REVELATION OF ST. JOHN (Apok&gpsis loannou), the last book of the New Testa ment Scriptures. It professes to be the production of St. John, traditionally known as " the Divine" (he theolo gos). It has been a subject of dispute, however, whether St. John, the author of this book, is the beloved apostle, the author of the fourth gospel and of the three epistles, or not. Upon the whole, the balance of evidence and of authority seem to be in favor of the supposition that he is the same, although some distinguished names—Luther in the past, and Lucke among modern critics—have adopted the nega tive view of the question. The author's simple mention of himself by his name John; his description of himself as one "who bare record of the word of God, and of the testi mony of Jesus Christ. and of all things that he saw," is held to indicate strongly an identity with the author of the gospel, who speaks of himself.in similar language (John xix. 35). He writes from Patmos, and the apostle is the only John distinctly named in the early Christian history as an exile in Patmos. The authority, moreover, with which the writer addresses the seven churches in Asia is such as may be supposed only to suit an apostle. So far as historical testimony is concerned, the authority of the early Chris thin fathers--e.g., Justin Martyr, Theophilus of Antioch, and Irenfeus, and Clement of Alexandria—all point to the apostle John as the author of the Book of Revelation. The date of the book is supposed to be the very close of the let c., 95-97 A.D., or the end of the reign of Domitian. We cannot here particularize the contents of the book, nor can we enter into any detailed statement of the different interpretations which have been given of it. It has been the subject of very varied and conflicting commentary. It has been stated that "not less than 80 systematic commentaries arc worthy of note, and that the less valuable writings on the subject are unnumbered, if not innumerable." All that we can do here is to characterize the different schools, so to speak, into which the interpreters of this wonderful book may be arranged: 1. The Prmterist school of interpreters, who
look upon the Revelation as fulfilled in the past, and especially in the great conflicts of Christianity with Judaism and Paganism, and its triumph over them in the ages follow ing the time in which it was written. To this class of interpreters belong, among others, Grotius, Hammond, Bossuet, Calmet, Eichhorn, Ewald, ',fiche, De Wette, Stuart, Lee, Maurice. 2. The Futurist school regard tire book, with the exception of the first three chapters, as referring to events yet to come to pass; and this view has been advocated,. in modern times, by such writers as Dr. J. H. Todd, Dr. S. R. Maitland, Newton, and others. 3. What has been called the historical and continuous school of expositors,who regard the Revelation as a progressive symbolic history of the fortunes of the church from the 1st e. to the end of time. To this school of interpreters belong a host of emi nent names, such as Mede, sir I. Newton, Vitringa, Bengel, Faber, Elliot, Wordsworth, Alford, Hengstenherg, Ebrard, and others.
There are others, again, who are not disposed to allow any exact prophetical character to the book, but simply to regard it as a species of symbolical poem, setting forth the eternally-recurring principles of the divine government. The real fulfillment of the Revelation, therefore, is not to be sought in any definite historical events, but in 11w vindication of these principles shadowed forth more or less in great historical crises, yet transcending all partial historical results. The grand symbolic imagery of the book has never found and will never find its exact counterpart in any earthly facts, but it finds its spiritual counterpart constantly in the career of the church—the unceasing conflict of truth with error, of righteousness with sin, of life with death, of the kingdom of God with the kingdom of evil, and will attain to its true realization only on the destined tri umph of the former over the latter.