A Brief Commentary on the Apocalypse

by Sylvester Bliss

The throne of the Cæsars had been for ages the sun of the world; while other kings were designated as stars. The imperial power had first been transferred to Constantinople by Constantine; and it was afterwards divided between the east and the west; but the eastern empire was not yet doomed to destruction. The precise year in which the western empire was extinguished, is not positively ascertained, but it is usually assigned to A. D. 476. Some place it in 479. The imperial Roman power, of which either Rome or Constantinople had been jointly or singly the seat, whether in the West or the East, ceased to be recognized in Italy; and the third part of the sun was smitten, till it emitted no longer the faintest rays. The power of the Cæsars became unknown in Italy; and a Gothic king reigned over Rome.

Dr. Keith considers that “the concluding words of the fourth trumpet imply the future restoration of the Western empire: ‘The day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.’ In respect to civil authority, Rome became subject to Ravenna; and Italy was a conquered province of the Eastern empire. But, as more appropriately pertaining to other prophecies, the defence of the worship of images first brought the spiritual and temporal powers of the Pope and of the emperor into violent collision; and, by conferring on [pg 092] the Pope all authority over the churches, Justinian laid his helping hand to the promotion of the papal supremacy, which afterwards assumed the power of creating monarchs. In the year of our Lord 800, the Pope conferred on Charlemagne the title of Emperor of the Romans. The title was again transferred from the King of France to the Emperor of Germany. By the latter it was formally renounced, within the memory of the existing generation. In our own days the iron crown of Italy was on the head of another ‘emperor.’ ” Then the sun was suddenly darkened, as symbolized under the sixth seal, 6:12. p. 66.

The Woe-denouncing Angel.

“And I beheld, and heard an eagle flying in the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth, from the remaining voices of the trumpet of the three angels, who are to sound.”—Rev. 8:13.

The word eagle, instead of angel, is in accordance with the more recent revised editions of the Greek. It must symbolize persons peculiarly apprehensive at this crisis, of disasters to follow the extinction of the Roman empire in the west. During the first half of the sixth century, the Sclavonians invaded the east, “spread from the suburbs of Constantinople to the Ionian Gulf, destroyed thirty-two [pg 093] cities or castles, razed Potidæa, which Athens had built, and Philip had besieged, and repassed the Danube, dragging at their horses' heels one hundred and twenty thousand of the subjects of Justinian.”—Gibbon. And they continued their inroads, until the citizens became apprehensive that the Empire of the East would be extinguished like that of the West.

This symbol also indicates that the events under the trumpets which were to follow, would be far more dreadful and terrible than those of the preceding ones. For this reason, the last three are sometimes denominated The Woe Trumpets.

The Fifth Trumpet.

“And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star, which had fallen from heaven to the earth: and to him was given the key of the pit of the abyss. And he opened the pit of the abyss: and a smoke arose out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit. And locusts came out of the smoke into the earth: and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was said to them that they should not injure the herbage of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree; but only those men who have not the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not allowed to kill them, but to torment them five months: and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days men will seek death, and will not find it; and will desire to die, and death will flee from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for battle; and on their heads [pg 094] were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. And they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like those of lions. And they had breast-plates, like breast-plates of iron; and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses rushing into battle. And they had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to injure men five months. They had a king over them, the messenger of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue he hath the name Apollyon. One woe is past away; and behold, there come yet two woes hereafter.”—Rev. 9:1-12.

The previous trumpets reveal the agencies which effected the dismemberment and overthrow of Western Rome. The fifth and sixth unfold those which terminated that empire in the east, embracing the territory between the Adriatic and Euphrates, the Lybian desert and the Danube.

A star (1:20) symbolizes a messenger, or head of a religious body, p. [31]. Mohammed is generally regarded as represented by this symbol. He was, by birth, of the princely house of the Koreish, Governors of Mecca, a family of eminence.