A mighty angel, the representative of Christ and bearing his insignia,435 having a book in his hand, and standing both upon sea and land as a sign of his world-wide mission, declares the coming end under the seventh trumpet, when the mystery of God's method and purpose in human life and redemption shall be fully revealed and finally manifested in the establishment of his universal kingdom. The manner of the angel is scenic and impressive, and the message is one of undoubted power.

The book is Christ's revelation to John in the Apocalypse, a little open book or scroll (v. 2), evidently set in contrast with the great sealed book of God's purposes in chapter five; and it is taken by the Apostle, in obedience to a voice out of heaven, from the hand of the angel, who commands him to eat it, thereby indicating that John should digest the prophecy therein contained (Ezek. 3:1-3).437 Though it was sweet to his taste at first as a message from Christ, it became bitter afterward when its deeper meaning was understood, for it told of long continued trial and conflict instead of speedy triumph and victory. The prophecy is declared to be “over [i. e. concerning] many peoples and nations and tongues and kings”, a fourfold prediction, showing its world-wide application and indicating its ideal content.

It was the common thought of the early church that the period of the Christian dispensation would be very brief; and it may have been in order to dispel in some measure this illusion, and at the same time to inculcate patience and hope by showing the ideal shortness of the Christian age in God's eternal plan, that we are to find one of the many purposes of the Apocalypse. For it should be noted that by the end of the first century the view-point on this subject shows a material [pg 154] change. The attitude of John's Gospel toward the second coming of Christ is manifestly different from that of the Synoptists;438 the significant predictions of Christ concerning his own return are omitted, notably the discourse on the last things (Mt. 24; Mk. 13; Lk. 21); and the only references to his coming again are indirect (Jn. 14:3, 18, 28; 16:22; and 22:22-3), though from these it is evident that it is subsumed throughout, a view that is confirmed by the Epistles (I Jn. 2:28; and 3:2). This is far from showing, as some hold, that the coming predicted was only figurative, and was fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem, an event already past when John's Gospel was written; but seems rather to indicate that the earlier stage of thought, shared in by all the apostles, which expected the Lord's return within the first generation, had given way to a new and wider outlook which emphasized the continuous coming that is present and spiritual more than the personal coming that is future and outward, though without losing faith in the surety of that coming. And even if the later date of the Apocalypse be not conceded, yet coming from the same source as the Fourth Gospel, we might not unnaturally expect to find in it some anticipation of this view involving delay, for the coming thought of in the visions is undoubtedly personal and future.

The ναὸς, or inner sanctuary of the temple of God, is at this point introduced in the vision, a term which applied to the apartments of the temple building proper, including the holy of holies, the holy place, and in this case by implication the inner court, as distinguished from the ἱερὸν which applied to the whole temple and included all the buildings with the outer courts. The ναὸς in classical Greek is the sanctuary or cell of a temple where the image of the god was placed. In [pg 155] Hebrew usage, as applied to the temple at Jerusalem, it signifies the sacred edifice so called, including the holy and most holy place.439 Thus it is the true temple with the altar and them that worship therein, i. e. the entire contents of the inner court, the combined symbol of revealed religion and of those who accept its truths, especially the revelation and worshippers according to the Old Testament, which is here introduced in the vision. This is directed to be measured, i. e. it is to be subjected to careful scrutiny, and its proportions are to be observed, the sign as in Zechariah (ch. 2:1f.) of preservation and renewal, and not of destruction. The measurement apparently applies to the heavenly temple, though it may be interpreted either of the temple at Jerusalem or its counterpart in heaven, for to the Jewish mind the earthly temple was the type and shadow of the heavenly (Heb. 9:5).440 In either case the meaning is the same, viz. only that which corresponds to the outer court of the earthly,441 the unessential portion, is given up by the fall of Jerusalem to be trodden underfoot of the nations (Lk. 21:24) during forty-two months (v. 2), the indefinite period of the world's conflict with the church (see App'x. E). The true temple with its worshippers, the heart and center of the religious life of Israel, is indestructible and reappears in heaven with the ark of the covenant restored (v. 19). This is a symbolic expression of the important truth that the revealed religion of Israel is to endure, the best in Judaism is imperishable, all that is fundamental and essential is preserved though the outer form be destroyed;442 and it was designed to be [pg 156] a vision of comfort for the Jewish Christians, who naturally regarded the ruin of the temple as a profound calamity. The vision has been regarded by many interpreters as indicating that the temple and the city of Jerusalem were still standing when this was written, thus confirming the earlier date of the Revelation (circ. A. D. 69); but the weight of evidence to be attached to an Apocalyptic vision as testimony in such a case is very small, and is quite insufficient when compared with other evidences of the historical situation found in the book.443 It is evident, also, that there is a reference in the symbolism here used, i. e. in the preservation not only of the altar, but “of them that worship therein”, to the preservation of the Jews as a people, and their future restoration when the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled (Lu. 21:24), though not necessarily to Palestine,444 and surely not to a rebuilded temple, which in any case would be mere incidents, but to the richer blessings of renewed fellowship with God, of which the temple and its service were to the Jewish mind the truest type (cf. Rom. 11:1f.). The late Apocalyptic-Traditional view, it may be mentioned, attributes verses one and two to a former Jewish apocalypse that has been lost, which is here quoted as an introduction to the prophecy of the two witnesses that follows. It may well be doubted, however, whether this theory of the origin of the passage adds anything effective to its interpretation.

The two witnesses who prophesy, i. e. bear witness for God, and whom God ever preserves throughout all vicissitudes, and delivers even out of seeming destruction, are the churches of the Old and New Dispensations which have been divinely called to witness for the truth.445 The two olive trees represent the Old and New Testament revelations which supply oil, the symbol of grace, to the two candlesticks, i. e. to the two churches,446 the Jewish and Christian, that have been and are God's special witnesses throughout the ages (cf. Zech. 4:2f.). [pg 157] The identity of the candlesticks and witnesses is shown both by the connection, and by the explicit statement of verse four: “These [two witnesses] are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks, standing before the Lord of the earth,” i. e. the witnesses are, in a sense, both the Old and New Testament revelations and the churches of the Old and New Dispensations, which alike witness for the truth of God, though the connection shows that the churches are specially intended.447 Two is the number of confirmation in witness-bearing (Jn. 8:17); hence the two witnesses may also be considered to symbolize the sufficiency of the testimony of the Old and New Testament churches, as also a sufficient number in the church in every age who witness for God and truth. These have power that is not of man but divinely given, as is indicated in symbolic language (v. 5-6), yet when their testimony is finished, the Beast out of the abyss, the world-power of chapter thirteen, introduced here by anticipation, accomplishes their apparent overthrow. Out of this deadly conflict with the world, and the apparent defeat and eventually the death of the witnesses, with the exposure of their dead bodies and contemptuous refusal of burial, a personal indignity and sign of hatred and contempt, the fitting type of the world's treatment of the church in all ages and times, which in the vision occurs in Babylon, “the great city”, the type of the godless world,—out of all this seeming defeat comes ultimate victory. After three and a half days the breath of life from God enters into them, and they live again, and go up to heaven in a cloud. This points to the experience of grave peril by the church preceding her triumph, including temporary and seeming extinction at the hands of her enemies, and forming the occasion for an expression of their supreme contempt, an experience such as has occurred at different periods in her history, and which may, indeed, occur again in the future—the church persecuted, scattered, peeled, seemingly destroyed, but revived and restored by the power of God. Three and a half days of defeat,—a broken number, indicating a short but indefinite period in contrast with the three and a half years, or forty-two months, or a thousand two hundred and three score days, (v. 3), the length of the entire world-conflict,—a time of rejoicing by [pg 158] them that dwell upon the earth, is followed, as in the case of our Lord, by resurrection, ascension, and triumph, a parallel that is apparently suggested by the similarity and was doubtless intended. This is true not only of individual saints who have borne witness and suffered death only to rise again in the witness of others and in their own personal resurrection, but is especially true of the church in a collective sense, both under the Old Testament and the New, which always rises triumphant after every great disaster in her history, and shall rise again in all her members at the resurrection of the last day after her witness is complete.448 God avenges his own, as is indicated in the vision by the fall of the tenth part of the city, which is the share of the tithe under the Mosaic law, and by the death of seven thousand men, a great and complete number, seven multiplied by a thousand, who bear the punishment of their sin. As the result of the martyrdom and avengement the rest of men, give glory to God, a manifest attestation of the value of the church's witness. The world's persecution, though bitter and continued, fails to accomplish its end; the church of Christ survives, and rises again in power, and its witness becomes effective. Historical interpreters, however, generally regard the two witnesses as persons, futurists identifying them as Moses (or Enoch) and Elijah, whom they regard as yet to come, and preterists finding in them two leading characters during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, a view that restricts the vision to very narrow limits. Others, catching the larger view, interpret as “The Christian church and the Christian state”, and still others as “The law and the prophets”, or “The prophets and the priesthood”,—i. e. the whole spiritual authority of the old dispensation which, “though perverted and destroyed by the Jews (some of the best representatives of each being put to death), yet rose to new life and enthronement in Christianity”. In any case the obvious teaching is the triumph of faithful testimony for God, a principle of inestimable value for the church when in the throes of persecution. And now, having looked on the vision of the angel and the book, and of the two witnesses, the way is open for the sounding of the seventh trumpet.

It may be noted in closing our study of this episode that many commentators interpret “the great city”, in verse eight of this chapter, as referring to Jerusalem, because of the designation “where also their Lord was crucified”—Jerusalem being regarded as a world-city. The decisive reason against this, however, is the uniform usage of the book,449 for the interpretation is not otherwise materially affected. Jerusalem is everywhere else in the Revelation the type of that which is holy, and is nowhere else called “the great city”, while this name is applied seven times elsewhere to Babylon (or Rome), the type of the ungodly world, in which and by which our Lord may be truly said to have been crucified; and there seems to be no adequate reason for regarding this passage as containing an exceptional use of the phrase. Whether, however, we interpret of Jerusalem or of Babylon the general sense remains the same. In the one case the apparent defeat and contempt for the church of God, or its witness and witnesses, occurs in Babylon, the type of the godless world, while in the other it happens in Jerusalem, in that case the type of unbelieving Judaism. Either symbolism, it will be seen, is suitable to the context.