THE HOMILETIC REVIEW.

VOL. IX.-APRIL, 1885.-No. 4.

REVIEW SECTION.

L-THE POETICAL IMAGERY IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION.-No. II.

BY JAMES M. LUDLOW, D.D.

In our first article we gave abundant evidence that the greater part of the poetical imagery in the Book of Revelation was drawn, from neither the fancy nor the inspired imagination of the writer, but from the Old Testament Scriptures. This gives to the book its most prominent characteristic-viz., that of a rhetorical resumé, as well as a prophetic conclusion, of Sacred writ; and, at the same time, it points to John, the last survivor of the Apostolic College, as its author.

II.

Of the remaining imagery of the book, perhaps the greater part can be associated with, if not traced to, the RABBINICAL LITER

ATURE.

John, as a devout Jew, and one who, in comparative youth, maintained an acquaintance with the more scholarly and priestly class among his people (John xviii: 15), was undoubtedly familiar with the maxims of the Rabbins, with their comments upon the Old Testament Scriptures, and with the peculiar customs which had grown out from the ritual of worship. For our knowledge of these things we must go to the Talmud and Targums, which, though swollen with many legalistic and fantastic conceits of the later Rabbins, preserve for us the records of the opinions and customs of the pre-Christian

age.

In these Jewish books we find many expressions and allusions, so similar to those in the Apocalypse, that we are forced to regard them as more than coincidences. We are not warranted in saying that John was indebted, in every such instance, to the Rabbinical thought. These books were written, in their present form, after John's time, chiefly by the hands of such Rabbins as Judah, Jochanan, Ashè and

Abina, whose schools covered the first five Christian centuries. It is possible that they may have borrowed expressions from John; it is probable that they were influenced by the prevalent sentiment of the Christian ages in which they were living, even as the infidel books of our day are filled with high moral ideas which are taken from the Christian culture they decry. But it is difficult to believe that the intense and bitter anti-Christian spirit of the Jewish Rabbins, what we may call their seclusiveness of thought, would have allowed them. to import the exact phraseology of the New Testament into their works. We think it is but fair to assume, especially regarding the customs and rites of the old Jewish Church, which were either still practiced or kept in vivid memory by the tenacity of oral tradition, that the Rabbinical accounts are honest and trustworthy. The actual date at which such customs and traditions were conserved in writing has little to do with the historic value of the statements themselves. We shall, however, pronounce no judgment upon the priority of utterance, as between the Book of Revelation and these "literary remains" of the Jewish mind. We are confident that there is nothing derogatory to the dignity or inspiration of John in the assumption that he made use of some of the more significant and popular of these time-honored proverbs and usages of God's ancient people, in order that he might fill them with a transcendantly deeper meaning than they ever had before, even as Moses and Elias were luminous in the transfiguration glory of Christ.

Much has been made of the parallelisms between the Gospels and Talmud. But they are far fewer than those between the Revelation and the Rabbinical writings; and, at the same time, less significant. They are generally but repetitions of a principle or sentiment-e. g., Our Lord's saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit" is paralleled with that of R. Joshua ben Levi in the Sanhedrim, "Behold, how acceptable before the Lord are the humble." Christ's "Blessed are the merciful," "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake;" His sayings against adultery, ostentation in religion, etc., are along the line of the common conscience, and similarity of utterance signifies nothing as to originality. It will be observed, from the instances we give, that the Johannean and Rabbinical parallelisms are of a very different order, and relate to the exact rhetorical form. Without presuming to be exhaustive, the following citations will show the Jewish tinge of John's thought, the hue of the atmosphere through which the divine light passed.

The representation of Christ as the "Alpha and Omega," the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet (Rev. i: 8), was doubtless suggested by the Rabbinical common saying, "From Aleph to Tau," the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, by which the idea of completion was signified. In Yalcut Rub. we read, "Adam trans

gressed the whole law from Aleph to Tau.... Abraham kept the law from Aleph to Tau. . . . When God pronounced a blessing on Israel, He did it from Aleph to Tau." These Hebrew letters, when joined, make the word "Eth," the definite article, which the Rabbins regarded as primarily signifying substance (Eben Ezra). Thus the Syriac version translates Gen. i: 1, "The (eth) heavens and the (eth) earth," by words equivalent to the substance or being, the matter and primal forces of the heavens and the earth. The expression in Revelation would thus be recognized by every Jew as a picture of Christ as the source and summation of the created universe.

The definition of God as He "which is, and which was, and which is to come" (Rev. i: 4), is the Rabbinical paraphrase of the name "Jehovah," which was commemorated in the three hours of daily prayer. In Chasad Shimuel we read: "These hours point out the holy, blessed God; he who was, who is, and who shall be. The Morning prayer points out him who was before the foundation of the world: the Noonday prayer points out him who is; and the Evening prayer points out him who is to come."

the seven

"The seven spirits which are before the throne” (Rev. i: 4) remind one of Jonathan ben Uzziel's comment on Gen. xi: 7: "God said to angels which stand before him," etc.; and of Raphael's announcement in Tobit xii: 15: “I am one of the seven holy angels which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One."

"The

seven stars in his right hand (Rev. i: 16), which are afterward interpreted to be the seven angels of the churches, are used thus by Jonathan ben Uzziel on Ex. xl: 4: "Seven lamps of the canlike the seven stars which the righteous resemble."

dlestick are

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keys of hell and death" (Rev. i: 18) are suggestive of, and probably suggested by, the saying in the Jerusalem Targum on

Gen. xxx: 22: "There are four keys in the hand of God which he never trusts to angel or seraph: 1. The key of the rain; 2. The key of provision; 3. The key of the grave; 4. The key of the barren

womb."

“The second death" (Rev. ii: 11) is an expression we find in Jerusalem Targum

on Deut. xxxiii: 6: "Let Reuben live in this world and not die by the second death."

"The doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel" (Rev. ii: 14), is not expressly stated in the Old Testament; but the abominations mentioned in Num. XXV. are by the Targum writers attributed directly to the counsel of Balaam.

“Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white” (Rev. iii: 4). This saying is illumined by the statement of Maimonides, that the San

hedrim "examined the priests concerning their genealogies and blemishes: every priest in whom was found anything faulty in his genealogy was clothed and veiled in black, and went out of the court; but every one that was found perfect and right was clothed in white and went in and ministered with his brethren, the priests."

Christ is called "the Amen, the faithful and true witness" (Rev. iii: 14). The Rabbinical comment on Prov. viii: 30 says: "Amen is the sign of God, the faithful King;" and the Jews regarded the word as standing for a number in the Cabalistic tree, which designated the energy of God, and answered to the two names, Jehovah and Adonai. -(Gill in loc.)

The "strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book?" etc. (Rev. v: 2), is a magnificent projection upon the screen of the ages of that common Temple scene, where the President of the Temple summoned the priests to their parts in the service with these words, "Who is worthy let him take his part." The Rabbinical comment on Gen. v: 1 reads: "Whoever is worthy to look in it (the Book of the Generations of Adam) knows by it the wisdom which is from above." But who may be worthy to look into the book which chronicles the purposes of God that have not yet been born into

events!

The souls of martyrs are said to be "under the altar" (Rev. vi: 9). The Jews had a saying, "One buried in the Holy Land is as if buried under the altar, and whosoever is buried under the altar is as if buried under the throne of glory." (Maimonides.)

Seven angels are represented as standing before God, who had been performing various services in the magnificent worship of the Upper Temple. (Rev. viii: 2.) But we read (v. 3): "And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne." But why another angel? Could not one of the seven who were before God offer this incense of the world's great prayer? We get a side light on this from the Talmud, which tells of an old Temple custom, not prescribed in the Scriptures: "Incense was always offered by a fresh man, so that a priest might burn incense only once during his lifetime."

The child caught up to God and His throne, and thus preserved from the devouring dragon (Rev. xii: 5) is not unlike the child of Rachel, who, when it was born on the night of the slaughter of the innocents in Egypt, was caught up to heaven by Michael, and set under the protection of the throne.

Satan, "the accuser of our brethren" (Rev. xii: 10), suggests the Targum of Jonathan on Num. xxix: 1: "The first day of the month

Tisri is appointed for the blowing of trumpets to confound Satan, who comes to accuse.

Is the new song (Rev. xiv: 3) the new song which the Jews believed even the angels have never used; the unwritten and unvoiced refrain to that which first rose from the shores of the Red Sea, and swelled through the generations?

The saints standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion had "his Father's name written in their foreheads." (Rev. xiv: 1.) This is a figure borrowed from the use of phylacteries. The Jews were tempted to literalize everything in their Scriptures. God told the people (Exod. xiii: 9) to remember His providential guidance by keeping the Passover, using this figure: "It shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hands, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth." After the return from the captivity the orthodox Jew wore on his forehead a little box containing passages of Scripture. On the outside of the box was written the letter Shin (Sh). The strap which held it on the forehead was tied in a knot shaped like the letter Daleth (D). There was a similar box worn upon the arm, tied there by a strap knotted in the shape of the letter Yod, or I. These three knots, together with the letter on the box, spelt Shaddai, or Almighty, one of the names of God. John works this comparatively trifling formality of the Jews into a sublime figure of the consecration of the saints, and of God's covenant with them; for they have, as it were, the Father's name written in their foreheads."

"Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." (Rev. xvi: 15.) In the Talmud xiv: 1, we read of this custom of the watchmen guarding the sacred site on which the Temple stood, or, as it was called, "the Mountain of the House:" "The Captain of the Mountain of the House went round to every watch in succession with torches flaming before him, and to every guard who did not stand forth, the Captain said, Peace be to thee! If it appeared that he slept, he beat him with his staff; and he had permission to set fire to his cushion— (e. g., his overcoat or cloak which he had rolled up for his cushion). And they said, What is the voice in the Court? It is the voice of the Levite being beaten, and his garments burned, because he slept on the ground." Only one who was familiar with this custom of the temple guards would have represented Christ, the Captain of His people who are set for the guarding of truth and purity on earth, "Behold, I come as a thief: Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame."

"Their works do follow them." (Rev. xiv: 13.) The Jews said (Pirke Eliezer on Isaiah lviii: 8) that good deeds say to a good man about to die, "Go in peace: before thou gettest thither we will go before thee."