Part 7 (1/2)
This question brings us face to face with the most remarkable structural phenomena of the book, and cannot be understandingly answered until we have considered them.
The outstanding characteristic of Revelation is its adaptation of literary material dealing with, and applicable to, one historical and geographical situation, to another situation almost completely different. The opening chapters, devoted to ”John's” vision on Patmos and the conditions and dangers of the seven Churches of Asia, employ indeed some of the expressions of the substance of the book. The promises of the Spirit to the churches recall the glories of the New Jerusalem of the concluding vision of the seer. There is some reference to local persecution at Smyrna incited by the Jews (”a synagogue of Satan”) and which is to last ”ten days,” and there is an isolated reference to a martyrdom of days long gone by in the message to the church in Pergamum (ii. 13) recalling remotely the blood and suffering of which the body of the work is full. This we should of course expect from an adapter of existing 'prophecies.' But the converse, _i. e._ consideration for the historical conditions of Ephesus and its sister churches, on the part of the body of the work, is absolutely wanting. On the one side is the situation of the Pauline churches on the east coast of the aegean in A.D. 93-95. The prologue and epilogue (Rev. i.-iii. and xxii. 6-21) are concerned with these churches of Asia, and their development in the faith, particularly their growth in good works, purity from defilements of the world, and resistance to the inroads of heretical teaching. The message of the Spirit, conveyed through ”John,”
is meant to encourage the members of these churches to pure living in the face of temptations to worldliness and impurity. The epistles to the churches, in a word, belong in the same cla.s.s with the Pastorals, Jude, and 2nd Peter, as regards their object and the situation confronted; though they are written to enclose apocalyptic visions which deal with a totally different situation.
The visions, on the contrary, take not the smallest notice of (proconsular) Asia and its problems. Their scene is Palestine, their subject the outcome of Jerusalem's agonizing struggle against Rome. From the moment the threshold of iv. 1 is crossed there is no consciousness of the existence of such places as Ephesus, Smyrna and Thyatira. The scenes are Palestinian. The great battle-field is Har-Magedon (_i. e._ city of Megiddo, on the plain of Esdraelon, the scene of Josiah's overthrow, 2nd Kings xxiii. 29 f.). ”The city,” ”the great city,” ”the holy city” is Jerusalem; though ”spiritually (in allegory) it is called Sodom and Egypt” (_i. e._ a place from which the saints escape to avoid its doom). When the saints flee from the oppression of the dragon it is to ”the wilderness.” When the invading hordes rush in it is from beyond ”the Euphrates.” When the redeemed appear in company with the Christ it is on Mount Zion; they const.i.tute an army of 144,000, twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes. Two antagonistic powers are opposed. On the one side is Jerusalem and its temple, now given over to the Gentiles to be trodden under foot forty and two months, on the other is Rome, no longer, as with Paul, a beneficent and protecting power, but the city of the beast, Babylon the great harlot, at whose impending judgment the Gentiles will mourn, but all the servants of G.o.d rejoice. Jerusalem rebuilt, glorified, the metropolis of the world, seat and residence of G.o.d and his Christ, will take the place of Rome, the seat of the beast and the false prophet. The gates of this New Jerusalem will stand open to receive tribute from all the Gentile nations, and will have on them the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The foundations of the city wall will have on them ”the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”
All this is c.u.mulative proof that the horizon of the seer of Rev.
iv.-xx. is that of Palestine. Its expansion in the introductory Letters of the Spirit to the Churches to include the seven churches of (proconsular) Asia, is as limited in its way as the original. The later writer merely adds the special province where he wishes the 'prophecy'
to circulate, with its special interests; there is no real interrelation of the two parts.
It is a problem of great complexity to disentangle the various strands of this strange and fantastic work, certain as it is that we have here a conglomerate whose materials come from various periods. Some elements, such as ch. xi. on the fate of Jerusalem, seem to date in part from before 70; others, such as ch. xviii. on the fate of Rome, show that while originally composed for the circ.u.mstances of the reign of Vespasian or t.i.tus, the time has been extended to take in at least the beginning of that of Domitian.[26] The author rests mainly upon the Hebrew apocalyptic prophets, such as Ezekiel, Daniel and Enoch, but he has not been altogether inhospitable to such originally Gentile mythology as the doctrine of the seven spirits of G.o.d, and the conflict of Michael and his angels with the dragon. He intimates himself that his prophesying had not been confined to one period or one people (x. 11).
When he translates the ”Hebrew” name of the angel of the abyss, ”Abaddon,” into its Greek equivalent (ix. 11), or uses Hebrew numerical equivalents for the letters of the name of a man (xiii. 18), it is not difficult to guess that this prophecy had at least its origin in Palestine. In fact, there is no other country where the geographical references hold true, and no other period save that shortly after the overthrow of Jerusalem by t.i.tus, that affords the historical situation here presupposed, when wors.h.i.+pping ”the beast and his image” is demanded of the saints by the earthly ruler (Domitian), and the overthrow of the seven-hilled city by one of its own rulers in league with lesser powers is looked forward to as about to avenge the sufferings inflicted on the Jews. As regards this hope of the overthrow of Rome, we know that the legend of Nero's prospective return at the head of hosts of Parthian enemies to recapture his empire gained currency in Asia Minor in Domitian's reign, and this legend is certainly developed in Rev. xiii.
and xvii. On the other hand, the author, if he ever came to Asia, did not cease to be a Palestinian Jew. He operates exclusively (after iv. 1) with the materials and interests of Jewish and Jewish-Christian apocalypse. He has no interest whatever in the churches of Asia. He does not betray by one syllable a knowledge even of their existence, to say nothing of their dangers, their heresies, their temptations. He does make it abundantly clear that he is a Christian prophet (x. 7-11), and (to us) almost equally clear that he is _not_ one of the twelve apostles whose names he sees written on the foundation-stones of the New Jerusalem (xxi. 14). But since his prophecy, with all its heterogeneous elements had to do with the final triumph of Messiah, and the establishment of His kingdom, after the overthrow of the power of Satan--since it depicted ”the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints and to them that fear thy name,” it could not fail to be welcomed by orthodox Christians in (proconsular) Asia. For the churches of Asia were engaged at this time in a vigorous struggle against the heretical deniers of the resurrection and judgment. Only, a mere anonymous prophecy from Palestine could not obtain any authoritative currency in Asia. To be accepted, even among the orthodox, some name of apostolic weight must be attached to it, as we see in the case of the two Epistles of Peter and those of James and Jude. The Epistles of the Spirit to the churches are, then, as truly ”letters of commendation” as though they introduced a living prophet and not merely a written prophecy. The John whom they present is not called an apostle for the very simple reason that the visions themselves everywhere refer to their recipient as a 'prophet.' The author of the prologue and epilogue does not disregard the language of his material. As we have seen, he carefully weaves its phraseology into the 'letters.' So with his insertion of the name ”John.” It occurs nowhere but in i. 1 f., 4, 9 and xxii. 8 f. All these pa.s.sages, but especially xxii. 8 f., are based upon xix. 9_b_, 10, adding nothing to the representation but the name ”John” and the location ”Patmos.” In fact, xxii. 6-9 reproduces xix. 9 f., for the most part verbatim, although it is clearly insupposable that the seer of the former pa.s.sage should represent himself as offering a _second_ time to wors.h.i.+p the angel, and as receiving _again_ exactly the same rebuke he had received so shortly before. He who calls himself ”John” in xxii.
8 is, therefore, _not_ the prophet of xix. 10. The epilogue itself has apparently received successive supplements, and the prologue its prefix; but he who inserts the name John has done so with caution. He may not have intended to leave open the ambiguity found by Dionysius and Eusebius between the Apostle and the Elder, as a refuge in case of accusation, but he has at least been careful not to transgress the limits of the text he reproduces. The seer spoke of himself as a ”_prophet_” writing from the midst of great _tribulation_, about the _kingdom_ to follow to those that _endured_. He had said that he received ”true _words of G.o.d_” from an _angel_ who declared ”I am a fellow _servant_ with thee and with thy _brethren_ that hold _the testimony of Jesus_” (_i. e._ the confession of martyrdom). The prologue, accordingly, describes ”John” as a _servant_ of Jesus, who received from an _angel_ the _word of G.o.d_ and _the testimony of Jesus_ (i. 1 f.). He is a _brother_ and partaker in the _tribulation_ and _kingdom_ and _endurance_ which are in Jesus. When he comes to Asia it is ”for the _word of G.o.d_ and _the testimony of Jesus_.” The spot whence he issues his prophetic message is not located in Ephesus, or in any city where the residents could say, ”But the Apostle John was never among us.” He resides temporarily (as a prisoner in the quarries?) in the unfrequented island of Patmos. Thence he could be supposed to see ”in the Spirit” the condition of affairs in the churches of Asia without inconvenient questions as to when, and how, and why.
Footnote 26: Note the addition of an ”eighth” emperor in ver. 11.
We may think, then, of this book of 'prophecy' as brought forth in the vicinity of Ephesus near ”the end of the reign of Domitian” (95). But only the enclosing letters to the churches, and the epilogue guaranteeing the contents, originate here at this time. The 'prophecies,' occupied as they are exclusively with the rivalry of Jerusalem and Rome, and the judgment to be executed for the former upon her ruthless adversary, bear unmistakable marks of their Palestinian origin, not only in the historical and geographic situations presupposed, but in the ”defiant” Hebraisms of the language, and the avowed translations from ”the Hebrew.” They are an importation from Palestine like ”the sound words, even the words of the Lord Jesus”
referred to in the Pastorals. The churches of Asia are feeling the need of apostolic authority against the deniers of the resurrection and the judgment, as much as against the perverters of the Lord's words. Such centres as the homes of the prophesying daughters of Philip at Ephesus and Hierapolis were even more abundantly competent to supply this demand than the other. Agabus will not have been the only Judaean prophet who visited them, especially after the ”great tribulation” which befell ”those in Judaea.” There is nothing foreign to the habit of the times, even in Christian circles, if nameless 'prophecies' from such a source are translated, edited, and given out under cover of commendatory epistles written in the name of ”John” at a time when John had indeed partaken both of the tribulation and of the kingdom of Jesus. They would hardly have obtained currency had they not been attributed to an apostle; for a denial of the apostolicity of this book has always deprived it of authority.
On the other hand, the actual (Palestinian) prophet has no such exalted opinion of himself as of those whose names he sees written on the foundation of the walls of the New Jerusalem (xxi. 14). He is not an apostle and does not claim to be. He shows not the faintest trace of any a.s.sociation with the earthly Jesus, and indeed displays a vindictiveness toward the enemies of Israel that has more of the spirit of the imprecatory psalms than the spirit of Jesus. He thinks of Jesus as a king and judge bestowing heavenly rewards upon the martyrs in a manner quite inconsistent with his rebuke of James and John (Mark x.
40). It is a far cry indeed from this to apostles.h.i.+p and personal intimacy with Jesus.
The chief value of Revelation to the student of Christian origins is that by means of its clearly determinable date (Ephesus, 93-95) he can place himself at a point of vantage whence to look not only around him at the conditions of the Pauline churches as depicted in the letters, vexed with growing Gnostic heresy and moral laxity, but also both backward and forward. The backward glance shows Palestine emerging from the horrors of the Jewish war, filled with bitterness against Rome, held down under hateful tyranny and longing for vengeance upon the despot with his ”names of blasphemy” and his demands of wors.h.i.+p for ”the image of the beast” (emperor-wors.h.i.+p). Here Jewish apocalyptic (as in 2nd Esdras) and Christian 'prophecy' are closely in accord. Indeed a considerable part of the material of Rev. iv.-xxi., especially in chh.
xi.-xii. is ultimately of Jewish rather than Christian origin. What the development of Christian 'prophecy' was in Palestine from apostolic times until the scattering of the church of ”the apostles and elders”
after the war of Bar Cocheba (135), we can only infer from the kindred Jewish apocalypses and the chiliastic ”traditions of the Elders” quoted by Irenaeus from Papias. A forward look from our vantage point in Ephesus _c._ A.D. 95, shows the effects of the Palestinian importation extending down from generation to generation, first in the long chiliastic controversy against the Doketic Gnostics, including Montanist 'prophecy'; secondly, in the growth of a claim to apostolic succession from John.
(1) In the chiliastic controversy for a century the chief bones of contention are the (non-Pauline) doctrine of the resurrection of the _flesh_ (so the Apostles' Creed and the second-century fathers), and that of a visible reign of Christ for a thousand years in Jerusalem. The new form of resurrection-gospel which at about this time begins to take the place of the apostolic of 1st Cor. xv. 3-11, centering upon the emptiness of the sepulchre and the tangibility and food-consuming functions of Jesus' resurrection body, instead of the ”manifestations”
to the apostles, is characteristic of this struggle against the Greek disposition to spiritualize. Luke and Ignatius represent the att.i.tude of the orthodox, Ignatius' opponents that of those who denied that Jesus was ”in the flesh after his resurrection.” Revelation, like the ”traditions of the Elders,” champions the visible kingdom of Messiah in Jerusalem.
(2) In the effort for apostolic authority the writings which came ultimately to represent Asian orthodoxy have all been brought under the name and authority of the Apostle John, although for many decades after the appearance of Revelation, Paul, and not John, remains the apostolic authority to which appeal is made, and although the writings themselves were originally anonymous. There was, indeed, a contributory cause for the growth of this tradition in the accidental circ.u.mstance that a Palestinian Elder from whom Papias derived indirect, and Polycarp in all probability direct, traditions, bore also the name of John, and survived until A.D. 117. Still, the main reason why this particular apostolic name was ultimately placed over the Gospel and Epistles of Ephesian Christendom, can only have been its previous adoption to cover the compilation of Palestinian 'prophecies' of A.D. 95.
PART IV
THE LITERATURE OF THE THEOLOGIAN
CHAPTER IX
THE SPIRITUAL GOSPEL AND EPISTLES
Asia, as we have come to know it through a succession of writings dating from Colossians-Ephesians (_c._ 62) down to Papias (145), had come to be the chief scene of mutual reaction between 'apostolic' and Pauline Christianity at the close of the first century. Here at Ephesus had been the great headquarters of Paul's missionary activity. Here he had reasoned daily in the school of one Tyrannus, a philosopher, and had found ”many adversaries.” Here he had encountered the ”strolling Jews, exorcists,” and had secured the destruction of an immense ma.s.s of books of magic. Here, according to Acts, he predicted the inroads of heresy after his ”departure,” and here the succeeding literature abundantly witnesses the fulfilment of the prediction. Ephesians and Colossians begin the series, the Pastoral Epistles (_c._ 90) continue it. Then follow the 'letters to the churches' of Revelation (95) and the Ignatian Epistles (110-117), not to mention those whose origin is uncertain, such as Jude and 2nd Peter.
The Pastorals already make it apparent that even the Pauline churches are not exempt from the inevitable tendency of the age to fall back upon authority. The very sublimity of Paul's consciousness of apostolic inspiration made it the harder for the next generation to a.s.sert any for itself. Moreover heresy was growing apace. If even the outward pressure of persecution tended to drive the churches together in brotherly sympathy, still more indispensable would appear the need of traditional standards to maintain the ”type of sound doctrine,” ”the faith once for all delivered to the saints.” Without such it would be impossible to check the individualism of errorists who took Paul's sense of personal inspiration and mystical insight as their model, _without_ Paul's sobriety of critical control under the standard of ”the law of Christ.”
It is no surprise, then, to find even at the headquarters of Paulinism early in the second century a sweeping tendency to react toward the 'apostolic' standards. In particular, as Gnostic exaggeration of the Pauline mysticism led continually further toward disregard of the dictates of common morality, and a wider divergence from the Jewish conceptions of the world to come, it was natural that men like Polycarp and Papias should turn to the Matthaean and Petrine tradition of the Lord's oracles, and to the Johannine 'prophecies' regarding the resurrection and judgment.
Had nothing intervened between Gnostics and reactionaries the most vital elements of Paul's gospel might well have disappeared, even at this great headquarters of Paulinism. The Doketists, with their exaggerated h.e.l.lenistic mysticism, were certainly not the true successors of Paul.
They showed an almost contemptuous disregard for the historic Jesus, a one-sided aim at personal redemption, by mystic union of the individual soul with the Christ-spirit, to the disregard of ”the law of Christ,”
even in some cases of common morality. Paul was characterized by a splendid loyalty to personal purity, to the social ideal of the Kingdom, and to the unity of the brotherhood in the spirit of reciprocal service.