Classic Commentaries on the Greek New Testament

THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN

INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

BY

HENRY BARCLAY SWETE, D.D.

HON, LITT. D. DUBLIN HON. D.D. GLASGOW

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY

AND FELLOW OF GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

FELLOW OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY

ECCLESIAM TUAM, QUAESUMUS, DOMINE, BENIGNUS ILLUSTRA, UT BEATI IOHANNIS … ILLUMINATA DOCTRINIS AD DONA PERUENIAT SEMPITERNA. PER DOMINUM.

CONCEDE, QUAESUMUS, OMNIPOTENS DEUS, UT QUI … UNIGENITUM TUUM REDEMPTOREM NOSTRUM AD CAELOS ASCENDISSE CREDIMUS, IPSI QUOQUE MENTE IN CAELESTIBUS HABITEMUS. PER EUNDEM.

EXCITA, QUAESUMUS, DOMINE, POTENTIAM TUAM ET UENI, ET MAGNA NOBIS UIRTUTE SUCCURRE, UT AUXILIUM GRATIAE TUAE QUOD NOSTRA PECCATA PRAEPEDIUNT INDULGENTIA TUAE PROPITIATIONIS ACCELERET. QUI UIUIS.

VIRO ∙ ADMODVM . REVERENDO.

FREDERICO . HENRICO . CHASE . S.T.P.

EPISCOPO . ELIENSI.

APVD . CANTABRIGIENSES . NVPER . PROFESSORI . NORRISIANO.

OBSERVANTIAE . ERGO . AMICITIAEQVE.

STVDIA . HAEC . APOCALYPTICA . QVALIACVMQVE.

DEDICO

PREFACE

Eight years ago I was permitted to finish a commentary on the earliest of the four Gospels. As a sequel to it, I now offer a commentary on the Revelation of St John.

The Apocalypse discloses the heavenly life of our Lord, as the Gospels paint His life in Galilee and Jerusalem. In the Gospels, He is seen teaching and working in His mortal flesh; in the Apocalypse, He belongs to another and a higher order. But the ascended life is a continuation of the life in the flesh; the Person is the same yesterday and to-day, in Palestine and in Heaven.

Thus the Apocalypse carries forward the revelation of the Gospels. It carries it, however, into a region where the methods of the biographer and historian avail nothing. We are in the hands of a prophet, who sees and hears things that elude the eyes and ears of other men; the simple narrative of the Evangelist has given place to a symbolism which represents the struggle of the Apocalyptist to express ideas that lie in great part beyond the range of human thought. Yet the life which St John reveals is not less real than that which is depicted by St Mark, nor are its activities less amazing. No miracles meet us here, but we are in the presence of spiritual processes which are more wonderful than the hearing of the sick or the raising of the dead: a supervision of all the Churches, which surpasses the powers of any earthly pastor; an ordering of nature and life, which bears witness to the investment of the risen Lord with all authority in heaven and on earth; a perfect knowledge of men, and a prescience which reads the issues of history. The revelation of the Lord’s heavenly life becomes, as we proceed, a revelation of the things which are and the things which shall come to pass hereafter; we see the glorified life in its bearing upon the course of events, until the end has been attained and the whole creation has felt its renovating power.

To comment on this great prophecy is a harder task than to comment on a Gospel, ...