197.  THE REVELATION.

A. The King and the Kingdom, (See Ap. 95. II and Ap. 198) in promise
     and prophecy (the Old Testament) :

    B. The King presented, proclaimed, and rejected (the four Gospels) :

        C. Transitional.  The kingdom again offered and rejected (Acts and
             the earlier Epistles.  See Ap. 180 and 181) :

    B. The King exalted and made Head over all things to "the church which is
         His body".  The "mystery" (the later Pauline Epistles.  See Ap. 193).
         The kingdom in abeyance (Heb. 2:8).

A. The King and the kingdom unveiled.  The King enthroned.  The kingdom
     set up.  Promise and prophecy fulfilled (The Revelation).


1. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one great Subject of the Word of God (cp. Luke 24:27; John 5:39), being the promised "Seed" of the woman (Gen. 3:15).  He is therefore the Master-key to the Divine revelation of the Word.  The whole Bible is about Him directly or indirectly, and as everything centers in and around Him, apart from Him it cannot be understood.

This is set forth in the foregoing Structure, from which we see that Genesis and Revelation, "the first" and "the last" books of the Bible, are inseparably linked together.  Genesis is "the beginning" and Revelation the ending of the written Word, even as the Lord, the Incarnate Word, spake of Himself (cp. 21:6; 22:13). Revelation is the complement of Genesis.  Either without the other would be unintelligible.  Genesis 1-2 finds its correspondence in Rev. 21-22 (see Ap. 198).

Without the first chapters of Genesis, Revelation would be an insoluble riddle, as indeed it is to those who treat the record of the "Creation" and the "Fall" as "myths" (See 2Tim. 4:4).  Without the last chapters of the Revelation "the Book" would be a hopeless and heart-breaking record of the failure and doom of the Adamic race.

The Bible may be likened to a beautiful and complex girdle or belt, with a corresponding connecting clasp at each end, one the complement of the other.  Do away with either, the girdle is useless as a girdle.  So here, Genesis and Revelation are the two clasps of the Divine Word, which link together and enclose between them in "perfection of beauty" and harmony the whole of the Scriptures in which God has been pleased to reveal His "Eternal Purpose" (Ap. 198).


2. ITS SCOPE, &c.  The key to unlock the meaning and scope of the book is found in 1:10.  "The Lord's day" = THE DAY OF THE LORD (Jehovah).  (See Isa. 2:12)  John was not in "a state of spiritual exaltation" on any particular Sunday at Patmos, as the result of which "he saw visions and dreamed dreams".  But as we are told, "I came to be (or found myself) by the Spirit in the day of the Lord" (cp. Ezek. 1:1; 8:3, &c.).  He is then shown, and both sees and hears (22:8), the things he records.

"The day of the Lord" being yet future, it follows that the whole book must concern the things belonging to "that day", and consequently is wholly prophecy.  Though partial adumbrations of judgment may be traced in connection with affairs of past history, yet the significant, solemn warning here (1:10) that the "judgments" in Revelation relate to the day of the Lord, "the day of vengeance" (cp. Isa. 61:2; 63:4, &c.), makes it clear that the book concerns the future, and the day of the unveiling (the Apocalypse) of the great "King of kings and Lord of lords" (see Ap. 198).

Its scope is further shown by its place in the Canon.  The order of the separate books of the N.T. varies, but they are always formed in four groups that never vary chronologically.  (See Ap. 95. II.)

The Gospels contain the prophecies of the great tribulation :  Revelation describes it.  Between, come the Scriptures of the intermediate period, Acts and the Epistles.  Chronologically and canonically, Revelation follows after the Epistles, though logically in God's purpose (Eph. 3:11) it follows the Gospels.  Therefore we see the scope embraces the wind-up of all the affairs of time; it records the end of prophecy, the end of "the secret of God" (10:7), the end of all "enmity towards God", and the dawn of the "ages of the ages".


3. ITS HEBREW CHARACTER.  The language of the book is Greek " its thoughts and idioms are Hebrew.  This links it with the O.T., and shows that its great purpose is to declare God's final dealings with the Jew and the Gentile as such; and that "the church of God" of the Pauline Epistles and this dispensation (Ap. 195) has no place in Revelation (other than in association with its glorified Head). See Ap. 193.  All the imagery of the book, Temple, Tabernacle. &c., belongs to Israel.

Again, in Matthew (the Hebrew Gospel) are some 92 quotations from and references to the O.T.  In Hebrews there are 102.  In Revelation are found no fewer than 285.  This emphatically stamps its close connection with the O.T. and Israel; and it equally stamps the latest utterances of "modern scholarship", viz. that "whatever view may be taken of the indebtedness to Jewish sources, there can be no doubt that he (the writer) has produced a book which taken as a whole is profoundly Christian", as being the dicta of men who, wittingly or unwittingly, are blind to this fundamental fact of Revelation.

THE TITLES OF CHRIST further attest its Hebrew character :

        (i) "The Son of Man" (1:13; 14:14).  Never found in the Pauline Epistles
             to the "churches".  See Ap. 98. xvi and Ap. 99.

        (ii) "The Almighty" (1:8; &c.).  See Ap. 98. iv.

        (iii) "The Lord God" (3:8 and see 2:.6).  Cp. this title with Gen. 2:4-3:24
              in connexion with "paradise".

        (iv) "The First and the Last" (1:11, 17; 2:8; 22:13).  Never associated
              with "the church which is His body".

        (v) "The Prince of the kings of the earth" (1:5).  Never used in
              connexion with "the church".

        (vi) "Who is to come" (= The Coming One), 1:4, &c.  Occ sixteen times
               in the Gospels, Acts, Hebrews (10:37); three times in Revelation, and
               nowhere else.

        (vii) "The Living One" (1:18).  A title only found in Daniel (4:34; 12:7)
               and six times in this book.  Thus linking Daniel and Revelation
               in a very special manner.


4. THE "BRIDE" AND THE "WIFE" of 21:9 must not be confused with the "wife" of 19:7.  The latter is Israel called out from among the nations for blessing in "the Land"; the earthly consort of "the Great King" (cp. Ps. 45; Jer. 3:14).  This "wife" (19:7) is connected with the Millennial Jerusalem which, with the rest of the earth "that now" is, will pass away and give place to the new earth with the new Jerusalem, succeeding and replacing the former.  "The bride, the Lamb's wife" of 21:9, is still of Israel, but the Israel of the "heavenly calling" (Heb. 3:1) :  all those connected with the "heavenly country" and "the city with the foundations" for which they "looked" (Heb. 11:13-16); the "Jerusalem above" of Gal. 4:26.  Hence the significance of the term "bride" (numphe) in 21:9.

The Israel of 19:7 is not spoken of as bride (numphe), because she has become wife (gune). Cp. the "married to you" = am become your husband (consummation), of Jer. 3:14, and see the Note there relating to the "restoration" time.  Here (21:9) the term "bride" indicates clearly that the betrothal has taken place and that the marriage will be consummated when the bride shall have come down out of heaven. John sees her coming down (pres. part.), 21:10.

The loose way in which we speak of a "bride" as not only a contracting party at the time of the marriage ceremony, but also of her after she has become wife (gune), is responsible for much confusion as to the "wife" of 19:7 and the bride-wife of 21:9.  Strictly speaking , "bride" is to be applied only to a betrothed virgin (Gr. parthenos = Heb. hethulah), when the marriage (legal) ceremony takes place.  Directly after, she ceases to be "bride", and has become (legally) "wife", although from the forensic point of view consummation of the marriage may be delayed (cp. Matt. 1:25, and see the Note there).

According to the Mosaic Law, a betrothed maid (Heb. bethulah) was legally a wife ('ishshah), (cp. Matt. 1:18, 20 with Deut. 22:23, 24); hence Joseph's trouble and temptation (see Matt. 1:20).  A careful study of the terms in Matt. 1:18-25 will afford a clue to a clearer understanding of the terms "bride" and the two "wives" of Rev. 19:7; 21:9 than volumes of commentary.

If the earthly millennial metropolis is real, so is this also, for both are spoken of in the same terms.  And if the laying of "thy stones with fair colors" and "thy foundations with sapphires" (Isa. 54:11) is spoken of the day when God is to be called "the God of the whole earth" (see v. 5), it must refer to the time of Isa. 65:17; 66:22 and Rev. 21:1.  Moreover, laying foundations implies a solid substratum on which to lay them, i.e. earth.  Foundations are of no use to a city "suspended" in the air!

The same argument applies also to the "tree of life" and the "water of life".  If the "river" and "trees for meat" of Ezek 47:1-12 are real and literal, so also are the "tree" and the "water" of life here.  Again, both are spoken of in identical terms.  There is no more room for "imagery" in the one case than the other.  The "tree of life" lost in the paradise of Genesis is here seen restored to the whole earth in the day when "the God of the whole earth" will "tabernacle" with men, - (and be) "their God" (Rev. 21:3).  There is no place for "symbolism" in either case.


5. The more important Figs. of Speech are noted.  These will supply helpful keys where the symbolism is not Divinely explained or indicated, and will enable the student to judge whether Revelation is purely Johannine "symbolic imagery", as some affirm, and a "legitimate appeal to Christian imagination"; or whether the book is, as it claims to be, a deliberate setting forth proleptically of the actual scenes and events with which God declares that His purposes concerning the heaven and the earth shall be consummated.

6. NUMBERS hold a prominent and significant place in Revelation.  These in order are: - 2 (occ. eleven times); 3 (eleven); 3 1/2 (twice); 4 (thirty); 5 (three); 6 (twice, including 13:18); 7 (fifty-four); 10 (nine); 12 (twenty-two); 24 (seven); 42 (twice); 144 (four); 666 (once); 1,000 (nine); 1260 (twice); 1,600 (once); 7,000 (once); 12,000 (thirteen); 144,000 (three); 100,000,000 (once, 5:11); 200,000,000 (once 9:16). Twenty-one in all (3 x 7 = 21. See Ap. 10).

Seven is thus seen to be the predominant number, occurring fifty-four times (3 x 3 x 3 x 2 = 54. Ap. 10). Twelve comes next - twenty-two occ. Seven, ten, and twelve, with their multiples, run throughout the book.  In the Notes attention is called to other numbers of great significance.  The student will thus be enabled to work out for himself many problems connected with the question of number in Scripture. Some examples are here given of word occurrences.

        6 times; Babulon, basanismos (torment), theion (brimstone) :

        7 times; abussos (bottomless pit), axios (worthy), basileuo (reign), etoimazo
                     (make ready), makarios (blessed), propheteia (prophecy), semeion
                     (sign, &c.), hupomene (patience), charagma (mark), Christos:

        8 times; Amen, thusiasterion (alter), planao (deceive), Satanas, sphragizo
                    (seal), stephanos (crown), nux (night):

        9 times; deka (ten), kainos (new), krino (judge), marturia (testimony),
                    pantokrator (Almighty), polemos (battle, &c.):

        10 times; alethinos (true), eikon (image), thumos (wrath), keras (horn),
                      prosopon (face), hora (hour), salpizo (to sound):

        12 times; dunamis (strength), phiale (vial) :

        14 times; aster (star), Iesous, doulos (servant); &c.

The word arnion (lamb) occ. 29 times ("the Lamb" 28 = 4 sevens : the other occ. 13:11).  Elsewhere only in John 21:15. hagios (holy) occ. 26 times according to the texts, which omit 15:3 and 22:6, and add 22:21; otherwise 27 times (3 x 9 or 3 x 3 x 3) : doxa (glory) occ. 17 times (10 + 7) :  eulogia (blessing and ascription) 3 times; ethnos (nations) 23 times; nikao (overcome) 17 times : drakon (dragon) 13 times : plege (plague, &c.) occ. 16 times (4 x 4).

Phrases occ. frequently, e.g. (i) he that hath an ear 7 times; if any man hath an ear occ. once : (ii) third part , 16 times : (iii) the kings of the earth, 9 times.


7. CONCLUSION.  The "tree of life" (22:2) and the "water of life" (vv. 1, 17) are seen to be the great central subjects of the new earth.  No longer will there be any "curse" (v. 3). In place of the "Fall" we have restoration.  Instead of expulsion -- "lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever" (Gen. 3:22) -- is the gracious invitation to those who "have right to the tree of life" (v. 22), "Come, whosoever desireth, and let him take the water of life freely" (v. 17).

8. The Benediction (22:21) not only completes the correspondence of the Structure (p. 1883), but appropriately closes the whole of the Book of God.  "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). In this dispensation all is of grace.  Grace now, glory hereafter (cp. Ps. 84:11).  In the time coming, with which Revelation is concerned, grace will be given to "endure to the end" (Matt. 24:13) to all who come "out of the great tribulation" (7:14); to all slain under antichrist "for the Word of God" (6:9); and to all who "have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (12:17).  "Grace, grace."  ALL IS OF GRACE !