VIII. The schemes of interprelation—preterist, Viii. The schemes of interprelation—preterist, continuous, and _Attire—which the different com mentators have adopted, must be rejected, with the exception of the first. Expositors of the con tinuous and futurist class fall into the fatal error of converting Apocalyptic poetry into historical prose ; and of making all symbols significant. Nor are preterists usually free from blame. In applying their principle of interpretation, they are sure to err if they endeavour to show that all was trozr/yfit/filled in the immediate future ; or that the seer was everywhere guided infallibly in his prognostications and hopes. The apostle's stand point should be correctly estimated. His syncrasy must be apprehended. The mode in which the old prophets depicted the future should be known—not as if they were able to predict definite events succeeding one another in the ar rangements of Providence, but as they dimly saw the things to which their enraptured spirits were carried forward, and painted them in ideal colours. Their own sentiments, hopes, desires, and fears are elements in the pictures they drew—pictures whose general outline alone should be considered real to them, though it may be so to us in a very different sense.
IX. To enumerate all the mistakes committed by interpreters of the Apocalypse would be impossible. We can only glance at a few prominent ones.
First, The historic basis should not be aban doned, else imagination has ample range for wild extravagance. The writer did not forego time and place—elements that cannot safely be neglected by the interpreter. Thus he states that the things must shortly come to pass, and that the time is at hand. So likewise at the close it is said, that the things must shortly be done. The Saviour affirms, Behold, I come quickly. These expressions are sig nificant as to the period of the visions. The advent of Christ is announced to take place within a short time. One city is the theatre of sublime and ter rible occurrences—Babylon built on seven hills ; Rome the representative of heathenism or anti christian idolatry. In this catastrophe the judg ment culminates, and the new Jerusalem succeeds. Historic personages of John's time appear in the book. Seven Roman emperors are alluded to, and one in particular. Unless the expositor ad here to the historic present and immediate future of the seer, he will lose himself in endless conjec ture. Jewish ideas of Messiah's advent should be known not less than Jewish-christian ones. The prophet stood in the historical circumstances of his own time, and described the second advent in a series of dramatic visions which are ideal poetry. In this particular Eichhorn has erred to some extent.
Secondly, It is a fundamental mistake in explain ing the Apocalypse to look for a detailed history of the church, or of the leading events in the world's history that affect the Christian religior.. Some find an epitome of the church's history even in the epistles to the seven churches. Others find it in the remainder of the book ; others in both to gether. Hence particular events are assigned to particular periods, persons are specified, peoples characterised, and definite names assigned. In this fashion are sketched the vicissitudes through which the Christian religion has passed in the world. The allegorising process by which the present scheme of interpretation is supported cannot be repudiated too strongly. The ablest advocates of it are Vitringa, Mede, Faber, Heng stenberg, Ebrard, Auberlen, and Hofmann. It is inconsistent with the scope of the Apocalypse as well as the analogy of prophecy, and, leads to arbitrary conjectures.
Thirdly, We should not look for a circumstance, event, person, or nation, corresponding to the images of the seer. All the particular traits in this large work,' says Hug, `are by no means sig nificant. Many are introduced only to enliven the
representation, or are taken from the prophets and sacred books for the purpose of ornament : and no one who has any judgment in such matters will deny that the work is extraordinarily rich and gorgeous for a production of western origin.' This plain principle has been systematically violated by nearly all English commentators, including Elliott in particular. Thus, in explaining the language employed to describe the effect of the fifth angel trumpet (ix. 1, etc.), the star fallen from heaven is pronounced Mohammed, by birth a star on the horizon of the political firmament, but a neglected orphan, because his family had lost the keys of the Caaba. The secret cave of Hera, near Mecca, was the pit of the abyss, whence the pestilential fumes and darkness issued. The key of the abyss was given him in allusive contrast to the key of God in the Koran. The locusts, to which the Saracens are compared, are peculiarly Arabic. The very name of the one suggests the other, both being similar in pronunciation and radicals, ;mt., (arbeh) and N313, (arbi) ! Akin to this absurd process is the sense attached to the three frog-like spirits issuing out of the mouth of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet (xvi. 13) ; the first being democratic infidel lawlessness and rebellion, the second popery, and the third Oxford Tractarianism. If the absurdity of this method needs farther ex posure, the reader needs only to look at the hypothesis respecting the two witnesses in the eleventh chapter, which Ebrard, reviving an old view, refers to the law and the gospel ; and another has assumed to be the Son and the Spirit of God ; whereas they are Elias and Moses, as the whole description shows. In like manner, the fourth vial being referred to the wars of the French Re volution—the words, `power was given him to scorch men with fire' (xvi. 8), alludes to Napoleon, who employed artillery to an extent beyond all former example in military annals, and inflicted fiery suffering both on his own nation and others. The men thus scorched blasphemed the name of God, who had power over these plagues, and re pented not to give him glory' (xvi.. 9), which means that the suffering nations during that fearful period (1789-1809) did not renounce the papal apostasy for a purer faith. The author of the New Testament in Greek and English (Mace), published 1729, makes the tail of the great red dragon to be Simon Magus. Another expositor tells us that the woman in the 12th chapter ' repre sents the covenant of redemption ; and the child to be brought forth, the righteousness provided by the covenant ; that is, the destined means of counter acting the power of the legal accuser or avenger— the means of delivering the sinner from a yoke even worse than that of Egyptian bondage.' Fourthly, The principle of synchronisms has been largely adopted by interpreters since the days of Mede and Vitringa ; an explanation and defence of it being found in the Clavis Apocalyptica of the former. A scheme so ingenious has been followed by the majority of English expositors, especially by Faber. The same events, it is said, are repre sented by a succession of symbols, the symbols being varied, while the things they signify are the same. Instead of the hook being continuously pro gressive, it is progressive and retrogressive through out. The principle in question is connected with that interpretation which finds an epitome of his tory in the book, and stands or falls with it. The series of visions is progressive ; but as the events which the seer depicts are nearly the same, the progression is not historical, but prophetic-ideal. It is rhetorical and poetical ; not a description of successive events.