Fifthly, We cannot now enter into the desig nations of time occurring in the Apocalypse. Those who take a day for a year have never proved the truth of their opinion. In prophecy a day means a day as elsewhere, unless the number be indefinite. This has been proved by Maitland, Stuart, and Davidson. Most numbers in the Re velation should not be taken arithmetically, but indefinitely. They are employed as part of the poetic costume, and are borrowed from the G. T.
Sixthly, In the 13th century began that peculiar exegesis which refers the book in part to heretics and sectaries. The Romish Church set the ex ample. Innocent III., in rousing up the crusade, said that the Saracens were the true antichrist, Mohammed the false prophet, and 666 years the duration of his power. As the Church of Rome grew more corrupt, its opponents applied to it the descriptions of the book. The pope was identified with antichrist ; and Rome papal with the great whore of Babylon. Since the Reformation, Pro testants have usually found in the Revelation the papacy and its destruction. We need not say that the allusion is baseless. Protestant antipapal exegesis has as much foundation as Rome's anti heretic one. Thus Signor Pastorini explains the fifth trumpet (ix. 1-r1) of the rise and progress of the Reformation. The star falling from heaven is Luther, who, renouncing his faith and vows, may be said to have fallen. When he opened the door of hell there issued forth a thick smoke, or a strong spirit of seduction which had been hatched in hell. A Protestant parallel to this is Elliott's
application of the beast in xiii. and xvii. to the succession of popes.
X. The best book on the literature of the Apo calypse is that of Liicke ( Vtrsuch einer gen Einleitung in die Offenbarung des 7ohannes, oder allgemeine Untersuchungen weber die apoha lyptische Litteratur ueberhaupt, and die Apokalypse des 7ohannes insbesondere. Zweyte Aqflage, Bonn 1852). To this may be added Diisterdieck's Kritisch exegetisches Handbuch ueber die Opn. yohannis, 1859, with the introductions of Bleek and De Wette.
The best commentaries are those of Ziillig 1840), De Wette (1848), Ewald (1828 and 1862), Diisterdieck (1859), Bleek's Lectures (1862), and Volkmar (1862). Some good remarks are con tained in Reuss's Histoire de la Thiologie chretienne an siecle apostolique, i. 429, et seqq., 2d ed. The most esteemed English works have been Lowman's Commentary, Mede's Clavis with the commentary attached to it, and Woodhouse's Commentary. Of more recent books, Stuart's Commentary, that of Hooper, and Desprez's Apocalypse Fulfilled, have their respective merits. The most pretentious is that of Elliott, 4 vols. 8vo, 5th edition, 1862, whose scheme is fundamentally erroneous. We regret to say that the observations prefixed to the Apocalypse, in the editions of the Greek Testa ment published by Alford and Wordsworth, con tribute nothing to the understanding of the hook. —S. D.