APOCALYPSE. The book called the Apocalypse (or "Rev elation") of John is the last book in the New Testament Canon as received both in East and West, with the exception of the Syriac-speaking Church, which has never officially accepted it. It professes to be the revelation of Jesus Christ to His servant John in Patmos "to shew . . . the things which must come to pass shortly (iv Taxaa)," and this note of urgency is kept up all through the book. Its date, authority, value, all depend directly upon the view taken of the nature of its composition : it will therefore be convenient to begin by considering the history of its reception and some account of the views about it that have been held in the past.
What effect the Apocalypse had on the Asian Churches to which it was originally addressed we cannot say : in any case Ephesus, Smyrna and Philadelphia remained flourishing centres of Christianity during the 2nd century. Justin Martyr (Dial. 81), a little after i 5o, quotes our Apocalypse by name as an au thority for the thousand years' reign of the Saints with Christ on earth. Irenaeus (Haer. v. 29), has an extended discussion about the Number of the Beast : already (i.e., A.D. i8o) the doctrine that the Day of the Lord is a thousand years has come in, so that Irenaeus has room for regarding the book as referring to a not quite immediate future. The Alexandrians, on the other hand, made some effort to interpret the book allegorically, but even Swete, who describes Origen's interpretations as "often noble and helpful," is obliged to characterize them as "arbitrary." Tyconius the Donatist (about 39o) tried an intermediate course: the apocalyptist has sometimes in mind the eternal principle, sometimes the immediate concrete instance, so he passes without indication from "Jerusalem" to the Church, from "Babylon" to the hostile world. A few critics, like Dionysius of Alexandria (247-265), rejected the Apocalypse altogether, mainly on grounds of style, and the impossibility of supposing that it could be by the same author as the Gospel of John. But for the most part Christian interpreters, both before and after the Reforma tion, saw in the Apocalypse a cryptic history of the past and future of the Christian Church, though they differed fundamen tally in details. In modern times the attempt to find real future history in the Apocalypse has been given up; it is realized that the book would have been pointless to those for whom it was written, unless it was meant to predict the then immediate future. The explanation of the imagery has to be found in i st century conditions.
But even so it is not always easy to explain what is meant. If, for example, ch. xii. (about the Woman clothed with the Sun and her doings) is to be explained as signifying the flight of the Chris tians of Jerusalem to Pella, or ver. 14 to be an anticipation of the Disciplina arcani (so Swete, p. 155), then all that can be said is that the imagery is highly incongruous and inappropriate. On the other hand, ch. xvii. is a vision of imperial Rome on the Seven Hills, the Beast who was and is not, but will be the eighth (ver. 11), is surely Nero Redivivus : here the imagery is as clear as any where in Apocalyptic literature. There is therefore an element of cryptic history in our book, but that key does not explain everything.
It will be convenient to lay down a few axioms here which justify themselves on simple perusal.
(a) The Apocalypse is full of immense conviction and enthu siasm.
(b) It very clearly declares that it is occupied with the things that must shortly come to pass.
(c) The vision of the glorified Jesus (i. 9ff.), and many other word-pictures in the book, read like visions or dreams actually experienced—whether they were veridical "revelation" or hallu cination.
(d) The use of the Old Testament (many paragraphs are a mosaic of O.T. phrases and images) and the careful workmanship of passages like ch. xvii. show that the book is also partly a literary construction, i.e., almost certainly an interpretation of former apocalyptic pictures, canonical or non-canonical. It should be added further: (e) The writer feels his word-pictures intensely, but does not realize them pictorially at all: hence extreme "inconsistencies" and mixture of symbolism. "That the right hand (i. 16 i) holds seven stars does not hinder it from being laid on the Seer for the whole representation is symbol and not art" (Swete, p. (f) There is little progress in the Visions : the ordo temporum is not preserved. Hence repetitions (as in a dream). The scene shown goes round and round, like the heavenly bodies.
What (c) means in practice to the expositor is that certain images and combinations may have no accessible "explanation." The Apocalyptist had had a vivid picture before his conscious ness, and such-and-such a detail in it may have come to him neither from his store of biblical nor of secular images, but from the untraceable sources of true "imagination." (d), on the other hand, means that inasmuch as the original visions were carefully elaborated and meditated upon, the expositor may reasonably investigate probable or demonstrable "sources." One hitherto neglected source has been brought forward by Franz Boll of Heidelberg in his epoch-making little book called Aus der 0 f}enbarung Johannis, published in 1914, viz., the Graeco Roman Astrology current in the ist century. Previous expositors, especially Gunkel (1894) and Bousset (1896), had detected an apocalyptic "tradition" coming down from remote Babylonian mythological ideas, but what conscious inheritance had an Asiatic Christian of the ist century from pagan Babylonia? Prof. Boll, who was the leading authority on the astronomical and astrological lore of the post-Alexandrian civilization, may perhaps have had too much confidence in his method, but he proved once for all that contemporary astrological ideas are one of the sources used by "John." For instance, in vi. 9 "the altar" is mentioned without expla nation : "under" it are the souls of the Martyrs, impatient at the delay. They are not merely seen as martyrs' blood, for to each is given a white robe. All this, too, seems to take place in "heaven." Boll answers that it is in heaven, the altar is the con stellation Ara in the Milky Way, low down, and the souls are still lower down, nearer the horizon : it is not yet time for them to mount up, but that the Milky Way is the place for pious souls was the teaching of the Stoics (see, e.g., the Somnium Scipionis, much the same teaching was afterwards adopted by the Mani chees). The most brilliant example of Boll's method is his treat ment of ch. xii. What is the Woman clothed with the Sun and the Moon at her feet? Boll answers that it is actually described as a great sign in heaven (ver. I), and as the sun and moon never leave the Zodiac it must be one of the twelve, i.e., it must be Virgo. Below Virgo is the Dragon, i.e., Hydra. Further, what we call Virgo and the Semites the "Ear of Corn" (i.e., Spica) was to the Alexandrians Isis with Horus, and the Hydra-dragon is Typhon, the Nile-Crocodile. So in vv. 15-16, when the scene is transferred to earth and the Dragon makes war with the Woman, his peculiar method is to drown her with a river-flood, which fails because—still more peculiar—the earth swallows the flood. Why? Because, says Boll, we are still dealing with Isis and Typhon, and the Nile-flood, Typhon's weapon, is swallowed by the Egyptian earth.
An objector may say, "Yes, this accounts more or less for the actual imagery of ch. xii., but what has all this heathen mythology to do with Christian doctrine?" We may imagine the reply might be that however much the heathen stories may be corrupted or inadequate they may nevertheless teach true "gnosis" to the Seer, for the Stars themselves have been set in their places by God, doubtless for the edification of the Saints. And the gnosis which the Seer here puts before us is nothing less than the Birth of the Messiah in heaven, before ever the world was. Things were then even as they are now : even in heaven the Ad versary was attempting to destroy the foreordained Son of God, but deliverance comes in time and He is kept in safety by God's Throne (where indeed Enoch saw Him, see Enoch xlvi. . What happened in heaven is happening now in earth, as the Sign in heaven and the heathen tale tell us. The heavenly Mother of Christ and the Saints ("Holy Spirit" is too technical a term) is now on earth, still persecuted by the Adversary; but all will be well, God will rescue His own in time. This heavenly birth of the heavenly Christ before history began is a stage in the process of thought that led ultimately to the doctrine of the eternal gen eration of the Son of God. What view the Apocalyptist took, or even what information he had, about the earthly career of Jesus does not appear, except that He was crucified in Jerusalem (xi. 8), and that He died and rose again. He is further called in xiii. 8 "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," which seems to indicate a heavenly career, of which the earthly one was in some sense a mirror, in some sense a fulfilment.
All this may sound fanciful and far-fetched, but at least Boll's way of looking at the text gives a meaning to the actual words used in ch. xii., words which hitherto had seemed quite meaning less.
We are then to think of the Apocalyptist John as a Christian with a great knowledge of the Scriptures, and some knowledge of heathen astrology, who was sure he had had a vision of Christ, the purpose of which was to exhort his fellow-believers in Asia Minor to hold firm to their faith and hope, for their now long-expected Lord would soon come, there would be no more delay (Xpovos, x. 6) . For a short time there would be frightful catastrophes, but they would mostly fall on the persecuting world-power, now as we see in ch. xvii. centred in Rome. He tells us his Visions and gives his Message, but no doubt many a detail is not a remi niscence of his dream, .but inserted because it was so written in the oracles which he knows so well by heart.
The difference between ancient and modern expositions is that we must recognize that the expectation did not come true as John had anticipated; and, further, if we accept the general prin ciples of Prof. Franz Boll, we must believe that some of the "signs of the times" from which John drew his inferences were not events of mundane history, but the configuration of the heavens and the astrological lore that men had come to connect with that configuration.
It is noteworthy that while "John" shows on every page famili arity with the wording of the Canonical Books (particularly the Prophets, including Daniel), he does not show great familiarity with the series of Jewish Apocalypses—Enoch, Baruch, Ezra, etc.—which have been so much studied of late years. His quota tions from the Bible are not always from the LXX. (see the list in Swete, p. cxxxv. ff., e.g., iii. 7, the key of David, where lxx. of Isa. xxii. 22 has the glory) ; this may be due to the use of another Greek translation.
The Greek of the Apocalypse is very peculiar. "The Apocalypse of John stands alone among Greek writings in its disregard of the ordinary rules of syntax, and the success with which syntax is set aside without loss of perspicuity or even of literary power" (Swete, p. cxx.). It does not appear to be merely the result of an unlettered Jew trying to write Greek. Many phrases (e.g., i. 4 arro o 6v Kai o nv Kai o Epxo,. vos) are quite unparalleled else where : perhaps they were acceptable as apprlra pnµara (see 2 Cor. xii. 4) .
Be this as it may, the power and attractiveness of the "Book of Revelation" are undeniable. There is in it a personal note that differentiates it from all the other Apocalypses. It is no Seer of ancient times that is speaking, but "I, John, your brother and companion in tribulation" : here we have the new voice of Chris tian inspiration, confident that all the counsel of God has not yet been codified by the great men of old time. And nowhere else among the apocalyptists is there the same direct and pa3toral concern for the immediate needs of here and now, that palpitates through the messages to the Seven Churches. So the Christian Apocalypse renews its youth in the hearts of fresh generations of readers, notwithstanding that the clearly taught thousand-year Reign of Christ on earth was rejected by the Church of the 3rd century, and that we in our Copernican world are not expecting "the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven," of which the length and the breadth and the height are equal.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-H. B. Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John 09°6; Bibliography.-H. B. Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John 09°6; very valuable for linguistic study, and for Patristic exegesis) ; R. H. Charles, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Revelation of St. John (192o, the fullest and latest English commentary) . Dr. Charles sees consistency of thought and a regular sequence of ideas in the book, except that from xx. 4 onward an unintelligent "editor" has produced chaos (see Review by M. R. James in the J. Theol. Studies xxii. [July 1921], pp. 384-390) ; W. Bousset, Die Offenbarung Johannis (Gottingen, 1896) ; and above all, F. Boll, Aus der Offen barung Johannis (Hellenistische Studien zum Weltbild der Apokalypse) (Leipzig-Berlin, 1914) . (F. C. B.)