Revelation 20

Revelation 20:1

And I saw another representation, by which I discerned what should succeed the conversion of heathen Rome to Christianity, viz. a tranquillity and flourishing estate of Christianity for some time, though not for ever. And first, methought, I saw an angel coming from heaven, a token of very good news at this time and elsewhere, (as sometimes of judgments from God,) with the key of hell and a great chain in his hand, (to signify what follows, ver. 2, that Satan should now be shut up and chained.)

Revelation 20:2

And he apprehended the devil, that is set down under the title of Satan and the dragon in former visions, ch. xii. 9, and bound him for the space of a thousand years, noting the tranquillity and freedom from persecutions that should be allowed the church of Christ from the time of Constantine’s coming to the empire.

Revelation 20:3

And he secured him there by all ways of security, binding, locking, sealing him up, that he might not deceive and corrupt the world to idolatry, as till then he had done, but permit the Christian profession to flourish till these thousand years were at end; and after that he should get loose again for some time, and make some havock in the Christian world.

Revelation 20:4

And I saw chairs, and some sitting upon them, that is, Christian assemblies and judicatures, and such a general profession of Christianity, in opposition to the idolatries of the heathens, those in the capitol at Rome, and the like unto them in other places of the Roman empire, (see note [b] ch. xiii,)

[a] lived and reigned with Christ] The meaning of the thousand years living and reigning with Christ of those that were beheaded, &c. may perhaps be sufficiently cleared and understood, by observing these three things: first, that here is no mention of any new reign of Christ on earth, but only of them that were beheaded, and of them which had not worshipped, &c., living and reigning with Christ. The doctrine of the millenaries supposes the former, that Christ must come down on earth, and have a new kingdom here in this world. But this those men’s living and reigning with Christ doth not suppose, but rather the contrary, that the kingdom of Christ here spoken of is that which he had before, and which is everywhere called his kingdom, and that now only those that had been killed, and banished out of it before, were admitted into a participation of that kingdom μετὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ, with Christ. Now what this living and reigning of the beheaded, &c., (then beginning,) was, may appear by considering what is meant, first, by the beheaded, and others here named; then, secondly, by their living and reigning. The beheaded are they that resisted unto blood in their combats against the heathen idolatry and practices, the constant servants of Christ that persevered so till death, and that in opposition to the beast and his image, to that which was practised in Rome to Jupiter Capitolinus, and the transcripts of it in other places, (see notes [g] and [r] on chap. xiii;) and so all those phrases conclude the subject of the proposition to be the pure, constant, persevering Christians. One thing only is to be observed of these, that by them are not signified the same particular persons or individual members of the church that had formerly been slain, any more than the same individual persons of the rest of the dead, ver. 5, (that is, of the apostatizing unchristian livers,) can be thought to have lived again after the end of the thousand years, when they are said to be revived, and so Satan to be let loose a little while; but rather on the one side, as on the other, a succession of such as they were, the church of Christ being to be considered as a transient body, such as a river, &c., which always runs in a succession of parts, one following the other in a perpetual motion and mutation: in which respect I suppose it is said of the church that the gates of hades shall never prevail against it, that is, that it shall never be destroyed, which of any particular persons, or the church of all the Christians of any one age, cannot so fitly be affirmed, but only of the church in the perpetual succession of Christians. And then for these men’s living and reigning, first, it must be observed, that it is not here said that they revived, or were raised, as the millenaries’ pretensions suppose, but only that they lived and reigned; which two being opposite to dying and being subject to others, will denote a peaceable, prosperous, flourishing estate of the orthodox professors, instead of their former sad and persecuted condition. For that is the meaning of living, as may appear by the title ὁ ζῶν, living, given to Christ, ch. i. 18, in opposition to ἐγενόμην νεκρός, I was dead, his illustrious, instead of his despised condition; and so of reigning, as of being kings, (see note [d] on ch. i,) and of being kings and reigning upon the earth, chap. v. 10. And all this together will be one way of evidencing the truth of this interpretation. Secondly, the meaning of the phrase will appear by

Revelation 20:5

But [b] the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the

As for the old idolaters or Gnostics, there was nothing like them now to be seen, nor should be till the end of this space of a thousand years. This is it that is proverbially described by the first resurrection, that is, a flourishing condition of the church under the Messias.

[b] the rest of the dead] It follows here that the λοιποὶ τῶν νεκρῶν, the rest of the dead revived not till the thousand years were done. Who the rest of the dead are is manifest; not all beside the martyrs, as the millenaries pretend, but all but those formerly named, ver. 4, that is, all that worshipped the beast, or his image, or received his mark in their foreheads or hands, that is, all the idolaters and apostates, and remainders of Gnostic Christians, and all that complied with either, which are called λοιποὶ νεκρῶν, the rest of the dead, most fitly. For, first, it hath been manifest, ch. xix. 18, 21, that there were others slain beside those that were beheaded for the constancy of their confession of Christ; nay, secondly, at this part of the vision it is clear, that as the constant professors were not all slain, but only some of them beheaded, and others preserved, (and so beside the beheaded here are enumerated those that had not worshipped the beast, nor his image, nor received his mark upon their foreheads or hands,) so the idolaters, apostates, and Gnostic Christians, &c., had their universal slaughters, ch. xix. 2, 3, xx. 21, and therefore these may well be οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν νεκρῶν, the rest of the dead here, it being punctually said of them, ch. xix. 21, καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ ἀπεκτάνθησαν, the rest were slain. And then that they revived not till the thousand years finished, must needs signify that the church was now for that space freed from such heathen persecutors, and purified from such avowed mixtures of those vile unchristian practices, which is but the negative part annexed to the positive preceding.

[c] first resurrection] What is meant by the first resurrection here, may be discerned by comparing it with the second resurrection in the ordinary notion of it. That signifies the resurrection to eternal life: proportionably this must signify a reviving, a restoring to life, though not to that eternal. Here it is figuratively used to express the flourishing condition of the Christian church for that thousand years wherein the Christian professors, in opposition to idolatrous heathens and Gnostic Christians, live safely and happily in the enjoying the assemblies; which is, saith he, as if the primitive martyrs were fetched out of their graves to live again here in tranquillity upon the earth. Where only it is to be noted, that the resurrection here is of the church, not of the particular persons (the beheaded, &c.) thus to be understood, that the

Revelation 20:6

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such [d] 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 blessed and holy, that is, safe (separate from all danger) are all they that are really in the number of those that partake effectually of these benefits, who, as they are rescued from those destructions which the Roman tyranny threatened them with, which is the interpretation of the second death, so they shall now have the blessing of free, undisturbed assemblies for all this space: (see note [d] ch. i.)

[d] the second death] This phrase the second death is four times used in this book, chap. ii. 11, and here chap. xx. 6, then ver. 14, then chap. xxi. 8. It seems to be taken from the Jews, who use it proverbially for final, utter, irreversible destruction. So in the Jerusalem Targum, Deut. xxxiii. 6, Let Reuben live, and let him not die the second death, by which the wicked die in the world to come. Where, whatsoever be signified among them by the world to come, (the age of the Messias in whatsoever Jewish notion of it,) it seems to denote such a death from which there is no release. And according to this notion of it, as it reflects fitly on the first death, (which is a destruction, but such as is reparable by a reviving or resurrection, but this past hopes, and exclusive of that,) so will all the several places wherein it is used be clearly interpreted: ch. ii. 11, he that overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death, that is, if this church shall hold out constant, it shall not be cut off, that is, though it shall meet with great persecutions, ver. 10, and death itself, yet that utter excision would no way better be prevented than by this of constancy and perseverance in suffering of all. So here, speaking of the flourishing condition of the Christian church, reviving after all its persecutions and corruptions to a state of tranquillity and purity, On these, saith he, the second death hath no power, that is, they have not incurred that utter excision, (having their part in the first resurrection,) but they shall be priests to Christ and God, and reign, &c., that is, have a flourishing time of Christian profession for that space of a thousand years. So in the 14th verse, where death and hades are cast into the lake of fire, that is, death and the state of mortality utterly destroyed, (O death, I will be thy death,) it is added, This is the second death, that is, mortality is utterly destroyed; there shall now be no more death; the life shall be eternal: so chap. xxi. 8, the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone (the utter irreversible destruction, such as fell on Sodom, called αἰώνιον πῦρ, eternal fire, utterly consumptive) is called the second death, into which they are said to go that are never to appear in the church again. And though in these different matters some difference there must needs be in the significations, yet in all of them the notion of utter destruction, final, irreparable excision, may very properly be retained, and applied to each of them.

Revelation 20:7

But after this space, the sins of Christians provoking God to it, this restraint being taken off from Satan, he shall fall a disturbing the Christian profession again. (This fell out about a thousand years after the date of Constantine’s edict for the liberty of the Christian profession, at which time the Mahomedan religion was brought into Greece, a special part of the Roman empire.)

[e] thousand years are expired] When these thousand years of the peaceable Christian profession should begin, and when determine, is a thing of some doubt. And the cause of the doubt is, the several points of time wherein the destruction of heathenism in the Roman empire may be placed. For as in every so great a change there are several stages or degrees of motion, so was it here. Constantine’s receiving the faith, and concluding of the persecutions, and by decree proclaiming liberty of Christianity, may most properly be styled the binding of Satan, the dragon, that sought to devour the child as soon as it was born; and then the beginning of the thousand years will fall about A. D. 311, at which time the conversion of heathen Rome to Christianity is set down, and celebrated by Prudentius, l. 1, cont. Symmachum, beginning thus,

Cum princeps gemini bis victor cæde tyranni, &c.

Revelation 20:8

And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four ³quarters of the earth, [f] Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

And then shall he set about the seducing of men in all quarters to the Mahomedan or other false religions, particularly Gog and Magog, the inhabitants of those countries where the Mahomedan religion began to flourish, to engage them in vast numbers in a war to invade and waste the Christian church in Greece, &c.

Revelation 20:9

And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. as if all that had died for Christ, and held out constantly against all the heathen persecutions, had now been admitted to live and reign with Christ, that is, to live quiet, flourishing, Christian lives here, for that space of a thousand years, ver. 5.

And accordingly, methought, they did; they went in great numbers, and besieged and took Constantinople, that city so precious in God’s eyes for the continuance of the pure Christian profession in it, and known among the Grecians by the name of new Sion; and in the chief church there, called the church of Sophia, they set up the worship of Mahomet, (just two hundred years ago.) And those that did so are in their posterity to be destroyed; (and though it be not yet done, it is to be expected in God’s good time, when Christians that are thus punished for their sins shall reform and amend their lives.) ³ corners of the land, γωνίαις τῆς γῆς.

Revelation 20:10

And the devil, methought, that wrought in them, that stirred them up, was remanded and returned again into his prison, and this empire of his was again destroyed, as the idol-worship of the heathens, and the magicians, sorcerers, augurs, and heathen priests before had been.

Revelation 20:11

And after this, in another part of this vision, I saw, methought, a throne set up in great splendour and glory, and Christ in majesty sitting thereon, very terrible, and a new condition of all things in the world was now to be expected. (And so that which was the design of all these visions, (sent in an epistle to the seven churches, to teach them constancy in pressures,) is still here clearly made good, that though Christianity be persecuted, and, for the sins of the vicious professors thereof, permitted oft to be brought very low, yet God will send relief to them that are faithful, rescue the constant walker, and destroy the destroyer, and finally cast out Satan out of his possessions; and then, as here, come to judge the world in that last eternal doom.)

Revelation 20:12

And all that ever died were called out of their graves before him; and as for the judging every one, the rolls or records of all their actions were produced, and withal, another book brought forth, called the book of life, (see note [b] Rev. iii,) wherein every one’s name is entered that ever undertook God’s service, and blotted out again if they were fallen off from him; and according to their works, so were their names continued in that book of life, if they continued faithful unto death, but not otherwise.

Revelation 20:13

And all that were buried in the sea, that is, perished by water, and all that were dead and laid in graves, and all that any other way were dead, came out of their graves, their bodies were reunited to their souls, and every one was judged according to his works.

Revelation 20:14

And then death itself was destroyed eternally, an everlasting being now succeeding in the place of this frail, mortal one. And this is it that is proverbially called the second death, wherein this whole world hath its period and consummation.

Revelation 20:15

And whosoever had not his name found written and continued in (not blotted out of) the book of life, ver. 12, whosoever died not constant in the faith, he was cast out into eternal fire.

Revelation 20:21

And the rest, that is, all the secret idolaters, were swept away in the same destruction also, (for thinking that these armies against Rome would be favourable to any more than to the orthodox, pure Christians, they then thought it a fit time to discover themselves, but strangely miscarried in it, the Christians that fled to the basilica, or temple, being the only persons that found deliverance, see note [f] ch. xvii,) and so all their idol-worship was destroyed, (which is the sum of this chapter.)

AND I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.