Revelation 4
HAMMRevelation 4:1
In this chapter, being the beginning of another vision, is first represented the calling and admission of John into heaven by way of vision, (as we read of St. Paul, that he was snatched into the third
⁸ For, “Ori. ⁹ pitemis, ἐλεεινός. ¹⁰ refined of, πενθρωμίνον ἐκ. ¹¹ salve to anoint: for the King’s MS. reads κολλούριον ἐγχρίσαι. ¹² I have stood, ἕστηκα. ¹³ I saw.
[a] I looked] The word εἶδον here is not to be taken in the ordinary notion of seeing, looking, or beholding, but in that (so solemn among the prophets) of the Hebrew חוה, from whence their prophecies are called חוץ, vision, and each prophet חוה, a seer; and so it is generally taken in this book, and is best explained by ἐγενόμην ἐν πνεύματι, I was in the Spirit, ch. i. 10. This joined here with μετὰ ταῦτα, denotes either a distant matter or a distant vision from the former; and having no accusative case after to restrain it, it is a general title belonging to the whole passage after it, as far as that vision goes: for it hath formerly been said, that these visions were delivered at several times (see the Premonition). At what distance or space one from another, or in what order distinctly they were received, it is uncertain, save only that they were not before Claudius, nor after Domitian. But for the completion, there is no necessity that that should begin at the end of the completion of the former, that is, that the destruction of the Jews here represented in this vision should not commence till after the judgment threatened, ch. ii. 3, to the churches, (as it might be conceived to do if the whole book were but one continued vision;) it being very possible that that which should first come to pass might by God be chosen to be matter of a second vision, nay that the same thing might be severally represented by God, and so made the matter of several visions.
Revelation 4:2
And accordingly, saith he, I was (in an ecstasy or vision) presently transported thither, and there was represented to me a throne erected for judicature, and God the Father sitting on it, (see Ezek. i. 26,) like the bishop of Jerusalem in council.
[b] one sat on the throne] Who this person is which is here, in vision, brought in sitting upon the throne, will be best understood by those that sit upon the four and twenty thrones round about him, ver. 4. That God the Father coming to judgment, and his saints as assessors about him, are meant by the representation, there is no doubt: the whole question is, who they are which are here used to represent and signify these. And it might be thought to be the head of the sanhedrim at Jerusalem, or some other consistory, which thus sat in council, the head in the midst, in a chair or throne, and the members, chief priests, elders, and doctors of the law, on each side of him, in so many
Revelation 4:3
And he sat as in majesty; and the appearance of him, or the colours wherein he was represented to me, were like the colour of a jasper and sardine stone: the former having its name in the Hebrew (Exod. xxviii. 19.) from the firmness and hardness of it, as being unmalleable, thereby to signify God’s omnipotence; the second, (Exod. xxviii. 17,) from the redness or firiness of it, to signify him terrible in his judgments as a flaming fire, Heb. xii. 29. But withal there was a rainbow round about the throne, which was, Gen. viii. 13, a token of God’s covenant with man, and is used Ezek. i. to describe a glorious appearance of God, (the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord, ver. 28.) and so again here, ch. x. 1, and the colour of it was like an emerald, that is, of a most pleasant greenness, fitly signifying the evangelical covenant of mercy, mixing, in all God’s judgments, most merciful preservations to the faithful in the midst of his punishing the obdurate, ch. vii. 2, &c.
Revelation 4:4
And on each side of this throne were other chairs, four and twenty in number, as of so many bishops sitting with the bishop of Jerusalem in the council, and accordingly arrayed in white garments, and mitres on their heads.
[c] round about the throne] The meaning of κυκλόθεν τοῦ θρόνου, round about the throne, will probably be discerned by the ancient manner of sitting in council or consistory among the Jews first, and afterward among Christians. A representation we have of it, Dan. vii. 9, (from which place this here seems to be taken, as many other things in this, out of that prophecy.) I beheld till the seats, or thrones, were pitched, (not thrown down, as we read, but pitched or set,) donec throni positi sunt, saith the Vulgar, and ἴως οἱ θρόνοι ἐτίθισαν, say the Seventy, and Theodotion: and the Chaldee word is the same that is used by the Chaldee paraphrase, Jer. i. 15, for the setting of thrones, where the Hebrew hath נִגְהָנִי, and the Seventy, καὶ θήσουσιν, they shall set every one his throne: and then it follows, and the ancient of the days did sit, placing him in the midst of the other thrones, as the father or head of the consistory, and the judgment was set, ver. 10, that is, the whole sanhedrim, the rest of the elders, &c., seated on those thrones round about, or on each side of the head, or prince of the consistory, and the books were opened, preparative to the judicature. So in like manner in the Christian church, where the bishop and his presbyters in any lesser city, and the metropolitan and his bishops in the metropolis, are thus placed: the presbyters, or the bishops, sitting at the east end of the church in the form of semicircle, and the bishop or metropolitan in a chair or throne of some eminence in the midst of the presbyters’ or bishops’ seats, with those on each side of him, and then the deacons attending or waiting on them. So in Ignatius’s Epistle to the Magnesians we find, Μετὰ τοῦ ἀξιοπρεπεστάτου ἐπισκόπου ὑμῶν, καὶ πνευματικοῦ στεφάνου τοῦ πρεσβυτερίου, (as the Laurentian copy now rightly reads it, not στεφάνου πρεσβυτέρου, as the printed copies were wont to have it,) “with your most reverend bishop, and the spiritual crown of the presbytery;” noting the presbyters sitting on each side of the bishop in the fashion of a crown, not of a full circle; for a crown was not so
[d] four and twenty elders] Having seen what was meant by him that sitteth on the highest or middle throne, God in the thing signified, but the bishop of Jerusalem in the representation, it will presently follow that the πρεσβύτεροι, elders on the thrones round about him are those which sat in council with this bishop, in the same manner as, Acts xv, we find the πρεσβύτεροι, elders, mentioned. That those πρεσβύτεροι, elders, signified the bishops of Judæa, (not the presbyters, as we now call them, of that one city,) hath been said, note [b] on Acts xi. For
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And as the law was by God once delivered in a terrible manner, by the ministry of angels, so it now seemed to be produced as terribly, to threaten and give in evidence against sinners: and seven angels, like seven deacons in the church, stood waiting on this judicature: (see note [c] ch. i.)
[e] seven spirits] The seven spirits of God here are the ministering spirits, or angels, (see note [b] on ch. i,) that attend and wait upon God as apparitors, or serjeants, or officers, to attend the judicature, to cite and bring malefactors before it, and are represented here by the seven deacons in the church of Jerusalem, attending on the bishop, Acts vi, but those like lamps of fire burning, in respect of the glory and brightness wherein angels are wont to appear.
Revelation 4:6
And before this tribunal of God’s were brought all the people of the Jews, expressed by a sea, or multitude of waters, (waters signifying people in this prophecy, ch. xvii. 15,) and all their thoughts and actions
[f] in the midst of the throne] That which is here said of the placing of the living creatures, ἐν μίσῳ τοῦ θρόνου, and κύκλῳ τοῦ θρόνου, in the middle of the throne, and round about the throne, may, I suppose, be thus most commodiously explained, that ἐν μίσῳ τοῦ θρόνου, in the midst of the throne, shall signify at the former part that which is most visible to the company: so to be set ἐν μίσῳ, in the midst, Acts iv. 7, is in a conspicuous place, all one with before them, Acts xxii. 30, and being called forth, Acts xxiv. 2, and in like manner to stand up in the midst, Acts i. 15, is, so as he may be seen and heard best by all that are present: and then κύκλῳ, about, which must needs be opposite to that, will signify behind, or at the hinder part, and so κυκλόθεν, about, will straight appear to be all one with ὄπισθεν, at the back or behind, (see note [i]). Which being granted, the ἐν μίσῳ, in the midst, will necessarily denote the two foremost points of the chair or throne, where two of the living creatures are placed, and κύκλῳ, about, the two hindmost, and so all the four living creatures will be disposed of, at each corner one. Others, I see, have conceived the two which are here said to be ἐν μίσῳ, in the middle of the throne, to have been placed one before and the other behind, (and consequently the two that are κύκλῳ, about, to be one on each side;) but this cannot well be imagined without incommodating the judge, before whom he stands, unless one be placed upon the steps of ascent to the throne, and so below the space on which the throne was set; which cannot probably be yielded, because the throne and this place where this living creature would be placed, would not then make up
[g] four beasts] Who these four living creatures were in this representation, may, in proportion and analogy with what hath been said, be conjectured also. And to that purpose it may be observed, that they are both here, vv. 9 and 10, and ch. v. 6, set betwixt him that sat upon the throne and the four and twenty elders, which may probably conclude them to be four apostles, who will be acknowledged to be superior to the bishops of Judæa, and may also in some sense be conceived inferior, in that council of Jerusalem, to James, advanced to be bishop, that is, supreme ruler there, (at least to be there in another capacity than he was, as transcendent persons, accordingly standing about the throne, and not as regular members of the assembly.) For thus saith Clemens, Hypotypos. l. 5, Peter, James and John chose James, the brother of the Lord, bishop of Jerusalem, (where Ruffinus reads episcopus apostolorum, bishop of the apostles;) and though they three were ὑπὸ τοῦ Κυρίου προτετμημένοι, by Christ preferred and more honoured than all the rest of the twelve, yet did they not contend one with another for this dignity, but unanimously conferred it on James the Just, who is therefore in scripture oft called an apostle, (see note [f] on Gal. ii.) Now that apostles are meant by these living creatures, and also who those four apostles were, may appear by comparing this council or judicature here represented with the council of Jerusalem, Acts xv. There it is certain that the bishop James presided, ver. 13, together with the elders or bishops of Judæa, ver. 6; and then besides and before these elders are mentioned ἀπόστολοι, the apostles, vv. 2, 4, 6, and Peter is one of them, ver. 6, and (though not there named) John also, Gal. ii. 9, (his brother James, that was wont to be there, being before this put to death, Acts xii. 2.) And so there are two of them; and why may not Paul and Barnabas, (separated before that time to apostolacy, ch. xiii. 2,) certainly present in this council, be the other two? That any other apostle was then there doth not appear, and it is evident that these four were; and from them and the elders jointly, are these decrees sent to the churches of Syria and Cilicia, ver. 23. The learned H. Grotius, I perceive, hath fallen very near upon this conjecture, only he hath placed James the brother of the Lord (that is, the bishop himself, which cannot be imagined) instead of John, and Matthew instead of Barnabas, upon no other reason but because Matthew is found to have continued long in Judæa. But referring the matter, as the representation here doth, to a council at Jerusalem, it will be most fit to pitch on those four who were (in that one scripture council) there present. And if it be objected that Paul and Barnabas were sent thither from Antioch at this time, and therefore may not seem so properly to belong to that place; to that I
Revelation 4:7
And the four ensigns were, as they were in Ezekiel, ch. i, the images of a lion, and an ox, and a man, and an eagle, which may, by way of hieroglyphic, (fit enough for a vision,) all of them put together, set out that title of God, of slow to anger, and swift to mercy, and so represent him as he is in his dealing with these Jews, whom he was now about to judge, having warned them by the prophets, by Christ, by the apostles, and (the converted Jews in Asia) by the epistle to the churches, ch. i. ii. iii., before he proceeds to judgment against them, and when he doth so, wonderfully delivering the penitent believers out of that destruction.
[h] first beast was like—] Of these four likenesses here, it is first observable from the rabbins Aben Ezra, &c., on Num. ii, that they were those that made the four standards of Israel, viz., the likeness of a lion in the camp of Judah, of a man in the camp of Reuben, of an ox in the camp of Ephraim, of an eagle in the camp of Dan; and accordingly חיתך, rendered by the Septuagint τὰ ζῶά σου, thy living creatures, psalm lxviii. 10, are said to be those ensigns or standards in their camps, but by us rendered thy congregations: see A. Masius on Joshua vi. 9. Secondly, it is evident that these four resemblances are the same that are set down Ezek. i. 10. All the difference is that here is μόσχος, a calf, which is not there, but (as in Numbers before) an ox instead of it. But that will be easily solved: for in the Septuagint, ταῦρος, βοῦς, μόσχος, bull, ox, calf, signify the same thing. See St. Augustine Quæst. l. 2. qu. 25, Vitulos appellant Ægyptii grandes boves, ut nos Pœni pullos gallinas cnjuslibet ætatis, “The Egyptians call great oxen calves,” &c. So πῶλος is used for an horse or mare, which literally notes a foal, and puella, a little wench, for a woman great with child,
Revelation 4:8
And the bearers of these four standards had each of them six wings like seraphims, Isa. vi. 2, (with two of them covering the face, with two the feet, or secret parts, and with two flying, noting the humility, chastity, love or zeal in God’s service, that was remarkable in these, in opposition to the contrary in those which should now be judged, especially the Gnostic Judaizers,) and were full of eyes, as before, ver. 6, behind and before, in respect of their understanding of the prophecies and types of the Old Testament, and their gifts of prophecy given them by God; and they labour incessantly for the advancement of God’s glory, and the kingdom of Christ, and evidencing to unbelievers their approaching ruin, and to believers God’s fidelity, in making good his promise to them, in delivering them, and destroying their enemies.
[i] six wings about him—] In this verse (which hath in it some difficulty of construction) it is first evident, that the phrase full of eyes belongs to the living creatures, and not to the wings; for so the Greek γέμουντα, full, concludes, which agree with ζῶα, creatures, but cannot with πτέρυγας, wings, and so before it had been, ver. 6, τέσσαρα ζῶα γέμουντα ὀφθαλμῶν, four living creatures full of eyes: and so it appears by the use of the wings to cover the face and secret parts, and to fly; which cannot be applied to the circuit or ambience. Next, if the Greek be consulted, it will be also as clear that the κυκλόθεν καὶ ἔσωθεν, round about and within, are not so to be divided, as in our ordinary translation they are, the former joined with the six wings, (six wings round about them,) and the latter to the eyes, (full of eyes within,) but are both together to be joined with the full of eyes, κυκλόθεν καὶ ἔσωθεν γέμουντα ὀφθαλμῶν, about and within full of eyes. What is meant by κυκλόθεν καὶ ἔσωθεν, round about and within, may be resolved by ver. 6, where the same thing is expressed by other words; there it is full of eyes ἔμπροσθεν καὶ ἔπισθεν, before and behind, here round about and within. The way of reconciling these distant phrases is, I conceive, by considering the two parts of a superficies, the convex or ambient part, that is, the circumference, and the concave or inner part. These two we know are opposed one to the other, and are fitly expressed by either of these two pairs, the outer or ambient by κυκλόθεν, round about, the inner or concave by ἔσωθεν, within; and so again (being here applied to living creatures with their faces toward us,) the ambient superficies by ἔπισθεν, behind, or the back parts, and the inner superficies by ἔμπροσθεν, before, the back parts of such creatures being most properly the convex, and the fore parts (especially when they have wings, and those wings make a kind of half circle) being the concave superficies. And so by this account, as ἔμπροσθεν, before, ver. 6, and ἔσωθεν, within, here are all one, so must κυκλόθεν, about, here, and ἔπισθεν, behind, or on the back, there, be all one also. And accordingly it may be observed that ch. v. 1, ἔσωθεν, within, is opposed to ἔπισθεν, the back parts, as here to κυκλόθεν, about, which makes it consequent that ἔπισθεν, the back part, and κυκλόθεν, about, should be all one, as now we set them. What is denoted by these two sorts of eyes, as they are applied to the apostles, may perhaps be thus best resolved: the eyes before are an expression of their foresight, or prophetic spirit; the eyes behind, those that look
Revelation 4:15
[d] neither cold nor hot] All that is here said of this church of Laodicea seemeth very intelligible by applying to them that one part of the doctrine of the Gnostics that seems to have gotten in among them, (though not those other carnal villanies,) viz. that it was ἀδιάφορον, an indifferent thing, perfectly lawful, to renounce Christ in time of persecution. This is clearly the lukewarmness here, which is a middle indifferent temper between being Christians and no Christians; and instead of that God commends to them πενθρωμίνον χρυσόν, refined gold fetched out of the fire, that is, directly the crown of martyrdom, (contrary to that mixture and allay of dross that is now in them,) and the white or shining garments, the ensign and character of the martyrs everywhere in this book. And for their saying that they are rich, &c., and not knowing that they are wretched, &c., this is again the mark of those Gnostics, which had such great ungrounded opinions of their own perfections. A physical discourse on this place may be seen in Vale-sius Sac. Phil. c. 90.
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A great opinion you have of yourselves, that ye are in an excellent state, have need of nothing, are beyond all others, when indeed you have nothing of a Christian in you, no zeal or fervency of love towards Christ; ye never think of suffering for him, or getting any part of the Christian’s crown.
Revelation 4:18
My advice therefore is, that you be content to endure some smart for Christ, if you mean to receive any crown from him; that you be courageous in the confessing of Christ, and contend for that shining royal robe that belongs to martyrs, without which (in intention at least of mind) you are still imperfect, and under the reproach of cowardice, and want of love; and to this purpose, that ye look deeper into the nature of Christian religion, the precepts, doctrines, and examples thereof; and there ye shall find what yet ye see not, that ease and prosperity here are no sign of God’s favour, but on the other side.
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The expression of his fatherly love to his children is the bestowing some chastisements upon them, thereby to fit them for his love.
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Lo, I have waited long, and called for and expected this loving reception from you, and the doors being barred within by a custom of sinning and negligence, I have not yet (though I have the key in mine hand, ver. 7,) found any admission: and now I am admonishing of you, calling you to repentance; and whosoever shall thus open, and receive me into a pure Christian heart, I will enter into a most free commerce of love with him, and this conversion of his shall be matter of mutual rejoicing and festivity to both of us.
Revelation 4:21
And upon his suffering and enduring for me, and constant perseverance in that love even to death, in despite of all temptations to the contrary, he shall be partaker with me of that honour that my Father hath exalted me to as the reward of my sufferings: (see note [a] ch. ii.)
CHAP. IV.
AFTER this ¹ [a] I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I