; respected 48; related
 
 2/6 INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS. 
 
 to O.T. 58 ff. ; genuine 50; not 
 obscure 49 ; not infallible 49 ; 
 limits 60 f., 152 ; history of 69 ; 
 how treated by John Evang. 
 8 1 ff., 101, 104; based on history 
 105, 151 
 
 Prophets, Rules in Session 2, 12, 
 24, 155, 242, 245; Rules on 
 Circuit 12 ff., 134, 145, 146; 
 speaking 2; ministering 10, 175, 
 181 ; names lof. ; hospitality for 
 
 13, 134; are priests and elders 
 
 14, 175; honoured 13; inspired 
 22, 152, 180, 198; in church 
 24; duties of 59, 134, 146; 
 usages, fasting 91 ; conservative 
 61, 90, 100 ; rejected in Syria 
 154; their themes 60, 157; 
 treatment of O.T. 61 ff., 155; 
 Chiliastic 170, 235; use John's 
 Gospel 170, 253; use the lot 
 177; apostles are prophets 151; 
 disparaged toi ; Jesus a prophet 
 101; 'servants' 104; spirits of 
 
 9 1 
 
 Prophetesses 10 f., 16, 19 ff., 22, 
 
 "5 
 
 Proselytes 93 
 Prostration 3, 43, 51 
 Protevangelium Jacobi 8 
 Punishments of Christians 18, 161, 
 212 f. 
 
 Quadratus 16, 20 
 Quotations of O.T. 62 ff., 105 ; of 
 John's Gospel 252 ff. 
 
 Rabba 200 
 
 Ram 207 
 
 Ramsay, Prof. 18, 29, 31 f., 115, 
 
 214 
 
 Repentance 196 f. 
 Resurrection 16 
 Revised Version 4, 96, 101, 103, 
 
 1 60, 174 
 Rome, Babylon 77, 125, 158, 220; 
 
 Edom 178; government of 18, 
 
 39, 124, 225; Church of 157 
 Rufinus 153 
 
 Sabbath-rest 146 ff., 188 
 Salmon, Dr 14 f., 149, 159, 210 
 Sanday, Dr 100, 130, 154 
 Sanhedrim 127 ff., 225 f., 249 
 Schiller-Szinessy, Dr 202 
 Schiirer, Dr 69, 71 f., 121, 127 
 Sealed 85 f., 93, 189 
 Seeing God 54, 84 ; angels, souls, 
 
 85 
 
 Serpent 94 
 Servants 104 
 Seven Churches 42, 46, 50, 52, 54, 
 
 56 
 
 Seven heads 210 
 Seven lamps 56, 184 
 Seven spirits 56, 88, 107, 184, 
 
 198 
 
 Seven stars 66 f. 
 Sheep 14, 101 
 Shepherd 181 ; with rod of iron 
 
 9, 101, 191, 194 
 Shiloh 206 
 
 Sibylline oracles 71, 221 
 Signs 15, 93 
 Silas 146, 179 
 
 Simcox, W. H. 114 ff., 125, 200 
 Smyrna 39, 123 
 Sodom and Gomorrha 149 
 Son of Man 88 
 Son of Sirach 100 
 Souls beneath the altar, 76 f., 
 
 85, 186 
 Spirit, speaking in 13, 42, 48 ; 
 
 see Seven 
 Spirit, Holy 56, 197 ; not given 
 
 99 f. ; unknown 145, 196 
 Spitta, Dr 18, 54 
 Stablish, a prophetic term 155 f. 
 Star 90, 194; of Nativity 8 
 Stars wandering 67, 148 
 Stone 193 
 
 Suetonius 121 f., 217 
 Superscriptio 140 f. 
 Suppression 153 f. 
 Sword 83, 191 
 
 Tacitus 121, 212, 215 
 Targums 201 ff., 205 ff. 
 Tartarus 149, 158
 
 INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS. 277 
 
 Taylor, Dr C. 105 
 
 Teaching of App. 12, 79, no, 
 134; see DidachS 
 
 Temple 91 f., 187 
 
 Ten honis 216, 221 
 
 Tertullian 23 f., 68, 153, 196 
 
 Testament 130; two 168; ? Cove- 
 nant 17 
 
 Tests of prophecy 13, 18 ff., 21, 
 
 33- .49 
 
 Themison 21, 33 
 Theodotus 31, 37, 40 
 Theologus 115 
 Thousands 66, 144 ; thousands of 
 
 235; see Chiliasm, Millennium 
 Thyatira 78, 184 
 Time measured 70, 79 
 Titus 92, 121 
 Tongue-speaking i ff. , 198 
 Tradition concerning John, 17, 
 
 230, 232, 236 f., 239 
 Trajan 165, 229 f., 251 
 Transfiguration 25, 150 
 Tree 207 
 
 Truth, prophetic 13, 143 
 Twelve 87, 187 
 Types 149, 168, 174 
 
 Unbelief of Jews 93, 98 
 
 Vespasian 120 f., 212, 218 
 Vischer,Eb. 131, 183, 204, 207, 220 
 Visions 95, 135 
 Vologeses (-us) 121, 217 
 
 Washing 103, 197 
 
 Weiss 63 
 
 Westcott, Bp 82, 127, 135 f., 138, 
 
 141, 154, 196, 222, 229, 231, 
 
 241, 244 if. 
 Wills, Roman _ 1 30 
 Witness 43, 9598, 177 
 Wolves 14, 33, 181 
 Word of God 82 ff., 97, 147, 
 
 191 
 
 World 99, 118 
 Writing prophecy 41, 46 ff., 50 ff. 
 
 Yoke 177 
 
 Zahn, Prof. Th. 3, 20, 41 ff., 46 ff., 
 49 f., 54 ff., 113, 123, 127, 130, 
 
 169, 206, 2O8, 211, 22O f., 227, 
 252 
 
 Zoticus 19, 27 f., 33 f., 37 
 Zunz 202 
 
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