A great sign is seen in heaven, a Woman glorious and crowned, arrayed with the sun, the bearer of light, and having the moon under her feet, i. e. triumphing over time and change, who evidently represents the church of God on earth which was first Jewish and then Christian—“the ideal community of God's people”. The moon was the Jewish divider of time, and the phases of it being marked by recurrent changes, it naturally formed a ready type of both these ideas; and it may here also include the thought of stability of existence in the midst of change of outward appearance.451 The sun and [pg 161] moon have been thought by some to indicate the relative light of the New and Old Dispensations, though it is more probable that both have been introduced mainly to enhance the conception of the church's ideal glory. The crown of twelve stars is the sign of the covenant people,—the crown is στέφανος, the crown of victory, which God designs to give the church, and the number, twelve, is the number of the tribes of Israel—while the woman's travail anguish is the figure of Jewish affliction, and of deep longing for the Messiah. Some interpret the figure of the woman as representing the Virgin Mary;452 but the symbol is clearly wider than a person, as is shown by the whole course of the persecution with its transference to the rest of her seed when the Man-Child has escaped, and evidently applies to “the mystical mother of Christ”, the church whose seed are many, though the source and appropriateness of the figure is doubtless found in the fact that Christ was born of a woman.

The Dragon, a mythical animal of traditionary terror, the symbol to the Jewish world of all that which was hideous and harmful, and described as red in color to indicate his sanguinary and destructive character, is introduced in order to represent the Old Serpent, the Devil, and Satan (v. 9),453 the lord of the present world and the adversary of Christ. His seven heads with diadems, and the ten horns, are symbols of his full dominion and absolute power over evil in the world during the period of conflict. The head with a crown or diadem is the natural symbol of dominion, which in the Apocalyptic literature usually signifies kings or empires (cf. Dan. 2:32; and 7:6), and the horn is a recognized Jewish emblem of power. The crown is the διάδημα, the sign of royalty, not the στέφανος, or garland crown of victory—a distinction that is carefully observed in the Revelation, as is indicated in the Revised Versions by the translation “diadem”.454 This symbolism of the seven heads and ten horns was evidently [pg 162] chosen to indicate the manifestation of Satan's power in the kings and kingdoms of this world which are adverse to the kingdom of God, as is clearly shown by their use in chapter thirteen,—that through which Satan operates and makes his power felt being attributed to him as an essential part of his being. The use of seven and ten together implies a twofold completeness, i. e. completeness of kind and completeness of parts (see App'x. E). This combination of seven, the symbol of perfection of quality which is usually moral, with ten the symbol of completeness which is usually earthly, though without necessarily implying any moral element, is used with an evil significance throughout in the Revelation, and creates some difficulty of interpretation; but it is doubtless best explained as indicating that that which was originally designed for moral perfection, signified by seven, has been combined with and prostituted to purely earthly ends, as signified by ten, which ends are in this case notably sinful. The suitability of the seven heads and ten horns belonging alike to the Dragon, who represents Satan, and to the Beast (ch. 13:1), who represents anti-Christian national government, is thus quite manifest, for both are evil. If we compare this with the combination of seven with seven in the horns and eyes of the Lamb, where the idea of a twofold spiritual perfection is indicated, something of the peculiar combination and significance of numbers in the Revelation will become apparent. The Dragon's casting down the third part of the stars from heaven (v. 4), i. e. a considerable number but not the larger part, is another sign of his power (Dan. 8:10), and may allude to the angels who lost their first estate and fell with him. He stands waiting in the vision before the Woman, the church, in order to destroy her child, the Messiah, as soon as the child is born, a purpose that he does not prove able to carry out.

The Man-Child is Jesus Christ, who was born of a woman, and whom Satan endeavors to destroy, but who was brought forth to rule or to shepherd all the nations with a rod of iron (Ps. 2:9), i. e. with irresistible power, and who was caught up to heaven by his resurrection and ascension. In this symbolic action the sufferings and death of Christ are passed over in silence [pg 163] in order to set forth at once the triumphant escape as the chief thought in mind, and the futility of the Dragon's effort.

The wilderness represents the present evil world as the place of trial during the period in which the church, like Israel, continues her pilgrimage toward the promised fulness of the messianic kingdom. There may also be a reference in this to the lands of the Gentiles, called a wilderness in contrast with Canaan the glorious land to the Jewish patriot, where the church “hath a place prepared of God”, and is now nourished like Israel of old in the wilderness; or, by a change of figure, like the prophet Elijah was fed for twelve hundred and sixty days, the equivalent of forty-two months, or three and a half years,—the time, [two] times, and half a time, i. e. three and a half times, of verse fourteen,—the symbol of the indefinite period of the church's conflict with the world, or of the world-triumph, which is a shortened time, a term that will end (see App'x E). It may be mentioned here that the preterist interpreters usually regard the wilderness refuge as a reference to the flight of the Christians to Pella before Jerusalem was destroyed, by which they escaped the three and a half years of the siege455—certainly a remarkable coincidence, though not serving to establish that interpretation—a meaning that is narrow and local instead of broad and universal.

The persecution of the Woman with her seed represents Satan's malign but fruitless attempts to destroy the church. The two wings of the great eagle, i. e. the number of added strength and surety, are those of divine preservation which are given her to escape from the destroying flood cast out of the mouth of the Dragon, the apt symbol of Satan's persistent effort to overwhelm the church. To John's mind the eagle, which was inscribed upon the Roman standards, may have seemed the symbol of the Roman Empire that at first protected Christianity from Jewish persecution,456 or the [pg 164] symbol may have been suggested by that fact; but it represents as well what God is ever doing through human and earthly means for the church's deliverance. By the exceptional statement that “the earth helped the woman”, we are evidently to understand that natural causes helped Christianity, a fruitful suggestion that is remarkably exemplified in history. The Dragon making war upon the rest of the Woman's seed, i. e. all of her seed except Jesus Christ, who was caught up to heaven, indicates his continued attack upon the church and its members.

A wild Beast fierce and bloodthirsty, and ideal composite creature, “like unto a leopard and his feet were [pg 168] as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion” (v. 2), evidently formed from the beasts in Daniel's vision (ch. 7:3f.), is seen coming up out of the tempestuous sea of the nations, and is manifestly the same as the Scarlet Beast of chapter seventeen, the one constantly referred to as “the Beast” without any other qualification. This is the symbol of the universal world-power, i. e. all the world-kingdoms are considered as one and personified in this Beast in open hostility to the church;469 national opposition to Christianity, exemplified by heathen Rome in John's day which supplied the groundwork of the conception, but extending far beyond that and applying equally to all persecuting nations during the whole forty-two months, or three and a half years, of world-domination, which represents the duration of the church-historic period of trial (v. 5), a period that is broken and incomplete (see App'x E). The Beast is described as having ten horns and seven heads, the symbol of a twofold completeness, both that of parts (ten) and that of quality or kind (seven), the same number as the Dragon, though in inverse order, indicating that the Beast is the agent of the Dragon, i. e. of Satan, and is possessed of like dominion and power,—for “the Dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority”. The heads seem to symbolize the world-power taking form, and the horns the exercise of that power. (For the further development of this symbolism, see ch. 17:9f.) And it should be noted that the ten horns and seven heads are common not only to the Dragon and the Beast, but are also the sum total of those belonging to the four beasts in Daniel's vision, i. e. to all the world-powers there designed, a symbolism which suggests that it properly applies to more than one nation, and which here seems intended to portray the persistent opposition of the Devil to the church of God, working through the power of the world in all time and in all nations. The ten crowns or diadems upon his horns denote the fulness of his sovereignty, and imply the extent of his earthly rule; the names of blasphemy upon his heads seem to refer to the divine titles and honors assumed by earthly kings, especially those of Rome, as Domitian who ordered that in official documents he should be styled “Our Lord and God”—a figure [pg 169] that is perhaps suggested here by the mitre of the high priest on which was written “Holiness to the Lord”, to which this was antipodal;470 while the wounded head that is healed refers to the death stroke, given to the world-power by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, from which there has been seeming recovery,471 for this was a true deathblow to the world-power, even though it failed of immediate realization and thereby disappointed Jewish-Christian hopes of early victory. The Beast blasphemes against God, “his name, and his tabernacle, even them that dwell in the heavens”, i. e. the inhabitants of the tabernacle. “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them: and there was given to him authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation”; but it is only as it is “given unto him” that he can exercise his power, i. e. he is subject to divine control. And every one, “whose name hath not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain”, shall worship him. Thus is depicted not only the fierce antagonism of the Roman Empire to the church in that age, but the perpetual hostility and unceasing opposition of the universal world-power in all ages and nations to the growth of the kingdom of God among men.

The symbol of the Beast, notwithstanding the difficulty of its interpretation, has certain distinguishing features that help to interpret its meaning. The close resemblance to Daniel's vision gives a clue to the thought in mind, and serves to indicate the proper method of interpretation. That the world-power in some form is symbolized in the vision, is clearly indicated; on this point all interpreters are agreed, though the majority of modern interpreters regard the Beast as the Roman Empire. That John had Rome primarily in mind can scarcely be doubted; but, in the view accepted by the symbolic interpreters, the Roman Empire served only to supply the groundwork for an idealized conception, in which the ordinary and limited view of sense has become transformed under the influence of prophetic insight into the wider vision of a world-power belonging to all time and pervading all history that rises beastlike in strength and might to oppress the people of [pg 170] God. The Beast, according to this interpretation, is the persecuting world-power in any and every age antagonizing the kingdom of God; the national and political forces of the world in their organized form arraying themselves against our Lord and his Christ; that phase of the world's life which finds expression for its opposition to the children of the kingdom under the forms of law and government, the most sovereign and irresistible of all kinds of persecution. This symbol naturally found a ready and satisfactory interpretation by the early church in the prevailing surveillance of the Roman authority; but it is an interpretation none the less true of heathen nations everywhere and always, who constantly persecute the church of God. The interpretation thus given is the one accepted by the symbolist school as the most natural and satisfactory of all, having a world-wide application and universal content; and it may be confidently adopted with an adequate degree of assurance that it conveys the meaning intended. The preterist interpreters, on the other hand, limit the meaning of the First Beast to the Roman Empire, using its power to oppose and oppress Christianity, and construe the wounded head as a reference to the death of Nero (see notes on chapter seventeen).

Another wild Beast, also an ideal and composite creature, like unto yet different from the first, is seen [pg 171] coming up out of the earth,472 i. e. out of established and well-ordered society; the Two-horned Beast in whom the exercise of personal power or force is less prominent than in the First Beast with ten horns to whom he is subordinate, for the power he exerciseth is “all the power of the First Beast”. This Beast is the symbol of the universal world-religion, i. e. all the world-religions are considered as one and personified in the Second Beast, in disguised hostility to the church of Christ;473 the False Prophet of chs. 16:13 and 19:20, assuming to be what he is not, and using his authority for evil ends, who “deceiveth them that dwell on the earth”.474 His two horns like a lamb, but voice like a dragon, indicate that he has the external characteristics of a lamb, but the inner nature of a dragon, and are evidently intended to signify that he appears to be like Christ, while he is like Satan; he represents the forms of religion that assume to save men, but in fact only bind them to evil. “He doeth great signs that he should even make fire to come down out of heaven upon the earth in the sight of men”, i. e. not a literal bringing down of fire, but a power counterfeiting the power of God as shown of old in fire from heaven, a great sign to Israel (Num. 16:35; I K. 18:38), and sembling that of the two witnesses (ch. 11:5). And he required of “them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the Beast who hath the stroke of the sword and lived”, i. e. the false religions of the world, which the Second Beast represents, operate to make the people subservient to the world-power, the First Beast which had the stroke of the sword and lived, with which these religions always [pg 172] stand connected whether in Rome or in other nations;475 and the people render worship as they are directed. “And it was given unto him to give breath to the image of the Beast that it should speak and cause as many as should not worship the image to be killed”, i. e. the heathen religions give life and authority to national worship, give vitality to the world-power that it should command and compel men to join in its idolatrous forms or lose their lives by refusal. Thus the whole figure seems to indicate the spirit of the world operating against the church through the forms of religion, especially as seizing upon the natural and ethnic religions, permeating them with deceit, and subverting them to worldly ends (v. 14), the element of religion being a prominent feature throughout. Actuated by worldly wisdom, which is “earthly, sensual, and devilish” (Jas. 3:15), this Beast, we are told, bids all men worship the image of the First (v. 12 and 14), i. e. worship the deification of the world-power, thereby insidiously rehabilitating the world-power in another form, a figure likely drawn from the worship of the Emperor's image, a cult prevailing at the time, and showing how false religions rest upon and are upheld by heathen governments. John doubtless had primarily in mind the heathen priesthood of that period, especially the priesthood of Caesar-worship, which afforded the best example of the then existing world-religions, but this only formed the groundwork of the larger thought of the vision. Preterist interpreters, as a rule, would limit the meaning of the Second Beast to the heathen priesthood of that time, but this is too restricted a view. Any religion anywhere rejecting the Christ and crowning the world-power is represented by the Second Beast. It has also been suggested that the Second Beast represents the Asiarch, or chief priest of Asia, the director and instigator of Emperor-worship.476 This may possibly have been the source of John's idea; but however formed we should regard it as a universal and poetic conception of one continuous phase of the world's opposition to Christ and his kingdom, and not limit it to any particular historic [pg 173] manifestation of that opposition. Others, without sufficient grounds, have referred the title to the papacy, interpreting the First and Second Beasts as Rome pagan and papal. Another interpretation is that the First Beast is the secular persecuting power, pagan or Christian, and the Second Beast is the sacerdotal persecuting power, pagan and Christian; while still another and better interpretation is that world-force is the first, and world-worship, i. e. world-religion and superstition, the second.477 Symbolist interpreters always prefer the wider to a narrower symbolism in accordance with their general view of the book. According to this view, which is the one accepted in the present volume, all the world-religions which profess to be holy but are controlled by the same spirit, belong to the Second Beast and contribute to his power. The aspect of heathenism which here presented itself to John's mind is the most general and obvious of all its many characteristics; and although we now recognize more fully the elements of truth in the ethnic religions, and their relative value in the moral education of mankind when without the gospel, yet John's view still holds good, and is confirmed by the world-wide testimony of the mission field. The world-spirit which lies at the door of the world-religions is and always has been evil, and will always be degrading to the soul, that spirit which subordinates the moral and spiritual to purely selfish and worldly ends. The forms of the Two-horned Beast today are just as deceiving and defiling to men, and as much opposed to the kingdom of God, as they ever were of old. And not only are all the world-religions the abiding manifestation of the Second Beast, but even the Christian church also, whether Catholic or Protestant, may become subservient thereto, whenever or wherever it, or any part of it, may be dominated by the spirit of the world-religions, and thereby yields its God-given prestige to this Beast. The forms of human learning, too, as philosophy, science, literature, and art, when they trench upon the sphere of religion and become atheistic, agnostic, materialistic, or God-defying, exhibit the spirit of the world-religions in opposition to Christ, and are manifestations of the same Beast. This power is world-wide and age-long, and the vision seems to look [pg 174] through and beyond the forces then at work to their wider manifestation in history. For the Second Beast is the incarnation of the permanent and universal world-religion in each and all of its forms, and while presenting one aspect of the world-religions of John's time, yet goes far beyond that and portrays the principle of opposition to the church of Christ which underlies them all, and which would develop new forms in the period when Christianity had nominally triumphed, continuing the conflict upon different lines from the violent persecutions of the earlier ages; a period when the world's opposition to God would be expressed “by affiliation with the religion of Jesus, and by penetrating its life with false ideals”, producing a faithlessness within the church even more deadly in its results than the fatal furor of persecution, for the world within the church is one of the forms of the Second Beast, and there is nothing so dangerous to the life of the soul as irreligious religion.478

We see here a vast and virgin multitude, a hundred and forty-four thousand, a large and perfect number, the former symbol of the complete first-fruits from Israel (ch. 7:4), now used by synecdoche to represent all the redeemed who have been chosen from among men, the best of their race, who are called “the first-fruits unto God and unto the Lamb”,485 and who stand with the Lamb upon Mount Zion, in the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, having his name and the name of his Father written upon their foreheads, signifying to whom they belong and marking them as antipodal to those who have received the mark of the Beast (ch. 13:16), and who sing a new song, the song of victory (the Incommunicable Chorus), known only to the redeemed. Of this blessed company it is said that “they are without blemish”, i. e. they are sinless before God, which is apparently an explanation of the symbolism used in saying that they are “virgins”, and “not defiled with women”,—or “among women”. Roman Catholic commentators, however, usually interpret literally, and apply the passage to those women who have never entered into wedlock for the kingdom of heaven's sake—a construction that it scarcely seems to bear.486 Futurists generally maintain that the vision refers to the earthly Zion, and connect the incident with the second advent, making the hundred and forty-four thousand to consist of Jews alone.

The author at this point expresses his sympathy with the church, setting forth the need of patience in the conflict (v. 12); and then he records a voice heard from heaven (v. 13), declaring that the dead who die in the Lord are blessed “henceforth”, i. e. after death, for they have both rest and reward,487 and possibly including, also, the additional thought that they have thereby escaped from the great tribulation even though by martyrdom. Thus once more the redeemed are placed in opposition to the unredeemed, the saved are set over against the lost, as those who have secured the better part.

One like unto the Son of Man (or a son of man), i. e. one sharing our humanity—a designation of the Messiah after the time of Daniel488—is seen sitting upon [pg 180] a white cloud, the traditional covering of the divine majesty and a symbol of the divine presence, having on his head a golden crown, the token of glory and of victory, and in his hand a sharp sickle, the instrument for reaping. And on the announcement of another angel489 from out the temple that the hour was come, he cast his sickle upon the earth and gathered all the faithful into his kingdom as a harvest that was ripe, a symbol of the ingathering of all the redeemed preceding the punishment of the wicked (cf. Mat. 25:31-46). The action set forth in this part of the vision is preparatory to and anticipates the judgment, yet the process of judgment is not described. The vision is occupied rather with pointing out how the path of history inevitably leads to the judgment bar. The incident serves to introduce the seventh and last of the mystic figures of this wonderful vision of conflict, the Son of Man on the Cloud, who represents Christ as the theanthropic Redeemer and Judge, a quite different aspect of his character from the Man-Child where he is set forth subject to the conditions of his mysterious incarnation, and therefore requiring an entirely different symbol.

Still another angel came out from the shrine or sanctuary of the temple in heaven, at the summons of the angel who had power over fire, i. e. the fire of the altar, which is here the symbol of judgment, and gathered all the ungodly as vintage from the earth, and cast them into the winepress, the great winepress, of the wrath of God, a figure of the ingathering and fearful punishment of the wicked at the end of the world. According to this view the two gatherings described in verses fourteen to twenty, are regarded as depicting the opposite fate in store for the faithful and the wicked, instead of a twofold account of the same event repeated in different form for the purpose of emphasis. This interpretation agrees best with the general tenor of the chapter and the common method of contrast throughout the book; others, however, regard the passage as a double figure of the judgment.490 The scene is laid outside [pg 181] the city, i. e. Jerusalem, most likely the New Jerusalem, the home of God's people, without the gates of which are the wicked who perish (ch. 22:15). The figure may have been drawn from the scenes of terror and bloodshed which attended the fall of the earthly city under Titus, a view quite possible if the later date of authorship be accepted, though possibly there may have been no definite city in mind. Some connect this passage with the struggle in chapter twenty (v. 7-10), where the nations compass the beloved city, and connect both with the advent, interpreting literally,—a view common with the futurists. And we are told that when the winepress was trodden “there came out blood, from the winepress, even unto the bridles of the horses,”491 a symbol of the terrible destruction of life that ensued, a flowing stream that reached as far as a thousand and six hundred furlongs, i. e. almost two hundred Roman miles, or somewhat farther than the entire length of Palestine, a Jewish synonym for a great distance. Sixteen hundred is also the square of four, the earth number, multiplied by the square of ten, the number of completeness, which perhaps indicates that the punishment is complete throughout the whole created world. The passage in its essential thought is an echo from the rhapsody of Joel (ch. 3:13), combined with the vision of judgment in Isaiah's Zion redeemed (ch. 63:3-6), and recalls his Assyrian flood, reaching even to the neck (Isa. 8:7-8).492 The transition to the vision of vials is now made by a sudden change of theme, and a return to the world-process of judgment that is age-long and world-wide in its scope and purpose.