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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Revelation 14:1 - 14:1
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
A lamb
Read “the lamb.” See Rev 5:6.
Stood (ἑστηκὸς)
The participle, standing, as Rev.
His Father's name
Add αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸ ὄνομα His and the name, and render as Rev., His name and the name of His Father.
The Adoration of the Lamb is the subject of the great altar piece in the church of St. Bavon at Ghent, by John and Hubert Van Eyck. The scene is laid in a landscape. The background is formed by a Flemish city, probably intended to represent Jerusalem, and by churches and monasteries in the early Netherland style. The middle ground is occupied by trees, meadows, and green slopes. In the very center of the picture a square altar is hung with red damask and covered with a white cloth. Here stands a lamb, from whose breast a stream of blood issues into a crystal glass. Angels kneel round the altar with parti-colored wings and variegated dresses, many of them praying with joined hands, others holding aloft the emblems of the passion, two in front waving censers. From the right, behind the altar, issues a numerous band of female saints, all in rich and varied costumes, fair hair floating over their shoulders, and palms in their hands. Foremost may be noticed Sta. Barbara and Sta. Agnes. From the left advance popes, cardinals, bishops, monks, and minor clergy, with crosiers, crosses, and palms. In the center, near the base, a small octagonal fountain of stone projects a stream into a clear rill. Two groups are in adoration on each side of the fountain, - on the right, the twelve apostles kneeling barefoot, and an array of popes, cardinals, and bishops, with a miscellaneous crowd of church-people; on the left, kings and princes in various costumes. They are surrounded by a wilderness of flowering shrubs, lilies, and other plants. On the wings of the picture numerous worshippers move toward the place of worship, - crusaders, knights, kings, and princes, including the figures of the two artists on horseback. “Here, approaching from all sides, are seen that 'great multitude of all nations and hundreds and people and tongues' - the holy warriors and the holy pilgrims, coming in solemn processions from afar - with other throngs already arrived in the celestial plain, clothed in white robes, and holding palms in their hands. Their forms are like unto ours; the landscape around them is a mere transcript of the sweet face of our outer nature; the graceful wrought-iron fountain in the midst is such an one as still sends forth its streams in an ancient Flemish city; yet we feel these creatures to be beings from whose eyes God has wiped away all tears - who will hunger and thirst no more; our imagination invests these flowery meads with the peace and radiance of celestial precincts, while the streams of the fountain are converted into living waters, to which the Lamb Himself will lead His redeemed. Here, in short, where all is human and natural in form, the spiritual depths of our nature are stirred” (Mrs. Jameson, “History of Our Lord,” ii., 339).