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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Revelation 7
Verse Commentaries:
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The form τοῦτο (Elz.) is attested, of course, only by the Vulg., while the ταῦτα , approved by Lach., Tisch., has the preponderating witnesses (A, C, à , 2, 4, 6, al.) in its favor; but the plural stands in all similar passages (De Wette). On the other hand, the πᾶν before δένδρον ( à , rec., Tisch. IX.), in spite of the analogy of Rev_9:4, Rev_21:27 (De Wette), must yield to the unexpected, but, indeed, well-attested, τι δενδρ . (Lach., Tisch.), to which also the emendation τινι δένδρῳ (19, Wetst.) points.
Rev_7:2. ἀναβαίνοντα . So already Beng., Griesb., Matth., according to all witnesses. Incorrectly, Elz.: ἀναβάντα .
Rev_7:3. ἄχρισφραγ . A, C, à , 12, Beng., Lach., Tisch. [W. and H.]. Without witnesses: ἄχρις οὖ σφρ .
Rev_7:5. ἑσφραγισμένοι , according to the preponderating witnesses, belongs only in the first member of Rev_7:5, and at the close of Rev_7:8 (Lach., Tisch.).
Rev_7:9. εἰδον ὄχλον πολύν . So Lach., in accord with A, Vulg., Primas, Cypr. Tisch. with Elz. has written εἰδον , καὶ ἰδοὺ ὄχλος πολύχ ( à ), for which C is cited, whose authority, however, with respect to this passage, is weakened by the evident emendation of the ἑστῶτες into ἑστώτων (cf. the variations ἑστῶτας , ἑστῶτα , in Wetst.).
Rev_7:11. Instead of ἑστήκεσαν (Elz.), either ἑστήκεισαν (Beng., Tisch.), or more probably, as Mat_12:46 (cf. Tisch., ed. vii.), εἱστήκεισαν (Matt., Lach., Tisch. IX.) is to be read. The latter form occurs in 6, 14, 16, 27, 28, Compl., al. (Wetst.), and in four codd. in Matt. A has, according to Lach., ϊστηκεισαν ; C: ἑστήκισαν ; à : ϊστηκισαν . Wetst. cites A, C, 2, al., for ἑστήκεισαν [W. and H.: ἱστήκεισαν ].
Rev_7:14. After κύριε , a μου is inserted in the rec., in accord with the decisive witnesses, by Beng., Griesb., Matth. The reading received by Lach., ἀπὸ θλίψεως μεγάλης , is, indeed, attested by A; but there is reason to suspect that the reading ἐκ τῆς θλ . τῆς μεγ . ( à , Elz., Tisch. [W. and H.]) has been changed, because the restriction of the θλῖψις required by the art. appeared difficult.
After ἐλεύκαναν , neither στολὰς αὐτῶν (Elz. [W. and H.]) nor αὐτὰς (A, à , Vulg., Lach., Tisch. IX.) is to be read. Beng., Matth., Tisch., already have rejected the repeated designation of the object.
Rev_7:17. ζωῆς . So, according to decided witnesses, Beng., Griesb., Matth., al., N. The ζώσας (Elz.) is a modification. Instead of ἀπὸ τ . οφθ . ( à , Elz., Matth.), read ἐκ (A, C, 2, 4, al., Beng., Lach., Tisch. [W. and H.]).
After the conclusion of the sixth seal-vision, and before the description of the final judgment itself, to be expected in the seventh seal, whose immediate signs are presented in the sixth seal, although already the executors of this final storm of judgment, directed against the entire earth, stand prepared for their work (Rev_7:1), “the one hundred and forty-four thousand servants of God” (Rev_7:3) who are of Israel, are first sealed with a “seal of the living God” (Rev_7:1-8). Afterwards, in the second part of ch. 7 (Rev_7:9-17), John beholds in a new vision an innumerable company from all men (Rev_7:9), in white robes and with palms in their hands, who stand before the throne of God and of the Lamb, and unite with all the angels in songs of praise. According to the express interpretation of Rev_7:13 sqq., they are such as “have come out of great tribulation,” and who, as a reward for their fidelity to their faith, in which they have victoriously endured great tribulation, are refreshed with heavenly joy before God and the Lamb.
The meaning of ch. 7, as a whole, depends less upon the correct exposition of details, than in general upon the correct statement of the intention and plan of the Apoc. Hence the following chief points must be firmly maintained, which must receive their full justification by the explanation of each several verse:—
1. The view of Vitringa is incorrect, that, as Rev_6:12-17 describes the first part of the sixth seal-vision, Son_7:1-8 describes its second, and Rev_7:9-17 its third part.[2200] For not only is the section Rev_6:12-17 perfectly complete in itself, and, as to its contents, homogeneous with the preceding seal-visions, while in ch. 7 such matters are represented as, because of their entirely different nature, belong not to the seal-visions Rev_6:12 sqq.; but the vision Rev_7:1 sqq., and the succeeding Rev_7:9 sqq., are expressly distinguished from what precedes, by the formula μετὰ ταῦτα ειδ .[2201] Ch. 7, therefore, contains an episode,[2202] inasmuch as it enters with a certain independence between the sixth and seventh seals (Rev_8:1 sqq.); in both its parts, two pure visions, immediately presented to the prophet, occur, which do not proceed from a seal.—2. The question now arises, whether the twofold vision has its reference to what precedes,—whether to the sixth seal,[2203] or the fifth,[2204] or all six,[2205]—or to what follows, and what meaning belongs to the entire ch. 7 in its order and contents. The answer to this question depends essentially upon what meaning is attached to the act of sealing, and what relation the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed (Rev_7:1-8) are regarded as holding to the innumerable multitude (Rev_7:9-17). It is a constant assumption of expositors,—as well of those who identify the sealed with the innumerable multitude, as those also who make a distinction,—that the sealing has as its purpose, to establish the sealed before the impending visitations, so that they may not, like unbelievers, experience them.[2206] An appeal is made for this to Exo_12:7; Exo_12:13; Eze_9:4 sqq.; Rev_9:4. But this traditional interpretation is not correct. In neither Exodus 12 nor Ezekiel 9 is there any thing said of a σφραγίζειν , but of a sign ( σημεῖον ), which, whether it be applied to the houses (Exodus 12), or the foreheads of men (Ezekiel 9), has as its expressly designated end to assure those thus marked of the impending judgment. Undoubtedly the seal pressed upon the foreheads (Rev_7:2-3) could be a σημεῖον given for a like purpose; but that this is actually the case, is in no way said in this passage, and also does not follow from Rev_9:4,—where, as a matter of course, the sealed were not to be afflicted with certain plagues, yet not because they as sealed are secure from all plagues, but because, as the sealed servants of God, they could not be attacked by any plague proceeding “from the abyss,”—but rather contradicts as well the N. T. eschatology in general,[2207] as the prophecy of the Apoc. in particular, which admonishes only to patient steadfastness unto the end, and by the promise of eternal life can incite to conflict and victory in all temptations and troubles,[2208] because it presupposes[2209] that the servants of God can in no way remain untouched by all the sorrows which befall the world. The impossibility of carrying through this interpretation of the sealing is immediately seen, when the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed are to be determined in themselves, and their relation to the innumerable multitude, Rev_7:9 sqq. One class of expositors[2210] refers Rev_7:1-8 to the flight of Christians[2211] from Jerusalem to Pella, whereby they avoided (= ἐσφραγισμένων ) the distresses occasioned by the siege and fall of Jerusalem. The innumerable multitude of Rev_7:9 is, according to Alcas., Böhmer, etc., identical with the one hundred and forty-four thousand; according to Grot., the Christians in Syria[2212] are meant; but in any case, in Rev_7:9-17, the peaceful life, attended with all its wants, of those secured against the dangers and sorrows of the Jewish war, is described. The unbounded arbitrariness of this exposition,[2213] Heinrichs already sought to avoid by maintaining that in Rev_7:1-8 are to be understood not only those who fled to Pella, but all Jewish Christians up to the final judgment; besides this correct reference to the final judgment, he has also obtruded upon the text the view that the innumerable multitude, Rev_7:9-17, appears in heavenly glory. Thus Heinr. says that here (Rev_7:9-17) the Jewish Christians who perished in spite of the sealing in the judgment that entered (cf. Rev_7:14) appear in heaven as beatified victors; so that, therefore, “the innumerable multitude of all nations and tongues” is to be understood a part of the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed out of Israel, while the sealing itself is to be regarded as partially ineffectual. But while the expositors just named, in all the defects of their mode of explanation, have correctly understood at least the one point, that the sealing has occurred because of a judgment to be expected after Rev_6:12-17, and also declared in Rev_7:1 as still impending, and accordingly ch. 7 with its prospective reference has its correct position between the sixth and seventh seals, Vitr., Hengstenb., and, in a certain respect, Ew. also, have attempted to explain the meaning of ch. 7 by making what Augustine, Tichonius, and many older expositors in general, call a recapitulatio.[2214] Even in these interpreters, the view concerning the meaning and reference of the two visions, ch. 7, is inseparably combined with the conception that the sealing effects an exemption from the visitations upon the world, and with the manner in which the relation of the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed, to the innumerable multitude, is determined. According to Vitringa, Rev_7:1-8 belongs properly before Rev_6:12-17, because in Rev_7:1-8 it is described how the one hundred and forty-four thousand of Israel, i.e., of the true Israel in the mystic sense, the true Church of the purer evangelical profession,[2215] are to be placed in security from the judgments stated in Rev_6:12-17, and to be introduced by the angels mentioned in Rev_7:1, while in Rev_7:9-17 the same sealed persons appear as an innumerable multitude in heavenly glory, after the execution of the judgment, Rev_6:12-17 (Rev_7:1 sqq). Hengstenb, also carries us back, in Rev_7:1, to the point where no judgment whatever has come upon the world, therefore, before the six seals, and regards the declaration made as to how the spiritual Israel (Rev_7:4 sqq.), with whom all believing Gentiles are “affiliated,” consequently the entire Christian communion of saints, are rendered secure against all the judgments that come upon the world; but yet, since the guilt of the world is not something “absolutely alien” to the children of God, as they also have sin, and consequently—notwithstanding the sealing,—must suffer with the world, it is stated in Rev_7:9-17, how “the best comes at the end,” i.e., the one hundred and forty-four thousand secured against the sorrows appear as a “relatively” innumerable multitude, who are consoled and refreshed before God’s face after their victorious endurance of suffering. The contradictions involved in this mode of explanation are obvious: those who by the sealing are rendered secure against the sufferings, endure the sufferings; the numbered are innumerable; those from the twelve tribes of Israel are of all lands and languages: and upon such contradictory propositions depends the supposition that what is beheld in ch. 7 after the six seal-visions ( μετὰ ταῦτα , Rev_7:1, and again in Rev_7:9), in reality should belong before all those visions,[2216]—a supposition against which, therefore, the text in every way conflicts. Ew., in common with most interpreters,[2217] has correctly acknowledged the prospective position of ch. 7 to the seventh seal; only as far as he maintains a retrospection of Rev_7:9 sqq. to Rev_6:11, as he regards the innumerable multitude as the completed band of martyrs spoken of in the fifth seal. Yet, as Ew. aptly remarks, the section Rev_7:9-17, thus understood, has an identical relation with the first vision to the seventh seal, in which retributive punishment is to be expected, inasmuch as in Rev_7:1-8 the sealing, i.e., the securing of Israel,[2218] before the beginning of the judgments is represented; while in Rev_7:9 sqq., it is indicated that meanwhile that has happened which was still to be expected after Rev_6:11, and before the entrance of the day of judgment, viz., the completion of the number of the martyrs. Thus Ewald’s view makes its claim not so much with respect to the relation which he gives in general to ch. 7, as rather because of the determination of the innumerable multitude in itself, and its connection with the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed. The sealed also he now interprets more correctly.
[2200] Cf. also C. a La
[2201] Cf. already Beng.
[2202] Eichh., De Wette, Hengstenb., Ebrard, etc.
[2203] Vitr.
[2204] Ewald.
[2205] Hengstenb.
[2206] C. a Lap., Stern, Vitr., Beng., Eichh., Heinr., Ew. i., De Wette, Bleek, also his Introduction to the N. T., p. 610, Hengstenb., Ebrard, Hilgenfeld, etc.
[2207] Cf. Mat_24:20 sqq.
[2208] Cf. only the epistles, chs. 2 and 3.
[2209] Cf. already Rev_7:14.
[2210] Alcas., Grot., Wetst., Heinr., Böhmer, etc.
[2211] Jewish Christians, Rev_7:4 sqq.
[2212] “Syria was full of Christians.”
[2213] Cf., viz., the particulars in Rev_7:1; Rev_7:9; Rev_7:11; Rev_7:14; Rev_7:16.
[2214] Cf. Introduction, p. 13 sqq.
[2215] The Evangelical are meant in distinction from Roman Catholics.
[2216] Hengstenb.
[2217] Cf. Aleas., Beng., Eichh., De Wette, Rinck, Ebrard, Christiani, etc.
[2218] Ew. ii.: “The elect,” Mat_24:22; Mat_24:24; Mat_24:31.
That those mentioned in Rev_7:9 are identical with the one hundred and forty-four thousand, Rev_7:1-8, and that in both places Jewish and heathen Christians are meant,[2219] De Wette especially has attempted to prove: 1. “Because no reason can be conceived why only Jewish, and not heathen Christians, should be kept from those plagues.” If this be in itself correct, it will show that even though in Rev_7:4-8 only Jewish Christians be meant, yet the heathen Christians are not inferior in that which their sealing actually signifies. 2. “The writer of the Apoc. makes no distinction between Jewish and heathen Christians, and sometimes designates Christians as Israel, sometimes as the elect of all nations and tongues,[2220] or of the earth.”[2221]
Only the latter assertion is correct and self-evident, and not the former, with which especially the controversy concerning Rev_7:4 sqq. is connected, that “Israel,” without any thing further, designates in the Apoc. the entire Israel of God;[2222] in this passage, the name Israel can the less be understood otherwise than in the most immediate sense, i.e., to the exclusion of heathen Christians, as the individuals belonging to the individual tribes of Israel are mentioned directly afterwards.[2223] 3. “Just as the kingdom of God is regarded as Jerusalem,[2224] and its gates are marked with the names of the twelve tribes,[2225] so Israel is to him, viz., the true Israel of God,[2226] Christian people.[2227] Just so the twelve tribes, Mat_19:28, Jam_1:1.”
But it is something different when the kingdom of God, in its heavenly completion, is designated by the name of the ancient city of God,—and in general, where a vivid description thereof occurs, this is given with the express features of the O. T. Church of God, while, at the same time, the tenor of the description as a whole, as well as in its individual parts, shows how in individual points, to whose higher significance the typical substratum of historical relations is transformed,—from when the name of Israel is used, under the special representation of the twelve tribes, concerning those, as is undoubtedly the case in Rev_7:1-8, who are to be sought on earth. 4. “Those here designated are called, Rev_7:3, absolutely, the servants of God; and in Rev_14:1 sqq. they appear as redeemed, either from the earth or from men.”
All these designations suit Israel,[2228] which comprises the servants of God in a pre-eminent sense; but if in Rev_7:1-8 only the Jewish and not also the heathen Christians appear as the servants of God, the sealing communicated with respect to this relation, in like manner as in respect to only Jewish Christians,[2229] must show upon what ground this occurs, and how, in fact, there is in the text no trace of the seeming slight to heathen Christians. 5. “Those coming forth, Rev_7:9, are not such as have been preserved from the calamities, but have escaped from the same, Rev_7:14; hence their coming forth belongs to a later period, and a parallel occurs between this passage and the former, only in the manner wherein here what is spoken of is the preservation, and there the deliverance as its consequence.”
This proposition depends upon the false presumption that the “sealing” is a preservation from calamity, upon the transformation of the present ἐρχόμενοι , Rev_7:14, into a preterite, and the confused conception of Rev_7:14 in general.[2230]
[2219] Cf. also Kliefoth, p. 539: “All servants of God who are to be at the end of days.” In Comment. il. p. 108: the one hundred and forty-four thousand are the entire body that is to be protected, the œcumenical people of God; “and in distinction from these are the multitude of many individuals whom even that protection could not save from death.”
[2220] Rev_5:9, Rev_7:9.
[2221] Rev_14:3.
[2222] Gal_6:16.
[2223] From the fact that the tribe of Dan is lacking, the inference is not impossible, that the designation of Israel, together with the names of the tribes mentioned, is intended figuratively or mystically, i.e., the entire assembly of believers is designated, even the heathen Christians added to the spiritual Israel by adoption (Hengstenb.). Why, then, should not the spiritual Dan belong to the spiritual Israel? But if Israel proper be meant, the proper Dan would not be mentioned if the tribe were as good as dead. See on Rev_7:4-8.
[2224] Rev_20:9, Rev_21:2.
[2225] Rev_21:12.
[2226] Gal_6:16.
[2227] Cf. Rev_18:4.
[2228] Cf. on Rev_14:1 sqq.
[2229] Cf. Nr. 1.
[2230] For, on Rev_7:14, De Wette remarks that those mentioned there are delivered, “by their steadfastness,” from the distress which they still had to endure notwithstanding their “sealing.”
The grounds upon which an attempt is made to show the identity of those mentioned in Rev_7:1-8 with those meant in Rev_7:9-17, by understanding in both passages Jewish and heathen Christians together, are, therefore, not such as stand the test:[2231] the text leads to the opposite view, because, in Rev_7:1-8, what is said has reference to Israel with its tribes, but in Rev_7:9 sqq. to all nations and tongues, because the number of one hundred and forty-four thousand there, although not literal but schematic, furnishes the idea of numerability, while here (Rev_7:9) the innumerability of the great multitude is especially emphasized; and also because what is spoken of there is the sealing, which is not mentioned here. The question therefore is: Who are those mentioned in Rev_7:1-8, and who those in Rev_7:9 sqq.? The distinction is sometimes made between Jewish Christians (Rev_7:1 sqq.) and Gentile Christians (Rev_7:9 sqq.);[2232] or Jews to be converted at the end of the world,[2233] and Gentile Christians;[2234] or Jewish and Gentile Christians still living at the end of the world on the judgment day, and those who have died the death of the godly before the judgment day:[2235] but in connection with all these explanations,[2236] we see neither any firm foundation in the text, nor the meaning and relation of the visions in connection with the whole. The latter is lacking also in Bengel, who, however, has correctly discerned the chief point, that Rev_7:1-8 treat only of believers from Israel, and Rev_7:9 sqq., of the glorified of all nations, Gentiles and Jews.
[2231] Cf. Bleek, who in his Beitr., p. 186, has recalled his former view of the identity of those expressly mentioned (Rev_7:1 sqq. and Rev_7:9 sqq.).
[2232] Eichh., etc.
[2233] Cf. Rom_11:25.
[2234] C. a Lap. Cf. Hofmann.
[2235] Stern, Rinck, Ebrard.
[2236] To be silent concerning what is utterly wonderful, as in Aretius: “In Rev_7:1 sqq., they are meant who publicly profess Christ, as Christians in almost all Europe; Rev_7:9 sq., they who do not publicly profess Christ’s name, as innumerable Christians in Asia and Africa, whom Christ preserves. How he does this without external preaching, he himself knows.”
Especially as to the “sealing,” the generally received explanation of it as the protection, or guaranty as to security, from the imminent plagues that were to come upon the world, necessarily results from the symbol in itself, or from its use in the N. T., and especially the Apoc. mode of statement, as little as that received meaning is justified by the facts; for the servants of God do not remain entirely untouched by all the sufferings whereby judgment comes upon the world. But as the seal serves for the attestation, as, e.g., of a document,[2237] and, in general, for confirmation, so in this passage the sealing of those who already are servants of God designates nothing else than the immutable firmness of their ἐκλογή ,[2238] which is not to be affected even by the ΠΕΙΡΑΣΜΌς [2239] of the last great ΘΛῖΨΙς .[2240] Striking analogies to this interpretation of the ΣΦΡΑΓΊΖΕΙΝ are 2Co_1:22; Eph_1:13; Eph_4:30.[2241] To the servants of God, therefore, upon whose forehead the seal of the living God is impressed, the Divine warrant is thereby given that in the greatest tribulations they remain the servants of God, until they have been preserved in their fidelity unto the end, and are victoriously conducted to eternal glory in God’s kingdom. The seal designates, therefore, not preservation from tribulation, but preservation in tribulation from a fall.
[2237] Cf. Est_8:8.
[2238] Cf. Mat_24:22-24, where especially the εἱ δυνατόν is to be observed.
[2239] Cf. Rev_3:10.
[2240] Cf. Rev_7:14.
[2241] Cf. also Rom_15:28; Joh_3:33; Joh_6:27; 1Co_9:6; Rom_4:11.
But even with this conception of the σφραγίζειν , the difficulty arises, that if the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed of Israel are not also of the Gentiles, the latter seem subordinated to the former in an inexplicable way.[2242] This difficulty is thus removed in accordance with the context: 1. While, in respect to the servants of God from Israel, the guaranty is given in advance by the special act of sealing, that the tribulation (of the seventh seal) now entering is not to turn them from their heavenly Lord (Rev_7:1-8), the same thing is represented in respect to the servants of God from the Gentiles, in that (Rev_7:9-17) an innumerable multitude of all nations, kindreds, and tongues, therefore of Jews and Gentiles, appear as those who “have come out of great tribulation” (Rev_7:14), and now stand as triumphant victors before the throne of God for no other reason than because they have persevered unto the end in the same fidelity as the sealed from Israel. 2. But that this is thus said in a twofold way, first of Israel alone, and then of all true servants of God, including those of Israel, has its foundation in the fact that inasmuch as the judgment to be expected,—in the seventh seal,—although only one comprising all enemies, yet contains two chief acts: viz., first, the punishment inflicted upon the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where the Lord was crucified, i.e., Jerusalem;[2243] then the judgment upon the spiritually so-called Babel, i.e., Rome,—in the tribulation with which the Lord comes in judgment upon unbelieving Israel, the one hundred and forty-four thousand servants of God are to be kept in security, even though they are to suffer; thus the vision, Rev_7:1-8, looks towards what the seventh seal is to bring upon unbelieving Israel.[2244] But that also the servants of God from the Gentiles, together with the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from Israel, are to come out of great tribulation, and to enter glory as faithful warriors of Christ, the other vision states, which thus refers to the tribulation with which the Lord shall visit Babylon.[2245] At the critical point, therefore, between the sixth and seventh seals, before the seventh seal, which is to show the coming itself of the Lord, is opened, the double vision of ch. 7 enters, whereby testimony is given, in the most express way, that all the tribulation impending over the true servants of God is not to occasion their fall, but that from this tribulation, which brings judgment upon the world, they are to come to eternal glory. 3. That in this sense a special sealing was given the servants of God from Israel, and not the Gentile Christians, is natural, because the concrete form of the people of Israel with its individual tribes suggests the more definite idea of a complete mass, and, therefore, of one to be comprised in a (schematic) number; but if the look turns to the servants of God from the heathen, the limitation vanishes, the multitude appears innumerable (Rev_7:9), and the idea of a special sealing imparted to all individuals would be entirely untenable. 4. But if what is said in Rev_7:9 sqq. be not only of the servants of God from the heathen, but in the innumerable multitude wherein the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed are to be regarded as included, this depends upon the fact, that, even though a special reference to the Israelites has a good foundation, yet the final equality and fellowship of all believers in heavenly glory must be made prominent.
[2242] Volkm. and similar critics see here the decided Judaism of John.
[2243] Cf. Rev_11:8.
[2244] Cf. Rev_8:1 to Rev_11:14.
[2245] Ch. 12 sqq.