A Bible School Manual: Studies in the Book of Revelation / An introduction, analysis, and notes, containing a concise interpretation according to the symbolic view, numerous references to authorities, and general mention of other interpretations, with the text of the American revised version edited in paragraphs, for the use of Bible students

by Stephen Alexander Hunter

(5) In the Eastern Church the book was questioned on dogmatic grounds connected with the Millenarian controversy, and it was omitted from the Canon by the Council of Laodicea (circ. A. D. 360).

(6) Finally, however, in deference to the strong testimony of the Western Church, and influenced somewhat, no doubt, by the internal evidence of the book itself, it was authoritatively accepted and universally recognized by the church at large.

The Internal Evidence for the canonicity of the book, apart from the difficulties discussed under the head of Unity, is quite clear and satisfying and is practically irrefutable, for the disputed questions of authorship and date are not of such character as to affect its canonicity. This evidence may be briefly stated as follows, viz:—

(1) The historical situation and references correspond to the time in which the book claims to have been [pg 036] written, the latter half of the first century, and are fully sustained by contemporaneous history.

(2) The literary form and diction are each suitable to the period and authorship to which the book is ascribed.

(3) The doctrinal teachings are fully and distinctively Christian, and are such as we would expect in a work of the period, written by inspiration for the whole church, viz:—(a) the Christianity it bears witness to has escaped from the particularism of Jewish thought into the broad catholicity of the Pauline Epistles; (b) Christ is presented as the divine atoning Lamb seated in the midst of the throne, co-equal with the Father; (c) the personality of the Holy Spirit is recognized, and his illuminative work illustrated; (d) the chief duties of the Christian life are those presented in the Gospels, faith, witness, and purity, while the reward of overcoming is set forth in terms of apostolic hope; and (e) the entire contents of the book, so widely different from the non-canonical literature, appeal to the instincts of the Christian heart now as in the first generation, and verify themselves afresh to the Christian consciousness in such a forceful and convincing way that this goes far to overcome any apparent objections to its canonical authority based upon subjective judgments of another class. In fact the impartial verdict of careful investigation serves to confirm the opinion that the Apocalypse is rightfully received on ample and concurrent testimony both of Historical and Internal Evidence as a part of sacred Scripture by the whole church throughout the world.

8. The Form.

The Book consists of a series of strange and impressive symbolic visions which contrast present and historic conditions of trial and suffering in the church and in the world with future and prophetic conditions of triumph and reward for the holy and of wrath and punishment for the sinful. It is an interpretative view of the divine path and plan of the centuries that is evidently given for the comfort and help of God's children in the midst of trial and distress. Its Literary Form is marked and significant, and belongs to that highly figurative style of late Jewish and early Christian writings which is known [pg 037] as the Apocalyptic Literature.[41] And though John must often have felt himself hampered and impeded by the fanciful and more or less unreal character of this literary form, yet it doubtless met more fully than any other the conditions of the time, and afforded an adequate method of reaching the devout Christian mind of that generation. This literature is distinguished both by its peculiar style and by the exceptional range of its thought, and may be described as consisting of all of that particular class of the Apocryphal writings which are couched in mystic symbols and figures, and which attempt to give an account of hidden things miraculously disclosed, especially those pertaining to the other world and to the closing events of human history. The word Apocalyptic in its present sense belongs to recent usage, being introduced by the modern critical school as a generic term to designate these writings as a distinct department of the Apocryphal books, and also to denote the literary style or art-form in which they are cast. The use of the word Apocalypse to designate the writings or books now known by that name (as the Apocalypse of Baruch, and others) is undoubtedly very old, though it did not apparently begin before the end of the first century, and seems to have taken rise from the common use of the title “The Apocalypse of John” in Christian circles to designate the Revelation, from which the word came to be applied to all writings of a similar class. Every Apocalypse is thus an example of Apocalyptic; but, owing to the late introduction of the latter term as now used, most dictionaries do not give an adequate definition.[42]

The unique symbolism of these writings constitutes their most striking and characteristic feature; and it is this uniform use of cryptic symbols instead of ordinary figures of speech that invests the Apocalypse of John with its peculiar charm, and at the same time creates the special problems of its interpretation. A symbol may be defined as a conventional objective form chosen to represent something else, often not otherwise capable of portraiture, because of some real or fancied resemblance [pg 038] that appeals to the mind; an ideal representation couched in sensuous form that embodies one or more of the prominent features of its subject, and that comes to represent a fixed conception in the world of fancy, a lower and material sign being used to represent a higher and abstract idea. The use of symbols of some sort is instinctive and universal, and grows out of a natural effort of the mind to clothe its ideas in forms that give free scope to the imagination. But the peculiar nature of the symbols and the profusion of their use in the Apocalyptic literature, serve to mark it as separate from all other literary forms. Oriental symbols, too, are so unfamiliar and oftentimes so incongruous to our minds, such as the Dragon, the Scarlet Beast, the Two-horned Beast, and even the Cherubim, that we perhaps fail to realize how much they meant to people of a primitive civilization who were possessed of a vivid imagination without scientific precision of thought. This difference in the instinctive appreciation of the nature and value of symbols, together with the wide possibilities of meaning that are apparently inherent in the symbols used in the Apocalypse, has always given room for the fertile fancy of interpreters. But the later study of the Apocalyptic writings as a class has made it plain that this effort was largely misspent, and has led to more discriminating views of the meaning and use of symbols as there found, and to their limitation by established usage, where such is known to have existed. For while the growth of recognized symbols is necessarily slow, and their origin often impossible to trace yet when they have once been formed, and have come to possess an established meaning in the public mind, they exhibit a remarkable persistence; and though their meaning may be somewhat modified by subsequent use and by particular application, yet it can scarcely suffer sudden and radical change. And let us remember that the symbols, metaphors, and other figures found in the Revelation are not purely literary: they have had a history and have acquired a recognized and conventional meaning. We have, therefore, an available guide to the interpretation of the symbols in the book furnished by their use not only in the Old Testament, in which by former interpreters they were mainly sought, but especially in Jewish apocalypses, which give the current meaning of many of them at the time when this book was written, a sense which [pg 039] could not well have been departed from to any great extent without making their meaning wholly unintelligible. And the more clearly we apprehend this fact, the more constantly we apply it in our interpretation, the more likely are we to arrive at the meaning intended.[43] For while the Western mind revolts against the oftime obscurity of Apocalyptic symbols, yet we not infrequently recur to the same method of illustration. For instance, a good example of the present day use of symbols, aided by illustrative skill, is found in such a cartoon as “The Modern Juggernaut” that appeared a few years ago, in which the wheeled car of India was transformed into a huge wine bottle full of intoxicating drink that rolls along its way, crushing out the lives of thousands of miserable victims, while the fierce dogs of War, Famine, and Pestilence have under its malign influence slipped their leash and go forth to prey upon men.[44] This symbolism in some measure parallels that of the Scarlet Beast in the Revelation, and shows how a great destructive force operating in the world may be presented to many minds in an objective form much more effectively than by any abstract verbal statement. Like a parable an apocalypse flings a great truth across our path, instinct with the touch of spiritual life.