Robert Henry Charles

“ Fragment Hypothesis.—The previous theories have brought to light and emphasized the fact that within the Apocalypse there are passages inconsistent with the tone and character of the whole. But, notwithstanding this fact, the Apocalypse gives a strong impression of its unity. Thus apparently the only remaining theory which can account for both these phenomena is that at which we have now arrived, i.e. the fragment hypothesis. ”

“ Other books, like the Ethiopic Enoch, exhibit a series of independent sources connected more or less loosely together. Such are to be explained on the “sources hypothesis.” Others, like the Ascension of Isaiah, betray the handiwork of successive editors, and are accordingly to be explained on the “redaction hypothesis.” Now modern scholars have with varying success used in turn these three hypotheses with a view to the solution of the problems of the New Testament Apocalypse. To these we shall now address ourselves. ”

“ Both these writers assign the Apocalypse to the reign of Domitian.
The labours of these scholars, though to the superficial student they seem to prove that everything is possible and nothing certain, have certainly thrown great light on the literary character of the Apocalypse. Though differing in detail, they tend to show that, while the book is the production of one author, all its parts are not of the same date, nor are they one and all his first-hand creation. ”

“ As soon as the hope of the living Nero could no longer be entertained, the way was prepared for this transformation of the myth. The living Nero was no longer expected to return from the East, but Nero was to be restored to life from the abyss by the dragon, i.e. Satan. This expectation is recounted in xiii., but it appears most clearly in the additions to xvii. Thus in xvii. 8 the reference to Nero redivivus as the Antichrist is manifest: “ The beast that thou sawest was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into perdition.” ”

“ The Lamb that was slain has taken upon Himself the burden of the world's history.
In vi. we have the opening of the six seals, and the horrors of the future begin. The choice of three series of seven seals, seven trumpets and seven bowls, to form the framework in which the history of the last woes is to be given, shows the same hand that addressed the churches as seven. But between the sixth and seventh seals and the sixth and seventh trumpets the connexion is more or less disturbed by the insertion of certain interludes containing material foreign in certain aspects to the Apocalypse. ”

“ Some decades ago these difficulties were not insurmountable, when critics assigned a Neronic date to the Apocalypse and a Domitianic or later date to the Gospel. It was from such a. standpoint conceivable that the thoughts and diction of the writer had undergone an entire transformation in the long interval that intervened between the composition of the two books, on the supposition that both were from the same hand. But now that both books are assigned to the last decade of the 1st century A.D. by a growing body of critics, the hypothesis of a common authorship can hardly be sustained. ”

“ For with the advent of Christianity prophecy had sprung anew into life, and our author distinctly declares that the words of the book are for his own generation (xxii. Io) . Hence we conclude that the grounds are lacking which would entitle our assuming a priori that the Apocalypse is pseudonymous. Was the Author the Son of Zebedee, the Apostle?-The evidence of the book is against this assumption. The Writer demands a hearing as a prophet (xxii. 6) , and in no single passage makes any claim to having been an apostle. ”

“ Yet, on the other hand, our author's attitude to the world reflects the temper of judaism rather than that of Christianity. He looks upon the enemies of the Christian Church with unconcealed hatred. No prayer arises within his work on their behalf, and nothing but unalloyed triumph is displayed over their doom. The Christian duty of love to those that wrong us does not seem to have impressed 'itself on our Apocalyptist.
Is the Apocalypse pseudonymous?-All the Jewish apocalypses are pseudonymous, and all the Christian with the exception of the Shepherd of H ermas. ”

“ There is not a trace of any declaration of war on the universal church in his period such as the Apocalyptist anticipates and in part experiences. Christian persecution under Nero was an imperial caprice. The Christians were attacked on slanderous charges of superstition and secret abominations, but not as a church. Not till the last years of Domitian is it possible to discover conditions which would explain the apprehensions and experiences of our writer. So far as we can discover, no persecution was directed against Christians as Christians till Domitian's time. ”

“ For many of the facts, the discovery of which we owe to the literary critics, have made the assumption of an absolute unity in the details pf the Apocalypse a practical impossibility. Incongruities manifest themselves not only between certain sections and the main scheme of the book, but also between these and their immediate contexts. ”

“ Thus he refuses to recognize Nero in the beast and its number. But apart from its extravagances, his theory has undoubted elements of truth . It is true that tradition largely nxes the form of figures and symbols in apocalyptic. Yet each new apocalypse is to some extent a reinterpretation of traditional material, which the writer uses not wholly freely but with reverence from the conviction that they contained the key to the mysteries of the present and the past. From this standpoint it may be argued that every apocalypse is in a certain sense pseudonymous ”

“ The words of the book are the message of Christ Himself and are inviolable.
Unity.—From the preceding sections it follows that We cannot ascribe a strict literary unity to the book. The book is most probably the work of a single author, but it was not written wholly at one date, nor have all the parts come directly from one brain. We have several good grounds, for regarding vii. 1-8, xi. 1-13, xii., xiii., xvii., as wholly or in part independent sources, which our author has laid under contribution and adapted more or less adequately to his purpose. ”

“ But in the Apocalypse we have the experiences of a later date. The writer manifests the most burning hatred towards Rome and the worship of its head—the beast and the false prophet, who are actual embodiments of Satan. Such an attitude on the part of a Christian is not explicable before the closing years of Domitian ”

“ When the reviser recast the passage it dealt not with the destruction of Jerusalem, but with the persecution of the Christians. Nero was 'now a demonic monster from the abyss, and the ten kings no longer Parthians but ghostly helpers of Nero. The destruction of Rome has now become a secondary event: the reviser's thought is fixed on the final strife between the Lamb and the Antichrist. ”

“ The author speaks not at all of the law 1-the word does not occur in his work; he looks for salvation from the power and grace of God and Christ alone nowhere has he made a distinction between Gentile and Jewish Christians .... The author of the Apocalypse has cast aside all national religious prejudices.” The writer is not dependent, consciously or unconsciously, on the Pauline teaching. He has won his Way to universalism, not through the Pauline method, but through one of his own. ”

“ His investigation tends to show that in the course of tradition cosmological myths are transformed into eschatological dogmas. The above method was adopted by Bousset in his work Der Antichrist in der Uberlieferung des J u dent hums, des Neuen Testaments, und der alten Kirche (1895) , in which he sought to show that a fixed tradition of the Antichrist originating in Iudaism can be traced from New Testament times down to the middle ages, and that this tradition was in the main unaffected by the Apocalypse, though in chap. xi. the Apocalypse shows dependence on it. ”

“ Thus the world powers of heathen statesmanship and heathen religion are leagued ina confederacy against the rising Christian Church. Against these the church is not to attempt to use physical force; its only weapon is to be passive endurance and loyalty to God.
That this chapter must be interpreted by the contemporary historical method is now generally admitted. Even Gunkel is obliged to abandon his favourite theory here, though he contests strongly the recognition of any allusion to Nero. ”

“ Though a few later authorities, such as Epiphanius and Theophylact, assign the book to earlier or later periods, the main body of early Christian tradition attests the date of its composition in the closing years of Domitian. Notwithstanding, on various critical grounds, Baur, Hilgenfeld, Lightfoot, Westcott, Hort and Beyschlag assigned the book to the reign of Nero, or to the years immediately following his death, while Weiss, Dusterdieck and Mommsen assign it to the time of Vespasian. ”

“ From these possible and highly probable references we pass on to the clear testimony of Justin Martyr, who is the first to declare that Revelation is by “John, one of the Apostles of Christ” (Dial. lxxxi. 15) , and a book of canonical standing (i. 28) . In the latter half of this century it meets with very wide recognition. Thus a treatise of some description was written upon it by Melito of Sardis in Asia Minor (Eus. H.E. iv. 26) , and quoted by the anti-Montanist Apollonius (H.E. v. 18) and Theophilus of Antioch (H.E. iv. 24) . ”

“ In verse 10 it is stated that five of the seven had fallen, “the one is and another is not yet come, and when he cometh he must continue a little while.” If we reckon from Augustine and omit Galba, Otho and Vitellius, each of whom reigned only a few months, we arrive at Vespasian. The vision, therefore, belongs to his reign, A.D.. 69–79. Verse 11, with the exception of the words “ which was and is not, " leads to the identification of the eighth with Nero redivivus. But what then is to be made of the above reckoning when it was taken over by the Apocalyptist who wrote in Domitian's reign? ”

“ Secondly, Papias’s testimony receives support from Jesus’s own words in Mark x. 39; for, as Wellhausen remarks on this passage, “the prophecy refers not only to James but also to John; and if it had remained only half fulfilled, it would hardly have kept its place in the Gospel.” The third strand of evidence is found in the Martyrologies, Carthaginian, Armenian and Syrian. Bernard (op. cit.) has tried to prove that the Martyrologies do not imply the martyrdom but only the faithful witness of John. ”

“ In this revocation the Apocalyptist saw the menace of a famine of the necessaries of life, while the luxuries would remain unaffected. From his ascetic standpoint the revocation of the edict could only pander to drunkenness and immorality. Reinach's explanation of this ancient crux interpret um, which has been accepted by Harnack, Bousset, Porter, Sanday, Swete and others, fixes the earliest date of the composition of the Apocalypse as A.D. 93. Since Domitian died in 96, the book was therefore written between A.D. Q3 and 95. ”

“ Moreover, he has already hinted at its contents in xix. 7 and xxi. 2, where he speaks of the church as a bride and the marriage supper of the Lamb. But the section betrays inconsistent conceptions. The standpoint of the heavenly Jerusalem is abandoned in xxi. 24-27, xxii. 2, and the context implies an earthly Jerusalem to which the Gentiles go up as pilgrims. Outside the gates of this city are unclean and abominable things. These inconsistencies are best explained by the hypothesis that our author was drawing upon a literary fixed tradition. ”

“ Various additions were introduced, according to Bousset, by the last redactor, such as the frequently recurring reference to the Lamb, xxi. 9, 22, 23, 27, xxii. 1, 3. In xxii. 3 the fact that the words “ of the Lamb ” are an addition is clear from the context; for, after the clause “ the throne of Godand of the Lamb shall be therein” the singular follows, “ His servants shall do Him Service.” ”

“ And yet the Apocalypse shows in many of its phrases an undoubted affinity to the lattera fact which requires for its explanation the assumption that the book emanated from certain literary circles influenced by John.
Date.—There are many indications of the date, which may be summarized as follows: (a) Condition of the Asian churches. (b) Persecution of the church. (c) Attitude of the author to Rome. (d) The Antichrist legend. (e) Primitive tradition and its confirmation through the discovery of references in the text to certain edicts of Domitian. ”

“ Thus 7-12, which is really a Jewish fragment are counting the victory of Michael over Satan, has to a certain degree been adapted to a Christian environment by the insertion of the rob-11.
(b) The order is not original. The flight of the woman is mentioned in verse 6 to a place of refuge prepared for her by God. Then comes an account of the casting down of Satan from heaven. Then again in 13–16 the flight of the woman is described. This fact has been variously accounted for by different critics. ”

“ Nero? Bousset thinks that the Apocalyptist, knowing not what to make of this reckoning, left it standing as it was and attempted a new interpretation of the seven heads by taking them to refer to the seven hills of Rome in the addition he made to verse 9. ↑ There are several analogies in Jewish literature. Thus the Testaments of the XII. Patriarchs—a universalist work—and the Book of Jubilees—a particularistic work—are from different authors, though they are written within a few years of each other by Pharisees and use much common material. ”