3

representative of false prophecy which appears specially as the spiritual power, by which the restored Roman Empire secures for itself the heathen world. But Christ had also warned believers of false prophets (Mark xiii. 22), and had prophesied of false Messiahs (Matt. xxiv. 5; comp. § 33, a). Paul had, at the same time, regarded the Jewish pseudo-Messiah as the highest incarnation of this pseudo-prophecy (§ 63, c). The Second Epistle of Peter had also, in the appearance of the doctrines of false liberty, conjectured the approach of the pseudoprophecy of the last times (§ 128, d, footnote 8). Our book, too, knows of a Satanic false prophecy (ii. 20, 24; comp. ver. 2), which seduces Christianity to heathenish libertinism. Hence also, if, even in the circle of visions, in which our prophet more especially moves, false prophecy is above all effectual on heathenish ground, yet these manifestations cannot on that account be considered excluded within Christianity, so far as it seduces believers to heathenish immorality, and likewise moves them thereby to pay homage to the worldly power. interpretation of iesparsien, but evidently in the present of the seer), that he may rage against the Church of God (xiii. 5-7), while the final ruler of the world, who is identical with the beast (xvii. 11), as soon as the ten horns have given him their power (ver. 13), at once begins that last struggle with Messiah in which he perishes (ver. 14), and thus therewith the identification of the beast in chap. xiii. with the personal Antichrist becomes impossible. The Apocalypse knows as little of the 34 years of this personal Antichrist as it does of 3 decades to be distinguished from it, which Gebhardt, p. 285 [E. T. 271], reckons up. The reference of the numerical mystery, xiii. 18, to Nero, which seems to be opposed by the weightiest reasons, decides nothing on the main question, since in any case this so mysteriously significant name cannot be simply a personal name, but a designation of the essential characteristic; and thus even the Roman Empire, as such in its antichristian quality, may be henceforward designated by the name of the first persecutor of the Christians.

3 At the bottom of this idea there lies, no doubt, the fact that Vespasian had obtained the imperial power by the help of heathen oracles and miracles, and also that the empire had been restored by the power of heathen jugglery; but it cannot possibly refer to the mere existence of "mathematicians and others such like round about Nero" (Hilgenfeld, p. 429). How the image, which the false prophet is said to make for the beast (xiii. 14), or the worship of it (ver. 15), is to point to Nero personally, is not to be understood, since the beast in reality is ever present only in a single bearer of imperial power who may be represented; but the image to which divine honours are given, naturally does not represent him so much in his person, as rather in his imperial dignity, ¿.e. as the holder of imperial power. But that, to the author of the Apocalypse, there was but a very small distinction between the honour given to the new emperor, and the blasphemous apotheosis of him, Hilgenfeld, p. 428, himself admits.

VOL. II.

R

(c) When it is said that the beast was, and is not, and will come again from the abyss, in order to go to destruction (xvii. 8), this can only indicate that the beast in his present form, ie. the Roman Empire under the mild rule of its ruler Vespasian, has no longer the former antichristian quality which it once bore under the rule of the persecutor of the Christians, Nero, but it will assume that power once again in greatest energy, and will then at once go to destruction. With this is connected, quite in the way of the Jewish apocalyptic system, the combination of the author, by which he seeks to interpret the impending development of the worldly power, hostile to God in its yet remaining elements. The number of the heads of the beast is given him by Daniel as seven (note a); the coincidence of these with the number of the seven hills on which the woman, i.e. the worldly metropolis, was enthroned (xvii. 3, 7; comp. ver. 9), is altogether a token to the author that for the beast which bears the woman (xvii. 3), i.e. or the Roman Empire, a series of seven rulers is appointed. According to ver. 10, five of these heads, i.e. the first five Caesars from the old dynasty of Caesars, have now already fallen. Since the Caesar of the interregnum, during which the beast suffered its deadly wound (note a), is not naturally included, the sixth is, the presently reigning Vespasian. His son Titus follows him as the seventh, since with

To the return of Nero, who evidently appears as one of the heads, xvii. 10, and is dead, this enigmatic word cannot be at all referred, since the beast, even during the time he is not (i.e. during the time his antichristian quality was not shown), is seen by the inhabitants of the earth (ver. 8 : Basπóvtwv T. Onp.), is even wondered at and worshipped (xiii. 3, 4), and must therefore be. The coming up of the beast from the abyss, on the other hand, naturally refers to the future (ver. 8: xapíora); for the author of the Apocalypse clearly distinguishes between the beast, in so far as it comes up out of the sea in his presence (xiii. 1), in order, after the healing of the deadly wound, to bring about the time of tribulation to the whole Church, and that which comes up out of the abyss (not out of Hades, as the dead Nero would) at the conclusion of the three and a half years (xi. 7, xvii. 8), i.e. the beast personified by the daemonic power in the last world-ruler, but which then goes away at once into destruction (comp. footnote 2). That an identity is explicitly expressed of this last emperor, and of him only (xvii. 11), with the beast, does not justify an identification of the beast with any other emperor, but forbids it (comp. footnote 1). It similarly decides against the identification of the beast in ver. 8 with one of the heads, that the beast, which carries the whore, i.e. makes Rome the world empire (xvii. 3, 7), can be only the empire as such, and not Nero risen again, who rather destroyed Rome (ver. 16).

Vespasian there has appeared a new imperial house; but Titus, as the end is at hand, can reign but a short time. there is then an eighth, according to Dan. vii. 27, to come, then the last personification of the beast can only be he, in whom its antichristian qualification comes quite again to manifestation; and the bearer of this development which makes the empire ripe for judgment, and thus directly brings about the end, the author sees already, in the second descendant of the new imperial house, in Domitian (ver. 11).5 Just in this, that all the historical figures, which lie in the circle of the visions of the author of the Apocalypse find their application in the course of the development indicated in the prophecy, he sees the security for this, that with the highest realization of the antichristian principle in the third of the Flavians the end will come.

(d) As once the fall of Jerusalem was to be the signal for the final catastrophe (§ 33, b), so now, when the former stands at the beginning of the time of the last tribulation, it is the fall of the world's metropolis. The way in which the prophet

5 The reference to Nero, which, besides, makes the motive for this apocalyptic combination quite perplexing, is here also excluded, for this reason, that the eighth is not designated as one of the seven, but as descended from the seven (that is to say, from Vespasian), in which there is for the author implied no genealogical notice (only in which case it would be to require, with Hilgenfeld, p. 433, ix rou ixrov); but the indication of this, that that eighth, who will be the incarnation of antichristianity, stands already in his circle of visions as a descendant of the new imperial house. A reminiscence of this correct reference of the Apocalypse is preserved in the singular error of Irenaeus, by which it is to be written under (instead of with reference to) Domitian. I will not contend with Hilgenfeld, p. 432, on this point, whether the author of the Apocalypse could ascribe rather to Otho and Vitellius than to Titus a short reign, since, finally, the shortness of the reign ascribed to the seventh Caesar is ever required from the nearness of the end generally. But why it should be "a mad expectation," that Domitian will overthrow the empire of his father and brother by the governors of the provinces, it being presupposed that he, as the author of the Apocalypse regards it, comes forth equipped as the the most perfect organ of Satanic might, and therefore with its powers, I cannot conceive. Hilgenfeld seeks to show that the year 68 offered for the combination of the author of the Apocalypse a very favourable political constellation; but he forgets that whoever counts with such factors as that of Nero returning from the kingdom of the dead, has no longer any right to boast of historical probabilities.

"As Jerusalem, by the slaying of the Lord (xi. 8), so has Rome (xvii. 18; comp. vv. 5, 9), by the slaying of the two witnesses (xvii. 6, xviii. 20, xix. 2), by seducing all nations to the sin of fornication (§ 117, b), and to worship the worldly power (xvii. 2, xviii. 3), which, moreover, is itself represented (xiv.) as

imagines himself entering on that catastrophe is clear from chap. xvii., where the city is shown to the seer as already devastated (év épńμw: vv. 1-6). Domitian, that is to say, will obtain the empire, not in consequence of natural succession, but, as happened once in the period of the interregnum, during the reign of the seventh Caesar, a revolution will break out simultaneously in all the provinces of the Roman Empire. The rulers symbolized by the horns (xiii. 1, xvii. 3) will become independent (ver. 12); but then, having become unanimous by a sort of miracle, they still call the last Flavian to become emperor (ver. 13), and coming to Rome will destroy the capital with fire, as it would keep firm to the seventh emperor (vv. 16, 17; comp. xviii. 8). But with the fall of Rome there by no means fell the antichristian empire. Rather the last emperor, in whom the whole daemonic nature of the beast is, as it were, incarnated in league with his ten royal helpers, renews at once the struggle with the Christ and His believing people (xvii. 14), as he also fights with the two prophets of Israel, and kills them (xi. 7). Against them Messiah already, vi. 2, going forth to victory (xix. 11-13, xv. 16), comes with His heavenly hosts (ver. 14). Thus the judgment of the great day of the Lord appears (xvi. 14: ἡ ἡμέρα ἐκείνη ἡ μεγάλη τοῦ Θεοῦ ; comp. § 33, c; 40, d; 129, a), according to the typical analogy of God's judgments, which once took place in Jehovah's victories over the Gentiles gathered together against His people to battle, under

a divine judgment (comp. § 70, d), and by numberless other sins (xviii. 5–7), wrought out her destruction; and the blood of all the slaughtered holy ones is now to come upon her head, as once it came upon Jerusalem and her heads (xviii. 24; comp. Matt. xxiii. 35). The nearer this judgment of God stands (xviii. 8, 20), the more pressingly are Christians urged to flee from Rome (xviii. 4), as formerly out of Jerusalem (Matt. xxiv. 16). Even, xiv. 8, the fall of Rome appears as the beginning of the end; xvi. 19-21, it is expressly represented in symbolical imagery (comp. xviii. 21-24) as the last of the preliminary judgments (§ 130, b).

'This last fight is already prepared in this way, that, in the judgment of the sixth bowl, three daemonic spirits, which proceed from Satan and the two beasts, have seduced the kings of the earth outside the Roman Empire to gather together for the decisive battle of this day, while the way to the great slaughterfield is prepared for them by the drying up of the Euphrates (xvi. 12-16). These kings of the East have been often quite wrongly identified with the ten governors; they rather appear, xix. 19, along with their armies, to be in league with the beast, to which, indeed, the ten horns notwithstanding belong for the last fight.

the image of a great slaughter, before the beginning of which an angel summons the birds to a great feast of dead bodies (xix. 17, 18), and to a dreadful bath in blood, in which all the followers of the beast fall (ver. 21; comp. xiv. 20). The power of the Roman Empire is thereby for ever annihilated, and the two beasts are cast into the lake of fire (ver. 20).

§ 132. The Earthly and the Heavenly Consummation. Now begins the perfected kingdom of Christ on the earth, in which He rules along with His true servants and the martyrs raised from the dead; a kingdom, however, which as earthly has but a limited continuance, because Satan, fettered for a long time, breaks out finally once more against it, in order to be then destroyed for ever (a). Then only on the overthrow of the world comes the final judgment, for which all the dead are raised, either to receive eternal life, or to be delivered up to the second death (b). The perfected kingdom of God comes, in the new world, with the appearance of the new Jerusalem, with the taking of the Church home by Messiah (c). Then the perfect live for ever in spotless holiness, in divine glory and blessedness; they behold the face of God, who makes His dwelling among them (d).

(a) It is implied in the historical situation of the Apocalypse that the judgment, which the returning Christ brings, is confined to the worldly power and its associates, because enmity to God and antichristianity had been concentrated and personified in these two organs of Satan. But the mightier and the more terrible they thereby became in the present, the weaker must they become as soon as ever their organs are destroyed; and with this once more is connected the hope of an earthly realization of the kingdom of God, to be brought about by Messiah. With the overthrow of the worldly power

8 The judgment, which God executed by His Messiah, appears under other symbolical figures, when the latter reaps the great harvest with the sharp sickle (xiv. 14-16) or treads the winepress of the wrath of God (vv. 17-20; comp. xix. 15). This judgment, to be sure, is in view, vi. 10, when vengeance for the innocent blood shed is referred to. On the other hand, vi. 17, by the day of the great wrath, the real last judgment is thought of (xx. 11 ff., and therewith § 132, b), although there mention is expressly made of the wrath of the Lamb (vi. 16; comp. also xi. 18, and therewith Gebhardt, p. 300 [E. T. 285]).