13. The Witness Of The Apocalypse
THE WITNESS OF THE APOCALYPSE
A Summary View of Early Conceptions The peculiarity of the Book of Revelation, as an Apocalypse, gives it the superficial appearance of standing apart from the other books of the New Testament in a class by itself. It requires little scrutiny of its contents, however, to assure us that this is true only of its form. In the matter of the designations it applies to our Lord, for example, the cursory reader is impressed by their novelty and astonished by the richness of their suggestion; but on analyzing their content he soon discovers that they embody in their splendid phraseology no other conceptions than those he has been made familiar with in the other books of the New Testament.
Indeed, there is a sense in which it would not be untrue to say that the Book of Revelation, written as it was at the close of the first Christian century (c.
A. D. 96), gathers up into an epitome and gives vivid, and we may say even emotional, expression to the whole century's thought of Jesus. A certain
comprehensiveness is thus imparted to its christological allusions which has puzzled the critical student and been made by him the reproach of the book and even the occasion of denial to it of unity of composition. It is in truth merely a witness to the unity of the conception of Jesus which characterized the whole Apostolic Church, finding, indeed, varied expression according to the idiosyncrasy of each writer, but remaining through all variety of expression essentially the same.
Two Classes of Designations The long list of designations in which this conception of Jesus is at least in part embodied in the Book of Revelation may be perhaps somewhat roughly divided into two classes. We say roughly divided because the separating line is an uncertain one and the two classes melt insensibly into one another. These two classes may perhaps equally roughly be discriminated as simple and descriptive designations: simple designations, that is to say, names merely designating our Lord, though, of course, no one of these names merely designates our Lord, but all have more or less of a descriptive element; and descriptive designations, that is to say, designations which are more or less elaborate descriptions of His nature and functions.
Simple Designations The simple designations are, in accordance with the general character of the book as a symbolical Apocalypse, both few and infrequently employed.
In the formal opening of the book we have—as in the formal opening of several others of the New Testament books (Mt 1:1, 18, Mk 1:1, Jno 1:17,
Rom 1:1, 1 Cor 1:1, Gal 1:1, 1 P 1:1, 2 P 1:1, [Jno 1:3, 2 Jno 3], Jude 1)— the full ceremonious name, 'Jesus Christ' (1:1, 1, 5). In the formal closing verses of the book the place of this solemn designation is taken by the
somewhat more descriptive designation 'the Lord Jesus' (22:20, 21, cf. however, v. r. 'Jesus Christ' in verse 21). The simple 'Jesus' occurs more frequently (1:9, 9, 12:17, 14:12, 17:6, 19:10, 10, 20:4, 22:16), and, if we may be allowed the expression, appears to be the more emotional, as distinguished from the more formal, simple designation of our Lord in this book. The simple 'Christ' occurs only twice (20:4, 6), although in what we may call its more descriptive form—that is in its appellative use—'the Lord's Christ (Anointed),' 'God's Christ (Anointed),'—it occurs twice more
(at 11:15, 12:10). The term 'Lord' seems to be a designation of Christ at 14:13: and His Lordship is of course copiously recognized elsewhere, not merely by implication as in the designation of a day as "the Lord's day"
(1:10), but in a series of elaborately descriptive designations the simplest of which is perhaps 'the King of Kings and Lord of Lords' (19:16), varied to 'the Lord of Lords and King of Kings' (17:14, cf. 1:5, 2:1, 12, 3:7, 5:5). Of the more common Messianic designations, besides the fundamental 'the Christ' (11:15, 12:10; and in compounds 1:1, 2, 5) and 'Christ' (20:4, 6), only 'the Son of God' occurs, and that but once (2:18, cf. 'my Father,' 2:27,
3:5, 21; 'His God and Father,' 1:6; 'my God,' 3:2, 12), and accompanied by descriptive adjuncts which give it its very highest connotation. Our Lord's own 'Son of Man,' however, has its echo in the description of Jesus in two visions as "one like unto a Son of Man" (1:13, 14:14): and by the preservation in this designation of the "like unto" of the Danielic vision
(7:13)—strengthened from the simple ὡς to the emphatic ὅμοιον,—the seer manages to assert with great strength the essential deity of our Lord. He was not a son of man but only "like unto a son of man." He even enhances this implication by interweaving into the description traits drawn not only from Daniel's "Son of Man," but also from his "Ancient of Days."5 The
Johannine designation of 'the Word of God' (19:13) also occurs as the name of the conquering Christ, apparently with the implication that in Jesus is manifested the definitive revelation of God in which He addresses Himself to man with irresistible power. Probably the "man child" (or "son") of 12:5
(cf. 12:13, "the man") ultimately refers to our Lord: and if so it also is doubtless Messianic, taking hold at once of Is 66:7 and Psalm 2:9, possibly even of Gen 4:1: in any event the allusion is to the conquest of evil by this
Son of the woman.
Descriptive Designations 'The Lamb'
The more elaborate descriptive titles which are applied to our Lord embody the same circle of ideas as are more briefly suggested by the simpler designations; and only more vividly and richly express their contents. Some of these have for their burden the saving activities of our
Lord and may therefore fitly be called soteriological. A good example of these is provided by the direct description of Him as "Him that loved us and loosed us from our sins by His blood" (1:5). But the most striking and at the same time the most frequently employed descriptive designation of this class is that which calls Him "the Lamb that hath been slain" (5:12, 13:8, cf.
5:6, 9, 7:14), or more commonly simply "the Lamb" without express but always with implied reference to the actual sacrifice (5:8, 13, 6:1‚ 16, 7:9,
10, 14, 17, 12:11, 14:1, 4, 10, 15:3, 17:14, 19:7, 9, 21:9, 14, 22, 27, 22:1, 3).
Indeed, we understate the matter when we say this is the most frequently employed descriptive designation of Christ of its class. It is in fact the most frequently employed designation of Jesus of any kind, and must be looked upon as embodying the seer's favorite mode of conceiving of Jesus and His work. He even uses it in such a manner as to suggest that it had acquired for
him much the status of a proper name, and suggested itself as a designation of Jesus even when the mind of the writer was dwelling on other aspects of His work than that most closely symbolized by this title. There could be no more striking indication of the high significance the writer attached to the sacrificial death of Christ, and to the dominance of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah in the framing of his Messianic conceptions; matters which are otherwise copiously illustrated by his language.9 Other prevailingly soteriological designations advert especially to our Lord's resurrection,— such as that by which He is spoken of as 'the First born of the Dead' (1:5); and others still to His trustworthiness, such as when He is called 'the Faithful and True' (19:11), or 'the Faithful Witness' (1:5), and more elaborately 'the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the beginning of the creation of God' (3:14); or again, 'He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the keys of David, He that openeth and none shall shut and that shutteth and none shall open' (3:7).
Accumulative Designations The transition from these soteriological designations to those which are more purely honorific, or perhaps we might better say, ontological, is very gradual, or indeed insensible: and nothing is more characteristic of the book than the sharp contrast into which designations of the two classes are brought by their immediate conjunction. Thus, for example, we read: "And I wept much, because no one was found to open the book, … and one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not, behold the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah
… hath overcome to open the book.… And I saw in the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing as though it had been slain, … and he came and taketh the book
…" (5:4 seq.). There is no question of mixed metaphors here: there is only
question of bringing together in Jesus by the most varied of symbols all the aspects of the Messianic prediction, and the exhibition of these all as finding their fulfillment in Him. All these designations are distinctly
Messianic in their ground tone, and the Messianic ground tone is taken from all forms of the Messianic expectation, but perhaps prevailingly from that associated in the Gospels with the title of 'Son of Man,' to which there is manifest allusion even in passages in which there is not only no adduction of that title, but no direct designation of our Lord from that point of view
(1:7). The great opening description of our Lord as 'Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth'
(1:5) unites already nearly all forms of designating Him employed in the book. Here is the simple name, the recognition of His dependableness, and the ascription to Him of the inauguration of life and of universal sovereignty. The Messianic ground tone is especially prominent in such designations as those which call Him 'the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David' (5:5), or 'the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright, the morning Star' (22:16), but passes more into the background in such as those which speak of Him as 'the Son of God who hath eyes like a flame of fire and His feet are like unto burnished brass' (2:18), or 'He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, He that walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks' (2:1), or 'He that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars' (3:1). It is His Messianic function of judgment which is thrown forward in the description of Him as 'He that hath the sharp two-edged sword' (2:12); 'He that is the ruler of the kings of the earth' (1:5), 'whose eyes are like a flame of fire' (2:18), and who, since His dominion is universal, is 'the Lord of Lords and King of Kings' (17:14, 19:16)— although a greater than a Messiah is obviously here. The climax is attained
in the description of Him as 'the First and the Last, which was dead and lived again' (2:8), 'the First and the Last, and the Living One' (1:18), 'the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End'
(22:13), in whose hands are the destinies of men (1:18, 3:7).
The Deity of Our Lord Trinitarian Background It seems scarcely necessary to draw out in detail the wealth of implication of deity which these designations contain. The Apocalypse does not apply to our Lord directly the simple designation 'God.' But everything short of that is done to emphasize the seer's estimate of Him as a divine Being clothed with all the divine attributes. This is generally allowed; and those who are set upon having the Apocalypse witness to a lower christology commonly content themselves with the remark that its language must not be taken at its face value. Baur, for example, contends that although the highest predicates are ascribed to Jesus, they are "only names borne outwardly by Him, and are not associated with His person in any inner unity of nature"; that "inner connection between the divine predicates and the historical individual who bears them" is lacking. In point of fact these divine predicates are there; and whether the seer means anything by them may be safely left to the reader to decide. Jesus is represented as emphatically as God Himself, as the living one (1:18), eternal (1:18), omniscient (1:14,
2:18, 19:12), the searcher of the reins and hearts (2:23), in whose hands are the keys of death and hell (1:18). If in reminiscence of Is 44:6 where the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, declares of Himself: "I am the first and the last: and beside me there is no God,"—God is represented as announcing: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end" (21:6, cf. 1:8), Jesus equally (despite the strong
monotheistic assertion of the original passage) is represented as announcing: "I am the first and the last, and the living one" (1:17, 18, cf.
2:8), "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end" (22:13). Indeed, in the opening address we have one of those
Trinitarian arrangements which betray the real underlying conception of deity in others, too, of the New Testament writers: "Grace to you and peace from Him which is and which was and which is to come"—that is Jehovah, of which this is an analysis,—"and from the seven Spirits"—that is the Holy
Spirit set forth in His divine completeness,—"and from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth" (1:4 seq.). In the presence of such pervasive and universally recognized ascriptions of deity to our Lord we need not stop to expound the significance of such designations as that by which He is called not merely the 'Amen and the faithful and true witness,' but 'the principle of the creation of God' (3:14)—that is to say, the active agent in creating all that God creates. It is abundantly clear that the Christ of the Apocalypse is a divine person.16