Jews, and the commencement of the consequent glorious predicted times of universal blessedness. So that, as it seems to me, we shall probably not err in looking for the nearly coincident occurrence of the two grand events following:-viz. 1st, the homeward return of the Jews from their dispersions; in fulness and strength like as when the mighty Euphratean stream, on the willows of whose banks the harps of their earlier captivity were suspended, was each day forced backward by the mightier influence of the tide of the Southern Ocean 2. the gathering, and the destruction, probably in Judæa, of some great anti-Christian as well as anti-Jewish confederacy, including the powers of both the Roman and the Greek apostasies; the spirit of infidelity giving of course its meet assistance to those of antichristian priestcraft and Popery. Thus, as already before against evangelic doctrine and evangelic missions generally, so now in fine perhaps against the evangelization of the Jews specially, and their restoration to the land of their fathers, it might seem as if there is to be the last and fiercest outbreak of these spirits of evil. 1 Psalm cxxvi. 4: "Turn our captivity, O Lord, as the rivers in the south." Surely what I have hinted above is the meaning of this beautiful figure. The idea of streams dried up in the southern desert flowing again (of course in their old channels) on the rains commencing,—an idea suggested by Lowth, Horne, and other commentators in explanation,-ill suits the main point that the figure is evidently meant to illustrate, viz. the turning back again of the Jewish captivity.-Nor, though far better, does the explanation of the great Lord Bacon, in his metrical version of the Psalm, seem sufficient. "O Lord, turn our captivity, As winds that blow at south For rare indeed must be opposing winds of such force as of themselves to turn back a river's current. And the Psalmist's reference seems to be to an occurrence obvious and constant. On the other hand what I suggest is a figure perfectly correspondent with the thing figured; and one which to the captive Jews in Babylon must have occurred as a figure equally appropriate and grand. For the force of the tide on the river, coming up as it did as far as Bussorah, must have been familiar to their minds and have appeared to them fully as striking as it did to the Macedonian soldiers of Alexander, when first brought from the tideless coast of the Mediterranean, to see the ocean tides of the Persian Gulf, or of the Indian Sea. 2 I put the case somewhat doubtfully as regards the Jews, nationally considered; though, as will appear yet further in the sequel, decidedly inclining myself to the idea of their national restoration, and the conflict connected with it, being included in the Scripture prophetic sketch of the future. As regards the final deadly war of the antichristian powers with Christ's spiritual Israel, under the present dispensation, there seems to me no doubt of its being a prominent fact in the predicted close of the great mundane drama. 3 CHAPTER III. THE MILLENNIUM. 2 "AND I saw an angel coming down' from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the Dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years; and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that he must be loosed a little season.And I saw thrones; and they sate upon them; and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God; and whosoever had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their forehead, or on their hand and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second. death hath no power: but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. : "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to war; the num 1 καταβαίνοντα. 2 της aßvorov the same word that was used before in Apoc. ix. 1, xi. 7, xvii. 8. See my Vol. i. pp. 440, 441. τα έθνη. των πεπελεκισμένων. So the Greek; Opovovę, without the article. 5 3 6 Oirveç either those whosoever; those being the accusative after I saw ;-or, of those whosoever; of those being the genitive after uxaç. The reading of the received text is aveznoav, lived again. But the reading in A, B, adopted by Griesbach, Scholz, Tregelles, Wordsworth, is nouv; the same word as in verse 4. In Apoc. ii. 8 this latter word is used of Christ's resurrection; 'Og εγενετο νεκρός και έζησε. * βασιλευσουσι. So Scholz and Tregelles, agreeably with the received text. Wordsworth, after the MS. A, reads Baoiλevovoi in the present tense. 9 εις τον πόλεμον as if to the war. So A, B, and the critical Editions of Scholz, Tregelles, and Wordsworth. Griesbach, in common with the received version, omits the τον. And they went up ber of whom is as the sand of the sea. on the breadth of the earth, and encompassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are;1 and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.2 : "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sate upon it; from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before the throne: 3 and books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it. And death and hades gave up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. : "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth had past away;5 and there was no more sea."-Apoc. xx. 1-xxi. 1. We now enter on the great subject of the MILLENNIUM. In the Apocalyptic revelations, the vision of the Beast and False Prophet being cast into the lake of fire was followed by that of the binding of the Dragon, now again explained to be the old Serpent, the Devil, and Satan, (the same that from the beginning even to the end had been the 1 This verb is not in the original. 2 εις τους αιώνας των αιώνων the same strong phrase of time as in Apoc. xix. 4 of the smoke of the fire of Babylon. 3 EVORLOV TOU Oрovov. So A, B, and the critical Editions generally; instead of Otov in the received text. ✦ A, B, and after them Scholz, Tregelles, and Wordsworth, read more fully thus: οὗτος ὁ θάνατος ὁ δεύτερος εστιν, ἡ λίμνη του πυρος. Griesbach and Mill omit the last four words. anηλov. So A, B, and the critical Editions of Griesbach, Scholz, Tregelles, Wordsworth. The received text reads rapnoe. In either case the aorist form of the verb is adopted; but in the sense of the pluperfect, "had past away." So añηλOεv, verse 4. See my Vol. iii. p. 13, Note2, on the same phrase, as used in Apoc. xii. 9. Spirit ruling in the hearts and the polities of the children of disobedience,) by an Angel that descended from heaven, and shut and sealed him up in the bottomless pit, or abyss, for 1000 years; so as that he might during that time have no more power to deceive the nations:-it being added, however, that he would afterwards be loosed for a little season. On the other hand thrones of judgment and royalty appeared set in the vision, whereon Christ and his saints were seen to take their sitting it being the privilege of these latter to live and reign with Him the thousand years. St. John specifies particularly, as if conspicuous among them, the souls of them that had been beheaded for the word of God and the witnessing of Jesus; evidently the same individuals that he had beheld gathered under the altar, in a symbolic vision long antecedent, the victims of the persecutions of Rome Pagan; 3 and others also, who 1 That is, plainly, the same thousand years. The article prefixed four times to that phrase, (viz. in verses 3, 4, 5, and 7,) after its first mention as the term of Satan's binding in verse 2, identifies the period. So Pareus justly observes, p. 506; in answer to Brightman's theory of the saints' millennium of reigning being one that would follow after Satan's millennium of incarceration; a view advocated also by Bengel. 2 It seems to me that the souls of them that were beheaded, &c., were seen, not as the only persons that took seat on the thrones, but only among them. This is a point important to note; as a contrary view of the intent of the phrase has by some been supposed, and argued from. Assuredly there is nothing in the text to negative my idea. For, 1st, it is not unusual, either in common or in prophetic narrative, to specify but part only of objects that may have been seen. So, for example, in John xx. 18, where Mary Magdalene only mentions having seen Jesus, though she had actually seen two angels also. Or, to exemplify from this present Chapter, in the very verse under consideration Christ is not specified as seen enthroned, though he must surely have been there; as verse 4 states it was with him that the risen saints reigned. And, indeed, his presence is afterwards expressly notified, on the not improbable hypothesis of the time of the great white throne of verse 11 being synchronic with that of the saints' thrones in Further, 2ndly, we know from abundance of other Scriptures, as Dan. vii. 22, Apoc. iii. 21, v. 10, &c., that the saints generally are to be admitted to a participation in Christ's millenary throne and reign. verse 4.* 3 MÉπeXerioμevwv, a verb derived from weλɛkuç, an axe; which, together with the fasces, was conspicuous in the insignia of the consuls and other officers of the Roman Government, and signified their having authority to punish with death. Hence the passive verb came to signify being put to death by sentence of him to whom the power of the axe belonged, whatever the mode of execution; and not the mere particular death of decapitation. So Vitringa. Of this more hereafter.-On the usual hypothesis of the first placing of the great white throne being post-millennial there occurs the example in point of the dead only being specified as those seen by John standing before it before judgment, though we know there must have been present also those alive at the time. + So Polybius, i. 7, &c.; cited by Eichhorn ad loc. μаσтIYWσaνтes aĦAVTAG KATA το παρ' αυτοις εθος επελεκισαν. Similarly Tertullian (Apolog. 5) uses the phrase "Cæsariano gladio ferocisse" soever had not worshipped, and did not at the time of the judgment worship,' the Beast or his Image.-In order thus to reign with Christ they rose to life again: whereas "the rest of the dead lived not till the thousand years were finished." This was the first resurrection. "Blessed and holy," it was said, "is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power: but they shall be priests of God and of Christ; and shall reign with him a thousand years." And here the famous question opens, In what way are we to understand this vision and prophecy of the Millennium? What the first resurrection spoken of, literal or figurative? Who the persons that partake of it? What the nature of the devil's synchronous binding and incarceration? What the state of things on earth corresponding? What the chronological position and duration of the Millennium ? What the sequel of events, on the devil's being loosed again at its termination? Finally, what the relation of this millennary period and its blessedness to the New Jerusalem, afterwards exhibited in the Apocalypse; and what also to the paradisiacal state predicted in the Old Testament prophecies, as to be introduced on the Jews' conversion and restoration ?-I propose in the present chapter to discuss and answer the general question, What the first resurrection, with which the Millennium is to open then in the next to consider more in detail, upon the principle of interpretation thus previously established, the probable order of events introductory to its establishment, and state of things during the Millennium, and after it.2 Under the emperors, as I have elsewhere observed, the sword came to be the ensign of this judicial power, in place of the axe; (see my Vol. i. pp. 154–158;) though not indeed to the supersession of the axe. For this was still used as an instrument of punishment at Rome; for those I presume that were condemned by the consular and other inferior courts, distinctively from the imperial. Thus we read in Dion Cassius that Caracalla found fault with the executioner of Papinian, ότι αξίνη αυτόν και ου ξιφει διεχρήσατο. 1 οίτινες ου προσεκύνησαν. Mark here the use of the first aorist ; and its possible comprehensive significancy of time past, as reaching continuously to time present, so as expressed by me in the text. Το εβασανισαν is used in Apoc. xi. 10. 2 In finally revising this Chapter, I have had the advantage of comparing its statements and arguments with those urged in certain more or less elaborate Treatises against the premillennial view, published subsequently to my 1st Edition; especially of Nero's persecution of Christians to death, generally; though in many cases their death was by fire, wild beasts, or crucifixion. |