Volume IV
The Revelation of Saint John the Divine.
With John Brown’s marginal references, notes and reflections · Vol. IV, p. ?
This book contains the visions which the apostle John received in the desert isle of Patmos, to which the emperor Domitian had banished him, about A.D. 96. (1) After a preface and introductory vision of Christ, it contains seven doctrinal epistles to the seven churches of Proconsular Asia, which also contain warnings and directions to the church in every age, ch. i.-iii. (2) After an introductory vision of an enthroned God and Redeemer, it represents the fate of the church, and of the world as connected with it, from the ascension of Christ till the end of time, under the emblems of seven seals of a book opened, the seventh of which introduces seven trumpets, and the seventh of which trumpets introduces seven vials for the destruction of heathenism,—after which the glorious thousand years, the last judgment, and eternal state, take place, ch. iv.-xxii. The series of the predictions is carried on in ch. vi. viii. ix. xi. xx.; and the other chapters are explanatory digressions. The first six seals represent the state of the church and Roman empire, from A.D. 33 to 323. The first six trumpets represent their fate from A.D. 338 to 1866, or 2016. The seventh trumpet extends from thence to the end of the world; in the beginning of which period the seven vials will be poured upon those who reject Christ.
[During the first two centuries of the Christian church this book was uniformly ascribed to John the apostle—commonly called The Divine, either on account of the deep things of God with which his writings abound, or because he wrote so much concerning the Divine Person of the Logos, or Word. The apostle was banished to Patmos, a small island in the Ægean Sea, in the latter end of the reign of Domitian, A.D. 95 or 96; and Justin Martyr, who lived about sixty years later, speaks of him as the unquestioned author of the Apocalypse. Indeed, his authorship, and the apostolical authority of the book, were never questioned till the third century, when certain opinions respecting the millennium having been deduced from it, the opponents of these opinions, as the most effectual mode of refutation, commenced to deny the canonical character of the book itself. This, however, though a ready, was a most illogical way to victory; for there is no book of Scripture that comes recommended to the church with stronger external or internal evidence. The references to the other Scriptures are very numerous, among which may be specially noted, Ge. 2. 9; Ex. 3. 14; Nu. 24. 14; 25. 1; 31. 16; 1 Ki. 16. 31; 21. 25; Is. 1. 18; 2. 19-21; 21. 9; 22. 22; 34. 10; 44. 6; 55. 1, 2; 63. 2; 65. 17; 66. 22; Je. 51. 7, 8; Eze. 1. 5, 26-28; 3. 3; 37. 5, 9, 10, 14; 38. 2, &c.; xl.; 47. 1-12; Da. 7. 2-20; 12. 1-7; Zec. 4. 2, 11-14; 6. 2-8; 13. 1. C.]