02/18/2023 – Day 356 – Revelation – Chapters 11 through 17 / A comparative look at various commentaries / The four interpretation categories: Which do you most adhere to?
- Last cycle, if you search on “Day 356”, you will see a post from last cycle dated March 8, 2021. I will be covering new ground today.
- Here is a footnote index for the sources of my quoted excerpts from commentaries: Matthew Henry Commentary – (*A) // A footnote to my Apologetics Study Bible, with the verses covered up front – (*B) // Halley’s Bible Handbook – Twenty Third Edition, Copyright @ 1962, original edition – 1927.
Let’s get started!:
Chapter 11:
11: 3-13 – “God has reserved to himself his faithful witnesses… It is a sufficient number for in the mouth of two witnesses every cause shall be established… The time of their prophesying. A thousand two hundred and twenty score days: that is (as many think), to the period of the reign of the antichrist…How they were supported : they stood before the God of the whole earth. He made them to be like Zerubbabel and Joshua, the two olive – trees and candlestick in the vision of Zechariah, Chapter 4.” (*A).
Insert note: The angel had roused Zerubbabel from sleep to see a vision of the “Gold Lampstand.” The angel asks him about the two olive trees on each side of the lamp stand, adding, “Don’t you know who these are? (Zechariah 4:13). So, now we know who the two anointed ones are that the angel referred to at the end of the passage.
11: 7: “The beast — the Antichrist figure prophesied elsewhere (2 Thessalonians 2:;9-11; 1 John 2:18) — makes his appearance. it is only because their period of ministry is completed that he is able to kill the two witnesses. The irony of the using the word ‘conquer’ to speak of the death of the witnesses is that, while it may briefly look like the beast is victorious (Rev. 11: 11-12), these witnesses , as martyrs conquered through the blood of Lamb and the word of their testimony. (12:11). (*B)
11: 13: “In the midst of the widespread damage and death, fear turns into faith with many who saw the resurrection and ascension of the two witnesses. To fear God and glorify Him is the authentic response to the eternal gospel to be preached to all still alive on the earth (14: 6-7). Since this takes place in Jerusalem, where most present would be Jewish, this could be the fulfillment of Paul’s prophecy that all Israel will be saved (Romans 11: 25-26).” (*B)
Chapter 12:
12: 1-6 – “The initial imagery echoes Joseph’s vision in Genesis 37:9. The description of the pregnancy and the pain of childbirth recall Genesis 3: 15-16, and it is possible the prophecy of the virgin birth (Isaiah 7:14) is also in view. Similarly, the dragon (Satan; Revelation 12:9) is tied all the way back to the angelic rebellion against the Lord.” (*B)
12: 11 “Sometimes what looks like defeat is victory as when brethren die for their faith. Satan has killed them, but they have actually conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.” (*B)
Chapter 13:
The mark of the beast – ” 666″. By assigning a numerical value to each letter of the alphabet, my Apologetics Study Bible notes that Nero and Hitler can be shown to have a numerological value of “666”. Using the same method, my Halley’s Bible Handbook comes to the same numerological value for the Greek word “Lateinos”, noting “Lateinos” means “Latin Kingdom” , there pointing to Papal Rome. I personally think that my Apologetics Study Bible concludes the footnote appropriately with: “However, it is wise to realize that such a numerological calculation will be clear only as the actual events unfold.” (*B)
Chapter 14:
I just can’t leave John Gill out from this reading! Check out his sublime two verse commentary, verses 12 & 13 on the faith and perseverance of the saints in these end times. (when you finish verse 12, just click verse 13 to go that commentary:
https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/revelation-14-12.html
Reminder: John Gill’s commentary covers every verse of the Bible and is available on this Link, drilling down to book of the Bible, chapter and verse.
Chapter 15:
15: 2-4 “Those who are victorious are martyrs (12:11) who responded properly to the preaching of the eternal gospel (14: 6-7) by fearing, glorifying, and worshipping God (15:4). The ‘song of God’s servant Moses, and the ‘song of the Lamb’ is is a parallel description of the songs of the children of Israel, safe on the other side of the Red Sea after their escape from Egypt (Exodus Chapter 15).” (*B)
15: 5-8 “The mention of gold bowls links the pouring out of the bowls of wrath to the answering of the prayers of the saints, which are in gold bowls (5:*), especially the martyrs’ prayer to avenge their blood on the earth dwellers (6:10).” (*B)
Chapter 16:
16: 17-21 “… God now remembered the great and wicked city. Now he gives unto here the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath, and every island and every mountain, that seemed b y nature and situation the most secured, were carried away in the deluge of the ruin.
How the antichristian party were affected with it. Though it fell upon them as a dreadful storm, as if the stones of the city, tossed up into the air, came down upon their heads, like hailstones of a talent weight each, yet they were so far from repenting that they blasphemed that God who thus punished them.” (*A)
Chapter 17:
Let’s look at both Matthew Henry’s commentary ; my footnote in my Apologetics Study Bible; and finally, my Halley’s Bible Handbook (*c). I echo the closing sentence with a reference to 1 Corinthians 4:6 in my Bible footnote (*B).
17: 7 – 13 “Here we have the mystery of this vision explained. But it is so explained as still to need further explanation. 1. This beast was, and is not and yet is; it was a seat of idolatry and persecution; and is not, not in the ancient form, and yet it is truly the seat of idolatry and tyranny. It ascends out of the bottomless pit, and it shall return thither and go into perdition. 2. This beast has seven heads, which have a double signification. Seven mountains — the seven hills on which Rome stands. Seven kings — seven sorts of government. Five of these are extinct; one was then in being; and the other was yet to come, verse 10. This beast makes an eighth. 3. This beast had ten horns: which are said to be ten kings which have as yet received no kingdoms.” (*A)
17: 9 – 13 “In the second cryptic wisdom statement in the book (13:18), the identity of the beast is clarified as a king who emerges from a group of rulers, apparently after a number of earlier empires or rulers. While it appears to the world that these rulers are dominant, they have received authority from the Lord only for a short time (“one hour”. This wording has caused some to speculate that perhaps the beast is Nero revived or that the beast will emerge out of a revived Roman Empire or the European Union. The details are not clear enough to determine this, however, and readers must exercise caution and not go beyond what is written (1 Corinthians 4:6). (*B)
Not specific verses, here is Halley on Books about Revelation. This is somewhat of an age test: “Do you all recall “The Late Great Planet Earth” in the 1960s?
“A thing that strikes one who browses around in the vast literature that has grown about the book of Revelation is the UTTER DOGMATISM with which so many put forth their opinions, no as opinions, but in categorical statements, as to the meaning of even the most mysterious passages, as if they know all about it, and their say so settles the matter. We think a spirit of reverent humility, and opennesss of mind, would be more becoming in those seeking to interpret a book like this.
I recall a young new Christian convert that told me his father-in-law suggested that he read the book of Revelations first of all the books of the Bible, so he did. I recall wondering what his father-in-law was thinking. A solid interpretation base is difficult with Revelation, but it is like shooting in the dark if one does not have a knowledge across all books of the Bible. I just scratched the surface here, but we can see a plethora of connecting verses, including Old Testament prophecy that seems to be commonly ignored.
Halley has a very instruction section on “Interpretations” categories :
Interpretations:
“There are many interpretations of the book of Revelation. And every one has its difficulties. Whatever interpretation is accepted, some details require straining to fit.
Roughly speaking , there are four kinds of interpretation, each varying greatly within itself; commonly spoken as “Preterist”, “Historical”, “Futurist” and “Spiritualist.”
Preterist Interpretation regards the book as referring to its own day: Christianity’s Struggle with the Roman Empire.
Historical Interpretation is that the book was designed to Forecast a General View of the Whole Period of Church History from John’s time on to the End of the World: a sort of Panorama, a series of Pictures, delineating the Successive Steps and Outstanding Features of the Church’s Struggle to Final Victory: ‘A Vision of the Ages’; ‘Pictures of the Great Epochs and Crises of the Church.’
Futurist Interpretation centers the book largely around the time of the Lord’s Coming and End of the World.
Spiritualist Interpretation separates the imagery of the book entirely from any reference to Historical Events – those of John’s day, or those of the End, or those intervening – and deems it to be a Pictorial Representation, in highly figurative language, of the Great Principles of Divine Government applicable to all times.
To us, it seems, taking the language most natural, most evident, and more reasonable interpretations; some of the Visions picturing Epochal Events and Features of Church History; some Forecasting the Momentous Upheavals of the Last Days; and some, possibly, referring to Both, and Earlier, perhaps, being Typical and Predictive of the Later.
There is such an Amazing Parallel between some of the Imagery of the book and the Course of Church History that it seems that one of the objects of the book must have been to Foretell it.
And there is much in the book that so evidently refers to the Time of the End that it must be taken into account whatever our interpretation of the book.”
a last minute p.s.:
Here is a very interesting summary of the four views of Revelation. It is interesting to me that from the Revelation through much of the twentieth century, many of our most prolific and renowned theologians in the church adhered to the Historical Interpretation, with almost a complete disappearance of that view today. So, which interpretation(s) do you most adhere to? I would submit both historical and futures; God’s capacity for multiple dimension chess is completely beyond us…
We will complete our four week Saturday read through Revelation next Saturday with chapters 18 through 22. It is like taking a drink of water from a fire hose! And then a day later, we will complete our final day with the book of Jude. It is always a joy filled ride!
Soli Deo Gloria!