Read the Apocalypse in Russian. Church of the Life-Giving Trinity on Vorobyovy Gory

The Apocalypse (or translated from Greek - Revelation) of St. John the Theologian is the only prophetic book of the New Testament. It predicts the future destinies of mankind, the end of the world and the beginning of eternal life, and therefore, naturally, is placed at the end of the Holy Scriptures.

The Apocalypse is a mysterious and difficult book to understand, but at the same time, it is the mysterious nature of this book that attracts the attention of both believing Christians and simply inquisitive thinkers trying to unravel the meaning and significance of the visions described in it. There are a huge number of books about the Apocalypse, among which there are many works with all sorts of nonsense, this especially applies to modern sectarian literature.

Despite the difficulty of understanding this book, the spiritually enlightened fathers and teachers of the Church have always treated it with great reverence as a book inspired by God. Thus, Saint Dionysius of Alexandria writes: “The darkness of this book does not prevent one from being surprised by it. And if I don’t understand everything about it, it’s only because of my inability. I cannot be a judge of the truths contained in it, and measure them by the poverty of my mind; Guided more by faith than by reason, I find them only beyond my understanding.” Blessed Jerome speaks in the same way about the Apocalypse: “It contains as many secrets as words. But what am I saying? Any praise for this book would be beneath its dignity.”

The Apocalypse is not read during divine services because in ancient times the reading of Holy Scripture during divine services was always accompanied by an explanation of it, and the Apocalypse is very difficult to explain.

The author of the apocalypse calls himself John (Rev. 1:1, 4 and 9; 22:8). According to the general opinion of the holy fathers of the Church, this was the Apostle John, the beloved disciple of Christ, who received the distinctive name “Theologian” for the height of his teaching about God the Word. » His authorship is confirmed both by data in the Apocalypse itself and by many other internal and external signs. The Gospel and three Council Epistles also belong to the inspired pen of the Apostle John the Theologian. The author of the Apocalypse says that he was on the island of Patmos “for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:9). From church history it is known that of the apostles, only Saint John the Theologian was imprisoned on this island.

Proof of the authorship of the Apocalypse. John the Theologian is served by the similarity of this book with his Gospel and epistles, not only in spirit, but also in style, and, especially, in some characteristic expressions. So, for example, the apostolic preaching is called here “testimony” (Rev. 1:2, 9; 20:4; see: John 1:7; 3:11; 21:24; 1 John 5:9-11) . The Lord Jesus Christ is called “the Word” (Rev. 19:13; see: John 1:1, 14 and 1 John 1:1) and “Lamb” (Rev. 5:6 and 17:14; see: John 1:36). The prophetic words of Zechariah: “and they will look on Him whom they have pierced” (12:10) both in the Gospel and in the Apocalypse are given equally according to the Greek translation of the “Seventy Interpreters” (Rev. 1:7 and John 19:37). Some differences between the language of the Apocalypse and other books of the Apostle John are explained both by the difference in content and by the circumstances of the origin of the writings of the holy Apostle. Saint John, a Jew by birth, although he spoke Greek, but, being imprisoned far from the living spoken Greek language, naturally left the stamp of influence of his native language on the Apocalypse. For an unprejudiced reader of the Apocalypse, it is obvious that its entire content bears the stamp of the great spirit of the Apostle of love and contemplation.

All ancient and later patristic testimonies recognize the author of the Apocalypse as Saint John the Theologian. His disciple Saint Papias of Hieropolis calls the writer of the Apocalypse “Elder John,” as the apostle himself calls himself in his epistles (2 John 1:1 and 3 John 1:1). The testimony of Saint Justin the Martyr, who lived in Ephesus even before his conversion to Christianity, where the Apostle John lived for a long time before him, is also important. Many holy fathers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries cite passages from the Apocalypse as from a divinely inspired book written by St. John the Theologian. One of them was Saint Hippolytus, Pope of Rome, who wrote an apology for the Apocalypse, a student of Irenaeus of Lyons. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian and Origen also recognize the holy Apostle John as the author of the Apocalypse. The later Church Fathers were equally convinced of this: St. Ephraim the Syrian, Epiphanius, Basil the Great, Hilary, Athanasius the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Didymus, Ambrose of Milan, St. Augustine and St. Jerome. The 33rd rule of the Council of Carthage, attributing the Apocalypse to St. John the Theologian, places it among the other canonical books of Holy Scripture. The testimony of Saint Irenaeus of Lyons regarding the authorship of the Apocalypse to Saint John the Theologian is especially valuable, since Saint Irenaeus was a disciple of Saint Polycarp of Smyrna, who in turn was a disciple of Saint John the Theologian, heading the Smyrna Church under his apostolic leadership.

An ancient legend dates the writing of the Apocalypse to the end of the 1st century. So, for example, Saint Irenaeus writes: “The Apocalypse appeared shortly before this and almost in our time, at the end of the reign of Domitian.” The historian Eusebius (early 4th century) reports that contemporary pagan writers mention the exile of the Apostle John to Patmos for witnessing the Divine Word, attributing this event to the 15th year of the reign of Domitian (reigned 81-96 after the Nativity Christ's).

Thus, the Apocalypse was written at the end of the first century, when each of the seven churches of Asia Minor, to which St. John addresses, already had its own history and one way or another determined direction of religious life. Their Christianity was no longer in the first stage of purity and truth, and false Christianity was already trying to compete with the true one. Obviously, the activity of the Apostle Paul, who preached for a long time in Ephesus, was already a thing of the long past.

Church writers of the first 3 centuries also agree in indicating the place where the Apocalypse was written, which they recognize as the island of Patmos, mentioned by the Apostle himself, as the place where he received revelations (Rev. 1:9). Patmos is located in the Aegean Sea, south of the city of Ephesus and was a place of exile in ancient times.

In the first lines of the Apocalypse, Saint John indicates the purpose of writing the revelation: to predict the fate of the Church of Christ and the whole world. The mission of the Church of Christ was to revive the world with Christian preaching, to plant true faith in God in the souls of people, teach them to live righteously, and show them the way to the Kingdom of Heaven. But not all people accepted Christian preaching favorably. Already in the first days after Pentecost, the Church faced hostility and conscious resistance to Christianity - first from Jewish priests and scribes, then from unbelieving Jews and pagans.

Already in the first year of Christianity, a bloody persecution of preachers of the Gospel began. Gradually, these persecutions began to take an organized and systematic form. The first center of the fight against Christianity was Jerusalem. Starting from the middle of the first century, Rome, led by Emperor Nero (reigned 54-68 after the Nativity of Christ), joined the hostile camp. The persecution began in Rome, where many Christians shed their blood, including the chief apostles Peter and Paul. From the end of the first century, persecution of Christians became more intense. Emperor Domitian orders the systematic persecution of Christians, first in Asia Minor, and then in other parts of the Roman Empire. The Apostle John the Theologian, summoned to Rome and thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil, remained unharmed. Domitian exiles the Apostle John to the island of Patmos, where the apostle receives a revelation about the fate of the Church and the whole world. With short breaks, the bloody persecution of the Church continued until 313, when Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan on freedom of religion.

In view of the beginning of persecution, the Apostle John writes the Apocalypse to Christians to console them, instruct and strengthen them. He reveals the secret intentions of the enemies of the Church, whom he personifies in the beast that came out of the sea (as a representative of a hostile secular power) and in the beast that came out of the earth - a false prophet, as a representative of a hostile pseudo-religious power. He also discovers the main leader of the struggle against the Church - the devil, this ancient dragon who groups the godless forces of humanity and directs them against the Church. But the suffering of believers is not in vain: through fidelity to Christ and patience they receive a well-deserved reward in Heaven. At the time determined by God, forces hostile to the Church will be brought to justice and punished. After the Last Judgment and punishment of the wicked, eternal blissful life will begin.

The purpose of writing the Apocalypse is to depict the upcoming struggle of the Church with the forces of evil; show the methods by which the devil, with the assistance of his servants, fights against good and truth; provide guidance to believers on how to overcome temptation; depict the death of the enemies of the Church and the final victory of Christ over evil.

The Apocalypse has always attracted the attention of Christians, especially at a time when various disasters and temptations began to agitate public and church life with greater force. Meanwhile, the imagery and mystery of this book makes it very difficult to understand, and therefore for careless interpreters there is always the risk of going beyond the boundaries of truth to unrealistic hopes and beliefs. So, for example, a literal understanding of the images of this book gave rise and now still continues to give rise to the false teaching about the so-called “chiliasm” - the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth. The horrors of persecution experienced by Christians in the first century and interpreted in the light of the Apocalypse gave some reason to believe that the “end times” had arrived and the second coming of Christ was near. This opinion arose already in the first century.

Over the past 20 centuries, many interpretations of the Apocalypse of the most diverse nature have appeared. All these interpreters can be divided into four categories. Some of them attribute the visions and symbols of the Apocalypse to the “end times” - the end of the world, the appearance of the Antichrist and the Second Coming of Christ. Others give the Apocalypse a purely historical meaning and limit its vision to the historical events of the first century: the persecution of Christians by pagan emperors. Still others try to find the fulfillment of apocalyptic predictions in the historical events of their time. In their opinion, for example, the Pope is the Antichrist and all apocalyptic disasters are announced, in fact, for the Roman Church, etc. The fourth, finally, see in the Apocalypse only an allegory, believing that the visions described in it have not so much a prophetic as a moral meaning. As we will see below, these points of view on the Apocalypse do not exclude, but complement each other.

The Apocalypse can only be properly understood in the context of the whole of Holy Scripture. A feature of many prophetic visions - both Old Testament and New Testament - is the principle of combining several historical events in one vision. In other words, spiritually related events, separated from one another by many centuries and even millennia, merge into one prophetic picture that combines events from different historical eras.

An example of such a synthesis of events is the prophetic conversation of the Savior about the end of the world. In it, the Lord speaks simultaneously about the destruction of Jerusalem, which occurred 35 years after His crucifixion, and about the time before His second coming. (Matt. 24th chapter; Mr. 13th chapter; Luke 21st chapter. The reason for such a combination of events is that the first illustrates and explains the second.

Often, Old Testament predictions speak simultaneously of a beneficial change in human society in New Testament times and of new life in the Kingdom of Heaven. In this case, the first serves as the beginning of the second (Isa. (Isaiah) 4:2-6; Isa. 11:1-10; Is. 26, 60 and 65 chapters; Jer. (Jeremiah) 23:5-6; Jer. 33:6-11; Habakkuk 2:14; Zephaniah 3:9-20). Old Testament prophecies about the destruction of Chaldean Babylon also speak about the destruction of the kingdom of the Antichrist (Isa. 13-14 and 21 ch.; Jer. 50-51 ch.). There are many similar examples of events merging into one prediction. This method of combining events based on their internal unity is used to help a believer understand the essence of events based on what he already knows, leaving aside secondary and non-explanatory historical details.

As we will see below, the Apocalypse consists of a number of multi-layered compositional visions. The Mystery Viewer shows the future from the perspective of the past and present. So, for example, the many-headed beast in chapters 13-19. - this is the Antichrist himself and his predecessors: Antiochus Epiphanes, so vividly described by the prophet Daniel and in the first two books of Maccabees, and the Roman emperors Nero and Domitian, who persecuted the apostles of Christ, as well as subsequent enemies of the Church.

Two witnesses of Christ in chapter 11. - these are the accusers of the Antichrist (Enoch and Elijah), and their prototypes are the apostles Peter and Paul, as well as all preachers of the Gospel who carry out their mission in a world hostile to Christianity. The false prophet in the 13th chapter is the personification of all those who propagate false religions (Gnosticism, heresies, Mohammedanism, materialism, Hinduism, etc.), among which the most prominent representative will be the false prophet of the times of the Antichrist. To understand why the Apostle John united various events and different people in one image, we must take into account that he wrote the Apocalypse not only for his contemporaries, but for Christians of all times who had to endure similar persecutions and tribulations. The Apostle John reveals common methods of deception, and also shows the sure way to avoid them in order to be faithful to Christ until death.

Likewise, the judgment of God, which the Apocalypse repeatedly speaks of, is both the Last Judgment of God and all the private judgments of God over individual countries and people. This includes the judgment of all mankind under Noah, and the trial of the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah under Abraham, and the trial of Egypt under Moses, and the double trial of Judea (six centuries before the birth of Christ and again in the seventies of our era), and the trial of ancient Nineveh, Babylon, the Roman Empire, Byzantium and, relatively recently, Russia. The reasons that caused God's righteous punishment were always the same: people's unbelief and lawlessness.

A certain timelessness is noticeable in the Apocalypse. It follows from the fact that the Apostle John contemplated the destinies of mankind not from an earthly, but from a heavenly perspective, where the Spirit of God led him. In an ideal world, the flow of time stops at the throne of the Most High and the present, past and future appear before the spiritual gaze at the same time. Obviously, this is why the author of the Apocalypse describes some events of the future as past, and past ones as present. For example, the war of angels in Heaven and the overthrow of the devil from there - events that happened even before the creation of the world, are described by the Apostle John, as if they happened at the dawn of Christianity (Rev. 12). The resurrection of the martyrs and their reign in Heaven, which covers the entire New Testament era, is placed by him after the trial of the Antichrist and the false prophet (Rev. 20). Thus, the seer does not narrate the chronological sequence of events, but reveals the essence of that great war of evil with good, which is going on simultaneously on several fronts and covers both the material and angelic worlds.

There is no doubt that some of the predictions of the Apocalypse have already been fulfilled (for example, regarding the fate of the seven churches of Asia Minor). The fulfilled predictions should help us understand the remaining ones that have yet to be fulfilled. However, when applying visions of the Apocalypse to certain specific events, one must take into account that such visions contain elements of different eras. Only with the completion of the destinies of the world and the punishment of the last enemies of God will all the details of the apocalyptic visions be realized.

The Apocalypse was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. A correct understanding of it is most hindered by people’s departure from faith and true Christian life, which always leads to dulling, or even complete loss of spiritual vision. The complete devotion of modern man to sinful passions is the reason that some modern interpreters of the Apocalypse want to see in it only one allegory, and even the Second Coming of Christ itself is taught to be understood allegorically. Historical events and personalities of our time convince us that to see only an allegory in the Apocalypse means to be spiritually blind, so much of what is happening now resembles the terrible images and visions of the Apocalypse.

The method of presentation of the Apocalypse is shown in the table attached here. As can be seen from it, the apostle simultaneously reveals to the reader several spheres of existence. To the highest sphere belongs the Angelic world, the Church triumphant in Heaven, and the Church persecuted on earth. This sphere of good is headed and guided by the Lord Jesus Christ - the Son of God and the Savior of people. Below is the sphere of evil: the unbelieving world, sinners, false teachers, conscious fighters against God and demons. They are led by a dragon - a fallen angel. Throughout the existence of mankind, these spheres have been at war with each other. The Apostle John in his visions gradually reveals to the reader different sides of the war between good and evil and reveals the process of spiritual self-determination in people, as a result of which some of them become on the side of good, others on the side of evil. During the development of the world conflict, God's Judgment is constantly being carried out on individuals and nations. Before the end of the world, evil will increase excessively, and the earthly Church will be extremely weakened. Then the Lord Jesus Christ will come to earth, all people will be resurrected, and the Last Judgment of God will be carried out over the world. The devil and his supporters will be condemned to eternal torment, but for the righteous, eternal, blissful life in Paradise will begin.

When read sequentially, the Apocalypse can be divided into the following parts.

Introductory picture of the Lord Jesus Christ appearing, commanding John to write down the Revelation to the seven churches of Asia Minor (chapter 1).

Letters to the 7 churches of Asia Minor (chapters 2 and 3), in which, along with instructions to these churches, the destinies of the Church of Christ are outlined - from the apostolic age to the end of the world.

Vision of God seated on the throne, the Lamb and heavenly worship (chapters 4 and 5). This worship is supplemented by visions in subsequent chapters.

From the 6th chapter the revelation of the destinies of humanity begins. The opening of the seven seals of the mysterious book by the Lamb-Christ serves as the beginning of a description of the different phases of the war between good and evil, between the Church and the devil. This war, which begins in the human soul, spreads to all aspects of human life, intensifies and becomes more and more terrible (until the 20th chapter).

The voices of the seven angelic trumpets (chapters 7-10) herald the initial disasters that must befall people for their unbelief and sins. The damage to nature and the appearance of evil forces in the world are described. Before the onset of disasters, believers receive a seal of grace on their forehead (forehead), which preserves them from moral evil and from the fate of the wicked.

The Vision of Seven Signs (Chapters 11-14) shows humanity divided into two opposing and irreconcilable camps - good and evil. Good forces are concentrated in the Church of Christ, represented here in the image of a Woman clothed with the sun (chapter 12), and evil forces are concentrated in the kingdom of the beast-Antichrist. The beast that came out of the sea is a symbol of evil secular power, and the beast that came out of the earth is a symbol of decayed religious power. In this part of the Apocalypse, for the first time, a conscious, extra-worldly evil being is clearly revealed - the dragon-devil, who organizes and leads the war against the Church. The two witnesses of Christ symbolize here the preachers of the Gospel who fight the beast.

The Visions of the Seven Bowls (chapters 15-17) paint a grim picture of worldwide moral decay. The war against the Church becomes extremely intense (Armageddon) (Rev. 16:16), the trials become unbearably difficult. The image of Babylon the harlot depicts humanity that has apostatized from God, concentrated in the capital of the kingdom of the beast-Antichrist. The evil force extends its influence to all areas of the life of sinful humanity, after which God’s judgment on the forces of evil begins (here God’s judgment on Babylon is described in general terms, as an introduction).

The following chapters (18-19) describe the judgment of Babylon in detail. It also shows the death of the perpetrators of evil among people - the Antichrist and the false prophet - representatives of both civil and heretical anti-Christian authorities.

Chapter 20 summarizes spiritual warfare and world history. She speaks of the double defeat of the devil and the reign of martyrs. Having suffered physically, they won spiritually and are already blissful in Heaven. It covers the entire period of the existence of the Church, starting from apostolic times. Gog and Magog personify the totality of all the God-fighting forces, earthly and underworld, which throughout Christian history fought against the Church (Jerusalem). They are destroyed by the second coming of Christ. Finally, the devil, this ancient serpent who laid the foundation for all lawlessness, untruths and suffering in the Universe, is also subject to eternal punishment. The end of chapter 20 tells of the general resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment and the punishment of the wicked. This brief description summarizes the Last Judgment of mankind and the fallen angels and sums up the drama of the universal war between good and evil.

The final two chapters (21-22) describe the new Heaven, the new Earth, and the blessed life of the saved. These are the brightest and most joyful chapters in the Bible.

Each new section of the Apocalypse usually begins with the words: “And I saw...” - and ends with a description of God’s judgment. This description marks the end of the previous topic and the beginning of a new one. Between the main sections of the Apocalypse, the viewer sometimes inserts intermediate pictures that serve as a connecting link between them. The table given here clearly shows the plan and sections of the Apocalypse. For compactness, we have combined the intermediate pictures together with the main ones. Walking horizontally along the table above, we see how the following areas are gradually revealed more and more fully: The heavenly world; Church persecuted on earth; sinful and godless world; underworld; the war between them and the judgment of God.

The meaning of symbols and numbers. Symbols and allegories enable the seer to speak about the essence of world events at a high level of generalization, so he uses them widely. So, for example, eyes symbolize knowledge, many eyes - perfect knowledge. Horn is a symbol of power, might. Long clothing signifies priesthood; crown - royal dignity; whiteness - purity, innocence; the city of Jerusalem, the temple and Israel symbolize the Church. Numbers also have a symbolic meaning: three - symbolizes the Trinity, four - a symbol of peace and world order; seven means completeness and perfection; twelve - the people of God, the fullness of the Church (numbers derived from 12, like 24 and 144,000, have the same meaning). One third means some relatively small part. Three and a half years is a time of persecution. The number 666 will be discussed specifically later in this booklet.

New Testament events are often depicted against the background of homogeneous Old Testament events. So, for example, the disasters of the Church are described against the backdrop of the suffering of the Israelites in Egypt, temptation under the prophet Balaam, persecution by Queen Jezebel and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; the salvation of believers from the devil is depicted against the background of the salvation of the Israelites from Pharaoh under the prophet Moses; the atheistic power is represented in the image of Babylon and Egypt; the punishment of the godless forces is depicted in the language of the 10 Egyptian plagues; the devil is identified with the serpent who seduced Adam and Eve; future heavenly bliss is depicted in the image of the Garden of Eden and the tree of life.

The main task of the author of the Apocalypse is to show how evil forces operate, who organizes and directs them in the fight against the Church; to instruct and strengthen believers in fidelity to Christ; show the complete defeat of the devil and his servants and the beginning of heavenly bliss.

For all the symbolism and mystery of the Apocalypse, religious truths are revealed in it very clearly. So, for example, the Apocalypse points to the devil as the culprit of all temptations and disasters of mankind. The tools with which he tries to destroy people are always the same: unbelief, disobedience to God, pride, sinful desires, lies, fear, doubts, etc. Despite all his cunning and experience, the devil is not able to destroy people who are devoted to God with all their hearts, because God protects them with His grace. The devil enslaves more and more apostates and sinners to himself and pushes them to all sorts of abominations and crimes. He directs them against the Church and with their help produces violence and organizes wars in the world. The Apocalypse clearly shows that in the end the devil and his servants will be defeated and punished, the truth of Christ will triumph, and a blessed life will come in the renewed world, which will have no end.

Having thus made a quick overview of the content and symbolism of the Apocalypse, let us now dwell on some of its most important parts.

Letters to the Seven Churches (chap. 2-3).

Seven churches - Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea - were located in the southwestern part of Asia Minor (now Turkey). They were founded by the Apostle Paul in the 40s of the first century. After his martyrdom in Rome around the year 67, the Apostle John the Theologian took charge of these churches, who cared for them for about forty years. Having been imprisoned on the island of Patmos, the Apostle John from there wrote messages to these churches in order to prepare Christians for the upcoming persecution. The letters are addressed to the “angels” of these churches, i.e. bishops.

A careful study of the epistles to the seven churches of Asia Minor suggests that they contain the destinies of the Church of Christ, starting from the apostolic age until the end of the world. At the same time, the upcoming path of the New Testament Church, this “New Israel,” is depicted against the backdrop of the most important events in the life of Old Testament Israel, starting with the Fall in Paradise and ending with the time of the Pharisees and Sadducees under the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle John uses Old Testament events as prototypes of the destinies of the New Testament Church. Thus, three elements are intertwined in the letters to the seven churches:

B) a new, deeper interpretation of Old Testament history; And

C) the future fate of the Church.

The combination of these three elements in the letters to the seven churches is summarized in the table attached here.

Notes: The Ephesian church was the most populous, and had metropolitan status in relation to the neighboring churches of Asia Minor. In 431, the 3rd Ecumenical Council took place in Ephesus. Gradually, the lamp of Christianity in the Ephesian Church died out, as the Apostle John predicted. Pergamum was the political center of western Asia Minor. It was dominated by paganism with a magnificent cult of deified pagan emperors. On a mountain near Pergamum, a pagan monument-altar stood majestically, mentioned in the Apocalypse as the “throne of Satan” (Rev. 2:13). The Nicolaitans are ancient Gnostic heretics. Gnosticism was a dangerous temptation for the Church in the first centuries of Christianity. Favorable soil for the development of Gnostic ideas was the syncretic culture that arose in the empire of Alexander the Great, uniting East and West. The religious worldview of the East, with its belief in the eternal struggle between good and evil, spirit and matter, body and soul, light and darkness, combined with the speculative method of Greek philosophy, gave rise to various Gnostic systems, which were characterized by the idea of ​​​​the emanation origin of the world from the Absolute and about the many intermediate stages of creation connecting the world with the Absolute. Naturally, with the spread of Christianity in the Hellenistic environment, the danger arose of its presentation in Gnostic terms and the transformation of Christian piety into one of the religious and philosophical Gnostic systems. Jesus Christ was perceived by the Gnostics as one of the mediators (eons) between the Absolute and the world.

One of the first distributors of Gnosticism among Christians was someone named Nicholas - hence the name “Nicolaitans” in the Apocalypse. (It is believed that this was Nicholas, who, along with the other six chosen men, was ordained by the apostles to the diaconate, see: Acts 6:5). By distorting the Christian faith, the Gnostics encouraged moral laxity. Beginning in the mid-first century, several Gnostic sects flourished in Asia Minor. The apostles Peter, Paul and Jude warned Christians not to fall into the snares of these heretical debauchees. Prominent representatives of Gnosticism were the heretics Valentinus, Marcion and Basilides, who were opposed by the apostolic men and early fathers of the Church.

The ancient Gnostic sects disappeared long ago, but Gnosticism as a fusion of heterogeneous philosophical and religious schools exists in our time in theosophy, cabala, Freemasonry, modern Hinduism, yoga and other cults.

Vision of heavenly worship (4-5 chapters).

The Apostle John received a revelation on the “Day of the Lord,” i.e. on Sunday. It should be assumed that, according to apostolic custom, on this day he performed the “breaking of bread,” i.e. Divine Liturgy and received communion, so he “was in the Spirit,” i.e. experienced a special inspired state (Rev. 1:10).

And so, the first thing he is honored to see is, as it were, a continuation of the divine service he performed - the heavenly Liturgy. The Apostle John describes this service in the 4th and 5th chapters of the Apocalypse. An Orthodox person will recognize here the familiar features of the Sunday Liturgy and the most important accessories of the altar: the throne, the seven-branched candlestick, the censer with smoking incense, the golden cup, etc. (These objects, shown to Moses on Mount Sinai, were also used in the Old Testament temple). The slain Lamb seen by the apostle in the middle of the throne reminds a believer of the Communion lying on the throne under the guise of bread; the souls of those killed for the word of God under the heavenly throne - an antimension with particles of the relics of the holy martyrs sewn into it; elders in light robes and with golden crowns on their heads - a host of clergymen performing the Divine Liturgy together. It is noteworthy here that even the exclamations and prayers themselves, heard by the Apostle in Heaven, express the essence of the prayers that the clergy and singers pronounce during the main part of the Liturgy - the Eucharistic Canon. The whitening of the robes of the righteous with the “Blood of the Lamb” is reminiscent of the sacrament of Communion, through which believers sanctify their souls.

Thus, the apostle begins the revelation of the destinies of humanity with a description of the heavenly Liturgy, which emphasizes the spiritual significance of this service and the need for the prayers of the saints for us.

Notes. The words “Lion of the Tribe of Judah” refer to the Lord Jesus Christ and are reminiscent of the prophecy of Patriarch Jacob about the Messiah (Gen. 49:9-10), “Seven Spirits of God” - the fullness of the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit (see: Is. 11:2 and Zechariah 4th chapter). Many eyes symbolize omniscience. The twenty-four elders correspond to the twenty-four priestly orders established by King David for serving in the temple - two intercessors for each tribe of New Israel (1 Chron. 24:1-18). The four mysterious animals surrounding the throne are similar to the animals seen by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:5-19). They appear to be the creatures closest to God. These faces - man, lion, calf and eagle - were taken by the Church as emblems of the four Evangelists.

In the further description of the heavenly world we encounter many things that are incomprehensible to us. From the Apocalypse we learn that the angelic world is immensely large. Disembodied spirits - angels, like people, are endowed by the Creator with reason and free will, but their spiritual abilities are many times greater than ours. Angels are completely devoted to God and serve Him through prayer and the fulfillment of His will. So, for example, they lift up the prayers of the saints to the throne of God (Rev. 8:3-4), assist the righteous in achieving salvation (Rev. 7:2-3; 14:6-10; 19:9), sympathize with the suffering and persecuted (Rev. 8:13; 12:12), according to the command of God, sinners are punished (Rev. 8:7; 9:15; 15:1; 16:1). They are clothed with power and have power over nature and its elements (Rev. 10:1; 18:1). They wage war against the devil and his demons (Rev. 12:7-10; 19:17-21; 20:1-3), take part in the judgment of the enemies of God (Rev. 19:4).

The teaching of the Apocalypse about the angelic world radically overthrows the teaching of the ancient Gnostics, who recognized intermediate beings (eons) between the Absolute and the material world, which govern the world completely independently and independently of Him.

Among the saints whom the Apostle John sees in Heaven, two groups, or “faces,” stand out: martyrs and virgins. Historically, martyrdom is the first kind of holiness, and therefore the apostle begins with the martyrs (6:9-11). He sees their souls under the heavenly altar, which symbolizes the redemptive meaning of their suffering and death, with which they participate in the suffering of Christ and, as it were, complement them. The blood of the martyrs is likened to the blood of the Old Testament victims, which flowed under the altar of the Jerusalem Temple. The history of Christianity testifies that the suffering of the ancient martyrs served to morally renew the decrepit pagan world. The ancient writer Tertulian wrote that the blood of martyrs serves as the seed for new Christians. Persecution of believers will either subside or intensify during the continued existence of the Church, and therefore it was revealed to the seer that new martyrs would be added to the number of the first.

Later, the Apostle John sees in Heaven a huge number of people whom no one could count - from all tribes, tribes, peoples, and languages; They stood in white clothes with palm branches in their hands (Rev. 7:9-17). What this innumerable host of righteous people have in common is that “they came out of great tribulation.” For all people there is only one path to Paradise - through sorrow. Christ is the first Sufferer, who took upon Himself as the Lamb of God the sins of the world. Palm branches are a symbol of victory over the devil.

In a special vision, the seer describes virgins, i.e. people who have given up the pleasures of married life for the sake of wholehearted service to Christ. (Voluntary “eunuchs” for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, see about this: Matt. 19:12; Rev. 14:1-5. In the Church, this feat was often accomplished in monasticism). The viewer sees the “name of the Father” written on the foreheads of virgins, which indicates their moral beauty, reflecting the perfection of the Creator. The “new song,” which they sing and which no one can repeat, is an expression of the spiritual heights that they achieved through the feat of fasting, prayer and chastity. This purity is unattainable for people of a worldly lifestyle.

The song of Moses, which the righteous sing in the next vision (Rev. 15:2-8), is reminiscent of the hymn of thanksgiving that the Israelites sang when, having crossed the Red Sea, they were saved from Egyptian slavery (Ex. 15 ch.). In a similar way, New Testament Israel is saved from the power and influence of the devil by moving into a life of grace through the sacrament of baptism. In subsequent visions, the seer describes the saints several more times. The “fine linen” (precious linen) in which they are clothed is a symbol of their righteousness. In the 19th chapter of the Apocalypse, the wedding song of the saved speaks of the approaching “marriage” between the Lamb and the saints, i.e. about the coming of the closest communication between God and the righteous (Rev. 19:1-9; 21:3-4). The book of Revelation ends with a description of the blessed life of the saved nations (Rev. 21:24-27; 22:12-14 and 17). These are the brightest and most joyful pages in the Bible, showing the triumphant Church in the Kingdom of glory.

Thus, as the destinies of the world are revealed in the Apocalypse, the Apostle John gradually directs the spiritual gaze of believers to the Kingdom of Heaven - to the ultimate goal of earthly wandering. He speaks, as if under duress and reluctantly, about the gloomy events in a sinful world.

Opening of the seven seals.

Vision of the Four Horsemen (6th chapter).

The vision of the seven seals is introductory to the subsequent revelations of the Apocalypse. The opening of the first four seals reveals four horsemen, who symbolize the four factors that characterize the entire history of mankind. The first two factors are the cause, the second two are the effect. The crowned rider on the white horse "came out to conquer." He personifies those good principles, natural and grace-filled, that the Creator invested in man: the image of God, moral purity and innocence, the desire for goodness and perfection, the ability to believe and love, and the individual “talents” with which a person is born, as well as grace-filled gifts The Holy Spirit, which he receives in the Church. According to the Creator, these good principles were supposed to “win,” i.e. determine a happy future for humanity. But man already in Eden succumbed to the temptation of the tempter. The nature damaged by sin passed on to his descendants; Therefore, people are prone to sin from an early age. Repeated sins intensify their bad inclinations even more. Thus, a person, instead of growing and improving spiritually, falls under the destructive influence of his own passions, indulges in various sinful desires, and begins to envy and be at enmity. All crimes in the world (violence, wars and all kinds of disasters) arise from internal discord in a person.

The destructive effect of passions is symbolized by the red horse and rider, who took the world away from people. Giving in to his disorderly sinful desires, a person wastes the talents given to him by God and becomes poor physically and spiritually. In public life, hostility and war lead to the weakening and disintegration of society, to the loss of its spiritual and material resources. This internal and external impoverishment of humanity is symbolized by a black horse with a rider holding a measure (or scales) in his hand. Finally, the complete loss of God's gifts leads to spiritual death, and the final consequence of hostility and wars is the death of people and the collapse of society. This sad fate of people is symbolized by a pale horse.

The Four Apocalyptic Horsemen depicts the history of mankind in very general terms. First - the blissful life in Eden of our first parents, called to “reign” over nature (white horse), then - their fall from grace (red horse), after which the life of their descendants was filled with various disasters and mutual destruction (crow and pale horses). Apocalyptic horses also symbolize the life of individual states with their periods of prosperity and decline. Here is the life path of every person - with its childish purity, naivety, great potential, which are overshadowed by stormy youth, when a person wastes his strength, health and ultimately dies. Here is the history of the Church: the spiritual fervor of Christians in apostolic times and the efforts of the Church to renew human society; the emergence of heresies and schisms in the Church itself, and the persecution of the Church by pagan society. The Church is weakening, going into the catacombs, and some local churches are disappearing altogether.

Thus, the vision of the four horsemen summarizes the factors that characterize the life of sinful humanity. Further chapters of the Apocalypse will develop this theme more deeply. But by opening the fifth seal, the seer also shows the bright side of human misfortunes. Christians, having suffered physically, won spiritually; Now they are in Paradise! (Rev. 6:9-11) Their exploit brings them eternal reward, and they reign with Christ, as described in chapter 20. The transition to a more detailed description of the disasters of the Church and the strengthening of the atheistic forces is marked by the opening of the seventh seal.

Seven pipes.

Imprinting the chosen ones.

The beginning of disasters and the defeat of nature (chap. 7-11).

Angelic trumpets foretell disasters for humanity, physical and spiritual. But before the disaster begins, the Apostle John sees an angel placing a seal on the foreheads of the sons of New Israel (Rev. 7:1-8). “Israel” here is the New Testament Church. The seal symbolizes chosenness and grace-filled protection. This vision is reminiscent of the sacrament of Confirmation, during which the “seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit” is placed on the forehead of the newly baptized. It also resembles the sign of the cross, by which those protected “resist the enemy.” People who are not protected by the seal of grace suffer harm from the “locusts” that emerged from the abyss, i.e. from the power of the devil (Rev. 9:4). The prophet Ezekiel describes a similar sealing of the righteous citizens of ancient Jerusalem before its capture by the Chaldean hordes. Then, as now, the mysterious seal was placed with the purpose of preserving the righteous from the fate of the wicked (Ezek. 9:4). When listing the 12 tribes of Israel by name, the tribe of Dan was deliberately omitted. Some see this as an indication of the origin of the Antichrist from this tribe. The basis for this opinion are the mysterious words of the patriarch Jacob regarding the future of the descendants of Dan: “a serpent is in the way, an asp is in the way” (Gen. 49:17).

Thus, this vision serves as an introduction to the subsequent description of the persecution of the Church. Measuring the temple of God in chapter 11. has the same meaning as the sealing of the sons of Israel: the preservation of the children of the Church from evil. The Temple of God, like the Woman clothed in the sun, and the city of Jerusalem are different symbols of the Church of Christ. The main idea of ​​these visions is that the Church is holy and dear to God. God allows persecution for the sake of the moral improvement of believers, but protects them from enslavement to evil and from the same fate as those who fight against God.

Before the seventh seal is opened, there is silence “for about half an hour,” (Rev. 8:1). This is the silence before the storm that will rock the world during the Antichrist. (Isn’t the current process of disarmament as a result of the collapse of communism a break that is given to people to turn to God?). Before the onset of disasters, the Apostle John sees saints earnestly praying for mercy for people (Rev. 8:3-5).

Disasters in nature. Following this, the trumpets of each of the seven angels are sounded, after which various disasters begin. First, a third of the vegetation dies, then a third of the fish and other sea creatures, followed by poisoning of rivers and water sources. The fall of hail and fire, a flaming mountain and a luminous star onto the earth seems to allegorically indicate the enormous extent of these disasters. Is this not a prediction of the global pollution and destruction of nature that is observed today? If so, then environmental catastrophe foreshadows the coming of the Antichrist. More and more desecrating the image of God within themselves, people cease to appreciate and love His beautiful world. With their waste they pollute lakes, rivers and seas; spilled oil affects vast coastal areas; destroy forests and jungles, exterminate many species of animals, fish and birds. Both the guilty and the innocent victims of their cruel greed get sick and die from the poisoning of nature. The words: “The name of the third star is wormwood... And many of the people died from the waters because they became bitter” are reminiscent of the Chernobyl disaster, because “Chernobyl” means wormwood. But what does it mean that a third of the sun and stars are defeated and eclipsed? (Rev. 8:12). Obviously, here we are talking about air pollution to such a state when sunlight and starlight, reaching the ground, seem less bright. (For example, due to air pollution, the sky in Los Angeles usually looks dirty brown in color, and at night almost no stars are visible above the city, except for the brightest ones.)

The story of the locusts (fifth trumpet, (Rev. 9:1-11)) emerging from the abyss speaks of the strengthening of demonic power among people. It is headed by “Apollyon,” which means “destroyer” - the devil. As people lose the grace of God through their unbelief and sins, the spiritual emptiness that forms in them is increasingly filled by demonic power, which torments them with doubts and various passions.

Apocalyptic wars. The trumpet of the sixth angel sets in motion a huge army beyond the Euphrates River, from which a third of the people perish (Rev. 9:13-21). In the biblical view, the Euphrates River marks the boundary beyond which peoples hostile to God are concentrated, threatening Jerusalem with war and extermination. For the Roman Empire, the Euphrates River served as a stronghold against the attacks of eastern peoples. The ninth chapter of the Apocalypse was written against the backdrop of the cruel and bloody Judeo-Roman war of 66-70 AD, still fresh in the memory of the Apostle John. This war had three phases (Rev. 8:13). The first phase of the war, in which Gasius Florus led the Roman forces, lasted five months, from May to September 66 (the five months of the locust, Rev. 9:5 and 10). The second phase of the war soon began, from October to November 66, in which the Syrian governor Cestius led four Roman legions, (four angels at the Euphrates River, Rev. 9:14). This phase of the war was especially devastating for the Jews. The third phase of the war, led by Flavian, lasted three and a half years - from April 67 to September 70, and ended with the destruction of Jerusalem, the burning of the temple and the scattering of captive Jews throughout the Roman Empire. This bloody Roman-Jewish war became a prototype of the terrible wars of recent times, which the Savior pointed out in His conversation on the Mount of Olives (Matt. 24:7).

In the attributes of the hellish locusts and the Euphrates horde one can recognize modern weapons of mass destruction - tanks, guns, bombers and nuclear missiles. Further chapters of the Apocalypse describe the ever-increasing wars of the end times (Rev. 11:7; 16:12-16; 17:14; 19:11-19 and 20:7-8). The words “the river Euphrates was dried up so that the way for kings from the rising of the sun” (Rev. 16:12) may indicate the “yellow peril.” It should be borne in mind that the description of apocalyptic wars has the features of actual wars, but ultimately refers to spiritual war, and proper names and numbers have an allegorical meaning. So the Apostle Paul explains: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). The name Armageddon is made up of two words: “Ar” (in Hebrew - plain) and “Megiddo” (an area in the north of the Holy Land, near Mount Carmel, where in ancient times Barak defeated the army of Sisera, and the prophet Elijah destroyed more than five hundred priests of Baal), ( Rev. 16:16 and 17:14; Judges 4:2-16; 1 Kings 18:40). In the light of these biblical events, Armageddon symbolizes the defeat of the godless forces by Christ. The names Gog and Magog in the 20th chapter. reminiscent of Ezekiel's prophecy about the invasion of Jerusalem by countless hordes led by Gog from the land of Magog (in the south of the Caspian Sea), (Ezek. 38-39; Rev. 20:7-8). Ezekiel dates this prophecy to Messianic times. In the Apocalypse, the siege of the “camp of saints and the beloved city” (i.e., the Church) by the hordes of Gog and Magog and the destruction of these hordes by heavenly fire must be understood in the sense of the complete defeat of the atheistic forces, human and demonic, by the Second Coming of Christ.

As for the physical disasters and punishments of sinners, often mentioned in the Apocalypse, the seer himself explains that God allows them for admonition, in order to lead sinners to repentance (Rev. 9:21). But the apostle notes with sorrow that people do not heed the call of God and continue to sin and serve demons. They, as if “having the bit between their teeth,” are rushing towards their own death.

Vision of two witnesses (11:2-12). Chapters 10 and 11 occupy an intermediate place between the visions of the 7 trumpets and the 7 signs. In the two witnesses of God, some holy fathers see the Old Testament righteous Enoch and Elijah (Or Moses and Elijah). It is known that Enoch and Elijah were taken alive to Heaven (Gen. 5:24; 2 Kings 2:11), and before the end of the world they will come to earth to expose the deceit of the Antichrist and call people to loyalty to God. The executions that these witnesses will bring on people are reminiscent of the miracles performed by the prophets Moses and Elijah (Exodus 7-12; 3 Kings 17:1; 2 Kings 1:10). For the Apostle John, the prototypes of the two apocalyptic witnesses could be the apostles Peter and Paul, who shortly before suffered in Rome from Nero. Apparently, the two witnesses in the Apocalypse symbolize other witnesses of Christ, spreading the Gospel in a hostile pagan world and often sealing their preaching with martyrdom. The words “Sodom and Egypt, where our Lord was crucified” (Rev. 11:8) point to the city of Jerusalem, in which the Lord Jesus Christ, many prophets and the first Christians suffered. (Some suggest that at the time of the Antichrist, Jerusalem will become the capital of a world state. At the same time, they provide an economic justification for this opinion).

Seven signs (chap. 12-14).

The Church and the Kingdom of the Beast.

The further, the more clearly the viewer reveals to the readers the division of humanity into two opposing camps - the Church and the kingdom of the beast. In previous chapters, the Apostle John began to introduce readers to the Church, speaking of the sealed ones, the Jerusalem temple and the two witnesses, and in chapter 12 he shows the Church in all its heavenly glory. At the same time, he reveals her main enemy - the devil-dragon. The vision of the Woman clothed with the sun and the dragon makes it clear that the war between good and evil extends beyond the material world and extends to the world of angels. The apostle shows that in the world of disembodied spirits there is a conscious evil being who, with desperate persistence, wages war against angels and people devoted to God. This war of evil with good, permeating the entire existence of mankind, began in the angelic world before the creation of the material world. As we have already said, the seer describes this war in different parts of the Apocalypse not in its chronological sequence, but in different fragments, or phases.

The vision of the Woman reminds the reader of God's promise to Adam and Eve about the Messiah (the Seed of the Woman) who would wipe out the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). One might think that in chapter 12 the Wife refers to the Virgin Mary. However, from the further narrative, which talks about the other descendants of the Wife (Christians), it is clear that here by the Wife we ​​must mean the Church. The Sunshine of the Woman symbolizes the moral perfection of the saints and the grace-filled illumination of the Church with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The twelve stars symbolize the twelve tribes of the New Israel - i.e. a collection of Christian peoples. The Wife's pangs during childbirth symbolize the exploits, hardships and sufferings of the servants of the Church (prophets, apostles and their successors) suffered by them in spreading the Gospel in the world and in establishing Christian virtues among their spiritual children. (“My children, for whom I am again in the throes of birth, until Christ is formed in you,” said the Apostle Paul to the Galatian Christians (Gal. 4:19)).

The Firstborn of the Woman, “who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron,” is the Lord Jesus Christ (Ps. 2:9; Rev. 12:5 and 19:15). He is the New Adam, who became the head of the Church. The “Rapture” of the Child obviously points to the ascension of Christ to Heaven, where He sat “at the right hand of the Father” and has since ruled the destinies of the world.

“The dragon with his tail drew a third of the stars from Heaven and threw them to the earth” (Rev. 12:4). By these stars, interpreters understand the angels whom the proud Dennitsa-devil rebelled against God, as a result of which a war broke out in Heaven. (This was the first revolution in the universe!). The good angels were led by Archangel Michael. The angels who rebelled against God were defeated and could not stay in Heaven. Having fallen away from God, they became demons from good angels. Their underworld, called the abyss or hell, became a place of darkness and suffering. According to the opinion of the holy fathers, the war described here by the Apostle John took place in the angelic world even before the creation of the material world. It is presented here with the purpose of explaining to the reader that the dragon that will haunt the Church in further visions of the Apocalypse is the fallen Dennitsa - the original enemy of God.

So, having been defeated in Heaven, the dragon takes up arms against the Woman-Church with all his fury. His weapon is the many different temptations that he directs at his Wife like a stormy river. But she saves herself from temptation by fleeing into the desert, that is, by voluntarily renouncing the blessings and comforts of life with which the dragon tries to captivate her. The two wings of the Woman are prayer and fasting, with which Christians are spiritualized and made inaccessible to the dragon crawling on the earth like a serpent (Gen. 3:14; Mark 9:29). (It should be remembered that many zealous Christians, already from the first centuries, moved to the desert in the literal sense, leaving noisy cities full of temptations. In remote caves, hermitages and laurels, they devoted all their time to prayer and contemplation of God and reached such spiritual heights that modern Christians have no idea. Monasticism flourished in the East in the 4th-7th centuries, when many monasteries were formed in the desert places of Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Asia Minor, numbering hundreds and thousands of monks and nuns. From the Middle East, monasticism spread to Athos, and from there - to Russia, where in pre-revolutionary times there were more than a thousand monasteries and hermitages).

Note. The expression “a time, times and half a time” - 1260 days or 42 months (Rev. 12:6-15) - corresponds to three and a half years and symbolically denotes the period of persecution. The public ministry of the Savior continued for three and a half years. The persecution of believers continued for approximately the same amount of time under King Antiochus Epiphanes and the emperors Nero and Domitian. At the same time, the numbers in the Apocalypse should be understood allegorically.

The beast that came out of the sea and the beast that came out of the earth.

(From. 13-14 chapters).

Most of the holy fathers understand the Antichrist by the “beast from the sea”, and the false prophet by the “beast from the earth”. The sea symbolizes the unbelieving human mass, eternally worried and overwhelmed by passions. From the further narrative about the beast and from the parallel narrative of the prophet Daniel (Dan. 7-8 chapters). it should be concluded that the “beast” is the entire godless empire of the Antichrist. In appearance, the dragon-devil and the beast that came out of the sea, to which the dragon transferred its power, are similar to each other. Their external attributes speak of their dexterity, cruelty and moral ugliness. The heads and horns of the beast symbolize the godless states that make up the anti-Christian empire, as well as their rulers (“kings”). The report of a fatal wound to one of the beast's heads and its healing is mysterious. In due time, events themselves will shed light on the meaning of these words. The historical basis for this allegory could be the belief of many of the contemporaries of the Apostle John that the murdered Nero came to life and that he would soon return with the Parthian troops (located across the Euphrates River (Rev. 9:14 and 16:12)) to take revenge on his enemies. There may be an indication here of the partial defeat of atheistic paganism by the Christian faith and the revival of paganism during the period of general apostasy from Christianity. Others see here an indication of the defeat of God-fighting Judaism in the 70s AD. “They are not Jews, but the synagogue of Satan,” the Lord said to John (Rev. 2:9; 3:9). (See more about this in our brochure “Christian Doctrine of the End of the World”).

Note. There are common features between the beast of the Apocalypse and the four beasts of the prophet Daniel, who personified the four ancient pagan empires (Dan. 7th chapter). The fourth beast referred to the Roman Empire, and the tenth horn of the last beast meant the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes - a prototype of the coming Antichrist, whom the Archangel Gabriel called “despicable” (Dan. 11:21). The characteristics and actions of the apocalyptic beast also have much in common with the tenth horn of the prophet Daniel (Dan. 7:8-12; 20-25; 8:10-26; 11:21-45). The first two books of Maccabees provide a vivid illustration of the times before the end of the world.

The seer then describes a beast that came out of the earth, which he later refers to as a false prophet. The earth here symbolizes the complete lack of spirituality in the teachings of the false prophet: it is all saturated with materialism and pleasing the sin-loving flesh. The false prophet deceives people with false miracles and makes them worship the first beast. “He had two horns like a lamb, and spoke like a dragon” (Rev. 13:11) - i.e. he looked meek and peace-loving, but his speeches were full of flattery and lies.

Just as in the 11th chapter the two witnesses symbolize all the servants of Christ, so, obviously, the two beasts of the 13th chapter. symbolize the totality of all haters of Christianity. The beast from the sea is a symbol of civil atheistic power, and the beast from the earth is a combination of false teachers and all perverted church authorities. (In other words, the Antichrist will come from the civil environment, under the guise of a civil leader, preached and praised by those who betrayed religious beliefs by a false prophet or false prophets).

Just as during the earthly life of the Savior both of these authorities, civil and religious, in the person of Pilate and the Jewish high priests, united in condemning Christ to be crucified, so throughout the history of mankind these two authorities often unite in the fight against faith and to persecute believers. As has already been said, the Apocalypse describes not only the distant future, but also a constantly recurring one - for different peoples in their time. And the Antichrist is also his own for everyone, appearing in times of anarchy, when “he who holds back is taken.” Examples: the prophet Balaam and the Moabite king; Queen Jezebel and her priests; false prophets and princes before the destruction of Israel and later Judah, “apostates from the holy covenant” and King Antiochus Epiphanes (Dan. 8:23; 1 Macc. and 2 Macc. 9), adherents of the Mosaic law and Roman rulers in apostolic times. In New Testament times, heretical false teachers weakened the Church with their schisms and thereby contributed to the conquering successes of the Arabs and Turks, who flooded and ruined the Orthodox East; Russian freethinkers and populists prepared the ground for the revolution; modern false teachers are seducing unstable Christians into various sects and cults. All of them are false prophets who contribute to the success of the atheistic forces. Apocalypse clearly reveals the mutual support between the dragon-devil and both beasts. Here, each of them has his own selfish calculations: the devil craves self-worship, the Antichrist seeks power, and the false prophet seeks his own material gain. The Church, calling people to faith in God and to strengthening virtues, serves as a hindrance to them, and they jointly fight against it.

Mark of the Beast.

(Rev. 13:16-17; 14:9-11; 15:2; 19:20; 20:4). In the language of the Holy Scriptures, wearing a seal (or mark) means belonging to or subordinating to someone. We have already said that the seal (or the name of God) on the forehead of believers means their chosenness by God and, therefore, God’s protection over them (Rev. 3:12; 7:2-3; 9:4; 14:1; 22: 4). The activities of the false prophet, described in the 13th chapter of the Apocalypse, convince us that the kingdom of the beast will be of a religious and political nature. By creating a union of different states, it will simultaneously implant a new religion instead of the Christian faith. Therefore, submitting to the Antichrist (allegorically - taking the mark of the beast on your forehead or right hand) will be tantamount to renouncing Christ, which will entail the deprivation of the Kingdom of Heaven. (The symbolism of the seal is drawn from the custom of antiquity, when warriors burned the names of their leaders on their hands or foreheads, and slaves - voluntarily or forcibly - accepted the seal of the name of their master. Pagans devoted to some deity often wore a tattoo of this deity on themselves) .

It is possible that during the time of the Antichrist, advanced computer registration will be introduced, similar to modern bank cards. The improvement will consist in the fact that the computer code, invisible to the eye, will be printed not on a plastic card, as it is now, but directly on the human body. This code, read by an electronic or magnetic "eye," will be transmitted to a central computer in which all information about that person, personal and financial, will be stored. Thus, establishing personal codes directly in public will replace the need for money, passports, visas, tickets, checks, credit cards and other personal documents. Thanks to individual coding, all monetary transactions - receiving salaries and paying debts - can be carried out directly on the computer. If there is no money, the robber will have nothing to take from the person. The state, in principle, will be able to control crime more easily, since the movements of people will be known to it thanks to a central computer. It seems that this personal coding system will be proposed in such a positive aspect. In practice, it will also be used for religious and political control over people, when “no one will be allowed to buy or sell except the one who has this mark” (Rev. 13:17).

Of course, the idea expressed here about stamping codes on people is an assumption. The point is not in electromagnetic signs, but in fidelity or betrayal of Christ! Throughout the history of Christianity, pressure on believers from anti-Christian authorities took a variety of forms: making a formal sacrifice to an idol, accepting Mohammedanism, joining a godless or anti-Christian organization. In the language of the Apocalypse, this is the acceptance of the “mark of the beast:” the acquisition of temporary advantages at the cost of renouncing Christ.

The number of the beast is 666.

(Rev. 13:18). The meaning of this number still remains a mystery. Obviously, it can be deciphered when the circumstances themselves contribute to this. Some interpreters see the number 666 as a decrease in the number 777, which in turn means threefold perfection, completeness. With this understanding of the symbolism of this number, the Antichrist, who strives to show his superiority over Christ in everything, will in fact turn out to be imperfect in everything. In ancient times, name calculation was based on the fact that the letters of the alphabets had a numerical value. For example, in Greek (and Church Slavonic) “A” equaled 1, B = 2, G = 3, etc. A similar numerical value of letters exists in Latin and Hebrew. Each name could be arithmetically calculated by adding up the numerical value of the letters. For example, the name Jesus written in Greek is 888 (possibly denoting supreme perfection). There are a huge number of proper names, which the sum of their letters translated into numbers gives 666. For example, the name Nero Caesar, written in Hebrew letters. In this case, if the Antichrist’s own name were known, then calculating its numerical value would not require special wisdom. Maybe here we need to look for a solution to the riddle in principle, but it is not clear in which direction. The Beast of the Apocalypse is both the Antichrist and his state. Perhaps at the time of the Antichrist, initials will be introduced to denote a new worldwide movement? By the will of God, the personal name of the Antichrist is hidden from idle curiosity for the time being. When the time comes, those who should decipher it will decipher it.

The talking image of the beast.

It is difficult to understand the meaning of the words about the false prophet: “And it was given to him to put breath into the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should speak and act, so that everyone who would not worship the image of the beast would be killed” (Rev. 13:15). The reason for this allegory could have been the demand of Antiochus Epiphanes that the Jews bow to the statue of Jupiter, which he erected in the Temple of Jerusalem. Later, Emperor Domitian demanded that all inhabitants of the Roman Empire bow to his image. Domitian was the first emperor to demand divine veneration during his lifetime and to be called “our lord and god.” Sometimes, for a greater impression, priests were hidden behind the statues of the emperor, who spoke from there on his behalf. Christians who did not bow to the image of Domitian were ordered to be executed, and those who bowed to be given gifts. Maybe in the prophecy of the Apocalypse we are talking about some kind of device like a television that will transmit the image of the Antichrist and at the same time monitor how people react to it. In any case, in our time, movies and television are widely used to instill anti-Christian ideas, to accustom people to cruelty and vulgarity. Daily indiscriminate watching of TV kills the good and holy in a person. Isn't television the forerunner of the talking image of the beast?

Seven bowls.

Strengthening the atheistic power.

Judgment of sinners (chap. 15-17).

In this part of the Apocalypse, the seer describes the kingdom of the beast, which has reached its apogee of power and control over people's lives. Apostasy from the true faith covers almost all of humanity, and the Church reaches extreme exhaustion: “And it was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them” (Rev. 13:7). To encourage the believers who remained faithful to Christ, the Apostle John raises their gaze to the heavenly world and shows a great host of righteous people who, like the Israelites who escaped from Pharaoh under Moses, sing a song of victory (Exodus 14-15 ch.).

But just as the power of the pharaohs came to an end, the days of anti-Christian power are numbered. Next chapters (16-20 chapters). in bright strokes they depict God's judgment over those who fight against God. The defeat of nature in the 16th chapter. similar to the description in the 8th chapter, but here it reaches worldwide proportions and makes a terrifying impression. (As before, obviously, the destruction of nature is carried out by people themselves - wars and industrial waste). The increased heat from the sun that people are suffering from may be due to the destruction of ozone in the stratosphere and an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. According to the Savior’s prediction, in the last year before the end of the world, living conditions would become so unbearable that “if God had not shortened those days, no flesh would have been saved” (Matt. 24:22).

The description of judgment and punishment in chapters 16-20 of the Apocalypse follows the order of increasing guilt of the enemies of God: first, people who received the mark of the beast, and the capital of the anti-Christian empire - “Babylon,” are punished, then - the Antichrist and the false prophet, and finally - the devil.

The story of the defeat of Babylon is given twice: first in general terms at the end of the 16th chapter, and in more detail in chapters 18-19. Babylon is depicted as a harlot sitting on a beast. The name Babylon is reminiscent of Chaldean Babylon, in which the atheistic power was concentrated in Old Testament times. (Chaldean troops destroyed ancient Jerusalem in 586 BC). Describing the luxury of a “harlot,” the Apostle John had in mind rich Rome with its port city. But many features of apocalyptic Babylon do not apply to ancient Rome and, obviously, refer to the capital of the Antichrist.

Equally mysterious is the angel's explanation at the end of chapter 17 about the "mystery of Babylon" in detail relating to the Antichrist and his kingdom. These details will probably be understood in the future when the time comes. Some allegories are taken from the description of Rome, which stood on seven hills, and its godless emperors. “Five kings (the heads of the beast) fell” - these are the first five Roman emperors - from Julius Caesar to Claudius. The sixth head is Nero, the seventh is Vespasian. “And the beast that was and is not, is the eighth, and (he is) from among the seven” - this is Domitian, the revived Nero in the popular imagination. He is the Antichrist of the first century. But, probably, the symbolism of the 17th chapter will receive a new explanation during the time of the last Antichrist.

Judgment of Babylon

Antichrist and false prophet (chap. 18-19).

The Seer of Secrets paints in vivid and vivid colors a picture of the fall of the capital of the atheistic state, which he calls Babylon. This description is similar to the predictions of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah about the death of Chaldean Babylon in the 539th year BC (Isa. 13-14 ch.; Is. 21:9; Jer. 50-51 ch.). There are many similarities between the past and future centers of world evil. The punishment of the Antichrist (the beast) and the false prophet is especially described. As we have already said, the “beast” is both a specific personality of the last god-fighter and, at the same time, the personification of any god-fighting power in general. The false prophet is the last false prophet (assistant of the Antichrist), as well as the personification of any pseudo-religious and perverted church authority.

It is important to understand that in the story about the punishment of Babylon, the Antichrist, the false prophet (in chapters 17-19). and the devil (in chapter 20), the Apostle John follows not a chronological, but a principled method of presentation, which we will now explain.

Taken together, the Holy Scriptures teach that the atheistic kingdom will end its existence at the Second Coming of Christ, and then the Antichrist and the false prophet will perish. God's Last Judgment on the world will occur in order of increasing guilt of the defendants. (“The time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. But if it begins first with us, what will be the end of those who disobey the word of God?” (1 Pet. 4:17; Matt. 25:31-46). Believers will be judged first, then unbelievers and sinners, then conscious enemies of God, and, finally, the main culprits of all lawlessness in the world - demons and the devil). In this order, the Apostle John tells about the judgment of the enemies of God in chapters 17-20. Moreover, the apostle prefaces the trial of each category of guilty (apostates, Antichrist, false prophet and, finally, the devil) with a description of their guilt. Therefore, the impression arises that Babylon will be destroyed first, some time later the Antichrist and the false prophet will be punished, after which the kingdom of saints will come on earth, and after a very long time the devil will come out to deceive the nations and then he will be punished by God. In reality, the Apocalypse is about parallel events. This method of presentation by the Apostle John should be taken into account for the correct interpretation of the 20th chapter of the Apocalypse. (See: “The Failure of Chiliasm” in the brochure on the end of the world).

1000-year Kingdom of Saints.

The Devil's Trial (chap. 20).

Resurrection of the Dead and the Last Judgment.

The twentieth chapter, telling of the kingdom of saints and the double defeat of the devil, covers the entire period of the existence of Christianity. It sums up the drama of chapter 12 about the dragon's persecution of the Church Woman. The first time the devil was struck by the Savior's death on the cross. Then he was deprived of power over the world, “chained” and “imprisoned in the abyss” for 1000 years (i.e. for a very long time, Rev. 20:3). “Now is the judgment of this world. “Now the prince of this world will be cast out,” said the Lord before His suffering (John 12:31). As we know from the 12th chapter. The Apocalypse and from other places of Holy Scripture, the devil, even after the death of the Savior on the cross, had the opportunity to tempt believers and create intrigues for them, but he no longer had power over them. The Lord said to His disciples: “Behold, I give you power to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19).

Only before the very end of the world, when, due to the massive apostasy of people from the faith, “he who restrains” will be taken out of the environment (2 Thess. 2:7), the devil will again prevail over sinful humanity, but for a short time. Then he will lead the last desperate struggle against the Church (Jerusalem), sending the hordes of “Gog and Magog” against it, but will be defeated by Christ a second time and finally (“I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). The hordes of Gog and Magog symbolize the totality of all the atheistic forces, human and underworld, which the devil will unite in his insane war against Christ. Thus, the increasingly intensifying struggle with the Church throughout history ends in the 20th chapter of the Apocalypse with the complete defeat of the devil and his servants. 20 Chapter 1 summarizes the spiritual side of this struggle and shows its end.

The bright side of the persecution of believers is that, although they suffered physically, they spiritually defeated the devil because they remained faithful to Christ. From the moment of their martyrdom, they reign with Christ and “judge” the world, taking part in the destinies of the Church and all humanity. (Therefore, we turn to them for help, and from here follows the Orthodox veneration of the saints (Rev. 20:4). The Lord predicted about the glorious fate of those who suffered for the faith: “He who believes in me, even if he dies, will live” (John 11:25) .

The “First Resurrection” in the Apocalypse is a spiritual rebirth, which begins from the moment of baptism of a believer, is strengthened by his Christian deeds and reaches its highest state at the moment of martyrdom for the sake of Christ. The promise applies to those who are spiritually regenerated: “The time is coming, and has already come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and having heard it they will live.” The words of the 10th verse of the 20th chapter are final: the devil, who deceived people, was “cast into the lake of fire.” Thus ends the story of the condemnation of the apostates, the false prophet, the Antichrist and the devil.

Chapter 20 ends with a description of the Last Judgment. Before it, there must be a general resurrection of the dead - a physical one, which the apostle calls the “second” resurrection. All people will be physically resurrected - both righteous and sinners. After the general resurrection, “the books were opened... and the dead were judged according to what was written in the books.” Obviously, then, before the throne of the Judge, the spiritual state of each person will be revealed. All dark deeds, evil words, secret thoughts and desires - everything carefully hidden and even forgotten - will suddenly surface and become obvious to everyone. It will be a terrible sight!

Just as there are two resurrections, so there are two deaths. “The first death” is the state of unbelief and sin in which people who did not accept the Gospel lived. “The second death” is doom to eternal alienation from God. This description is very condensed, since the apostle had already spoken about the Judgment several times before (see: Rev. 6:12-17; 10:7; 11:15; 14:14-20; 16:17-21; 19:19 -21 and 20:11-15). Here the apostle sums up the Last Judgment (the prophet Daniel briefly talks about this at the beginning of the 12th chapter). With this brief description, the Apostle John completes the description of the history of mankind and moves on to the description of the eternal life of the righteous.

New Heaven and new Earth.

Eternal bliss (chap. 21-22).

The last two chapters of the book of the Apocalypse are the brightest and most joyful pages of the Bible. They describe the bliss of the righteous on a renewed Earth, where God will wipe away every tear from the eyes of the sufferers, where there will be no more death, no crying, no crying, no sickness. Life will begin, which will never end.

Conclusion.

So, the book of the Apocalypse was written during the intensified persecution of the Church. Its purpose is to strengthen and comfort believers in view of the upcoming trials. It reveals the ways and tricks by which the devil and his servants try to destroy believers; she teaches how to overcome temptations. The book of the Apocalypse calls on believers to be attentive to their state of mind and not to be afraid of suffering and death for the sake of Christ. It shows the joyful life of the saints in heaven and invites us to unite with them. Believers, although sometimes they have many enemies, have even more defenders in the person of angels, saints and, especially, Christ the Victorious.

The book of the Apocalypse, brighter and more clearly than other books of Holy Scripture, reveals the drama of the struggle between evil and good in the history of mankind and shows more fully the triumph of Good and Life.

Apocalypse(or translated from Greek - Revelation) of St. John the Theologian is the only prophetic book of the New Testament. It predicts the future destinies of mankind, the end of the world and the beginning of eternal life, and therefore, naturally, is placed at the end of the Holy Scriptures.
Apocalypse- the book is mysterious and difficult to understand, but at the same time it is the mysterious nature of this book that attracts the attention of both believing Christians and simply inquisitive thinkers trying to unravel the meaning and significance of the visions described in it. There are a huge number of books about the Apocalypse, among which there are many works with all sorts of nonsense, this especially applies to modern sectarian literature.

Despite the difficulty of understanding this book, the spiritually enlightened fathers and teachers of the Church have always treated it with great reverence as a book inspired by God. Thus, Saint Dionysius of Alexandria writes: “The darkness of this book does not prevent one from being surprised by it. And if I don’t understand everything about it, it’s only because of my inability. I cannot be a judge of the truths contained in it, and measure them by the poverty of my mind; Guided more by faith than by reason, I find them only beyond my understanding.” Blessed Jerome speaks in the same way about the Apocalypse: “It contains as many secrets as words. But what am I saying? Any praise for this book would be beneath its dignity.”

The Apocalypse is not read during divine services because in ancient times the reading of Holy Scripture during divine services was always accompanied by an explanation of it, and the Apocalypse is very difficult to explain.

Book author.

The author of the apocalypse calls himself John (Rev. 1:1, 4 and 9; 22:8). According to the general opinion of the holy fathers of the Church, this was the Apostle John, the beloved disciple of Christ, who received the distinctive name “Theologian” for the height of his teaching about God the Word. ” His authorship is confirmed both by data in the Apocalypse itself and by many other internal and external signs. The Gospel and three Council Epistles also belong to the inspired pen of the Apostle John the Theologian. The author of the Apocalypse says that he was on the island of Patmos “for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:9). From church history it is known that of the apostles, only Saint John the Theologian was imprisoned on this island.

Proof of the authorship of the Apocalypse. John the Theologian is served by the similarity of this book with his Gospel and epistles, not only in spirit, but also in style, and, especially, in some characteristic expressions. So, for example, the apostolic preaching is called here “testimony” (Rev. 1:2, 9; 20:4; see: John 1:7; 3:11; 21:24; 1 John 5:9-11) . The Lord Jesus Christ is called “the Word” (Rev. 19:13; see: John 1:1, 14 and 1 John 1:1) and “Lamb” (Rev. 5:6 and 17:14; see: John 1:36). The prophetic words of Zechariah: “and they will look on Him whom they have pierced” (12:10) both in the Gospel and in the Apocalypse are given equally according to the Greek translation of the “Seventy Interpreters” (Rev. 1:7 and John 19:37). Some differences between the language of the Apocalypse and other books of the Apostle John are explained both by the difference in content and by the circumstances of the origin of the writings of the holy Apostle. Saint John, a Jew by birth, although he spoke Greek, but, being imprisoned far from the living spoken Greek language, naturally left the stamp of influence of his native language on the Apocalypse. For an unprejudiced reader of the Apocalypse, it is obvious that its entire content bears the stamp of the great spirit of the Apostle of love and contemplation.

All ancient and later patristic testimonies recognize the author of the Apocalypse as Saint John the Theologian. His disciple Saint Papias of Hieropolis calls the writer of the Apocalypse “Elder John,” as the apostle himself calls himself in his epistles (2 John 1:1 and 3 John 1:1). The testimony of Saint Justin the Martyr, who lived in Ephesus even before his conversion to Christianity, where the Apostle John lived for a long time before him, is also important. Many holy fathers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries cite passages from the Apocalypse as from a divinely inspired book written by St. John the Theologian. One of them was Saint Hippolytus, Pope of Rome, who wrote an apology for the Apocalypse, a student of Irenaeus of Lyons. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian and Origen also recognize the holy Apostle John as the author of the Apocalypse. The later Church Fathers were equally convinced of this: St. Ephraim the Syrian, Epiphanius, Basil the Great, Hilary, Athanasius the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Didymus, Ambrose of Milan, St. Augustine and St. Jerome. The 33rd rule of the Council of Carthage, attributing the Apocalypse to St. John the Theologian, places it among the other canonical books of Holy Scripture. The testimony of Saint Irenaeus of Lyons regarding the authorship of the Apocalypse to Saint John the Theologian is especially valuable, since Saint Irenaeus was a disciple of Saint Polycarp of Smyrna, who in turn was a disciple of Saint John the Theologian, heading the Smyrna Church under his apostolic leadership.

Time, place and purpose of writing the Apocalypse.

An ancient legend dates the writing of the Apocalypse to the end of the 1st century. So, for example, Saint Irenaeus writes: “The Apocalypse appeared shortly before this and almost in our time, at the end of the reign of Domitian.” The historian Eusebius (early 4th century) reports that contemporary pagan writers mention the exile of the Apostle John to Patmos for witnessing the Divine Word, attributing this event to the 15th year of the reign of Domitian (reigned 81-96 after the Nativity Christ's).

Thus, the Apocalypse was written at the end of the first century, when each of the seven churches of Asia Minor, to which St. John addresses, already had its own history and one way or another determined direction of religious life. Their Christianity was no longer in the first stage of purity and truth, and false Christianity was already trying to compete with the true one. Obviously, the activity of the Apostle Paul, who preached for a long time in Ephesus, was already a thing of the long past.

Church writers of the first 3 centuries also agree in indicating the place where the Apocalypse was written, which they recognize as the island of Patmos, mentioned by the Apostle himself, as the place where he received revelations (Rev. 1:9). Patmos is located in the Aegean Sea, south of the city of Ephesus and was a place of exile in ancient times.

In the first lines of the Apocalypse, Saint John indicates the purpose of writing the revelation: to predict the fate of the Church of Christ and the whole world. The mission of the Church of Christ was to revive the world with Christian preaching, to plant true faith in God in the souls of people, teach them to live righteously, and show them the way to the Kingdom of Heaven. But not all people accepted Christian preaching favorably. Already in the first days after Pentecost, the Church faced hostility and conscious resistance to Christianity - first from the Jewish priests and scribes, then from unbelieving Jews and pagans.

Already in the first year of Christianity, a bloody persecution of preachers of the Gospel began. Gradually, these persecutions began to take an organized and systematic form. The first center of the fight against Christianity was Jerusalem. Starting from the middle of the first century, Rome, led by Emperor Nero (reigned 54-68 after the Nativity of Christ), joined the hostile camp. The persecution began in Rome, where many Christians shed their blood, including the chief apostles Peter and Paul. From the end of the first century, persecution of Christians became more intense. Emperor Domitian orders the systematic persecution of Christians, first in Asia Minor, and then in other parts of the Roman Empire. The Apostle John the Theologian, summoned to Rome and thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil, remained unharmed. Domitian exiles the Apostle John to the island of Patmos, where the apostle receives a revelation about the fate of the Church and the whole world. With short breaks, the bloody persecution of the Church continued until 313, when Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan on freedom of religion.

In view of the beginning of persecution, the Apostle John writes the Apocalypse to Christians to console them, instruct and strengthen them. He reveals the secret intentions of the enemies of the Church, whom he personifies in the beast that came out of the sea (as a representative of a hostile secular power) and in the beast that came out of the earth - a false prophet, as a representative of a hostile pseudo-religious government. He also discovers the main leader of the struggle against the Church - the devil, this ancient dragon who groups the godless forces of humanity and directs them against the Church. But the suffering of believers is not in vain: through fidelity to Christ and patience they receive a well-deserved reward in Heaven. At the time determined by God, forces hostile to the Church will be brought to justice and punished. After the Last Judgment and punishment of the wicked, eternal blissful life will begin.

The purpose of writing the Apocalypse is to depict the upcoming struggle of the Church with the forces of evil; show the methods by which the devil, with the assistance of his servants, fights against good and truth; provide guidance to believers on how to overcome temptation; depict the death of the enemies of the Church and the final victory of Christ over evil.

Content, plan and symbolism of the Apocalypse

The Apocalypse has always attracted the attention of Christians, especially at a time when various disasters and temptations began to agitate public and church life with greater force. Meanwhile, the imagery and mystery of this book makes it very difficult to understand, and therefore for careless interpreters there is always the risk of going beyond the boundaries of truth to unrealistic hopes and beliefs. So, for example, a literal understanding of the images of this book gave rise and now continues to give rise to the false teaching about the so-called “chiliasm” - the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth. The horrors of persecution experienced by Christians in the first century and interpreted in the light of the Apocalypse gave some reason to believe that the “end times” had arrived and the second coming of Christ was near. This opinion arose already in the first century.

Over the past 20 centuries, many interpretations of the Apocalypse of the most diverse nature have appeared. All these interpreters can be divided into four categories. Some of them attribute the visions and symbols of the Apocalypse to the “end times” - the end of the world, the appearance of the Antichrist and the Second Coming of Christ. Others give the Apocalypse a purely historical meaning and limit its vision to the historical events of the first century: the persecution of Christians by pagan emperors. Still others try to find the fulfillment of apocalyptic predictions in the historical events of their time. In their opinion, for example, the Pope is the Antichrist and all apocalyptic disasters are announced, in fact, for the Roman Church, etc. The fourth, finally, see in the Apocalypse only an allegory, believing that the visions described in it have not so much a prophetic as a moral meaning. As we will see below, these points of view on the Apocalypse do not exclude, but complement each other.

The Apocalypse can only be properly understood in the context of the whole of Holy Scripture. A feature of many prophetic visions - both Old Testament and New Testament - is the principle of combining several historical events in one vision. In other words, spiritually related events, separated from one another by many centuries and even millennia, merge into one prophetic picture that combines events from different historical eras.

An example of such a synthesis of events is the prophetic conversation of the Savior about the end of the world. In it, the Lord speaks simultaneously about the destruction of Jerusalem, which occurred 35 years after His crucifixion, and about the time before His second coming. (Matt. 24th chapter; Mr. 13th chapter; Luke 21st chapter. The reason for such a combination of events is that the first illustrates and explains the second.

Often, Old Testament predictions speak simultaneously of a beneficial change in human society in New Testament times and of new life in the Kingdom of Heaven. In this case, the first serves as the beginning of the second (Isa. (Isaiah) 4:2-6; Isa. 11:1-10; Is. 26, 60 and 65 chapters; Jer. (Jeremiah) 23:5-6; Jer. 33:6-11; Habakkuk 2:14; Zephaniah 3:9-20). Old Testament prophecies about the destruction of Chaldean Babylon also speak about the destruction of the kingdom of the Antichrist (Isa. 13-14 and 21 ch.; Jer. 50-51 ch.). There are many similar examples of events merging into one prediction. This method of combining events based on their internal unity is used to help a believer understand the essence of events based on what he already knows, leaving aside secondary and non-explanatory historical details.

As we will see below, the Apocalypse consists of a number of multi-layered compositional visions. The Mystery Viewer shows the future from the perspective of the past and present. So, for example, the many-headed beast in chapters 13-19. – this is the Antichrist himself and his predecessors: Antiochus Epiphanes, so vividly described by the prophet Daniel and in the first two books of Maccabees, and the Roman emperors Nero and Domitian, who persecuted the apostles of Christ, as well as subsequent enemies of the Church.

Two witnesses of Christ in chapter 11. - these are the accusers of the Antichrist (Enoch and Elijah), and their prototypes are the apostles Peter and Paul, as well as all preachers of the Gospel who carry out their mission in a world hostile to Christianity. The false prophet in the 13th chapter is the personification of all those who propagate false religions (Gnosticism, heresies, Mohammedanism, materialism, Hinduism, etc.), among which the most prominent representative will be the false prophet of the times of the Antichrist. To understand why the Apostle John united various events and different people in one image, we must take into account that he wrote the Apocalypse not only for his contemporaries, but for Christians of all times who had to endure similar persecutions and tribulations. The Apostle John reveals common methods of deception, and also shows the sure way to avoid them in order to be faithful to Christ until death.

Likewise, the judgment of God, which the Apocalypse repeatedly speaks of, is both the Last Judgment of God and all the private judgments of God over individual countries and people. This includes the judgment of all mankind under Noah, and the trial of the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah under Abraham, and the trial of Egypt under Moses, and the double trial of Judea (six centuries before the birth of Christ and again in the seventies of our era), and the trial of ancient Nineveh, Babylon, the Roman Empire, Byzantium and, more recently, Russia. The reasons that caused God's righteous punishment were always the same: people's unbelief and lawlessness.

A certain timelessness is noticeable in the Apocalypse. It follows from the fact that the Apostle John contemplated the destinies of mankind not from an earthly, but from a heavenly perspective, where the Spirit of God led him. In an ideal world, the flow of time stops at the throne of the Most High and the present, past and future appear before the spiritual gaze at the same time. Obviously, this is why the author of the Apocalypse describes some future events as past, and past ones as present. For example, the war of angels in Heaven and the overthrow of the devil from there - events that happened even before the creation of the world, are described by the Apostle John, as if they happened at the dawn of Christianity (Rev. 12). The resurrection of the martyrs and their reign in Heaven, which covers the entire New Testament era, is placed by him after the trial of the Antichrist and the false prophet (Rev. 20). Thus, the seer does not narrate the chronological sequence of events, but reveals the essence of that great war of evil with good, which is going on simultaneously on several fronts and covers both the material and angelic worlds.

There is no doubt that some of the predictions of the Apocalypse have already been fulfilled (for example, regarding the fate of the seven churches of Asia Minor). The fulfilled predictions should help us understand the remaining ones that have yet to be fulfilled. However, when applying visions of the Apocalypse to certain specific events, one must take into account that such visions contain elements of different eras. Only with the completion of the destinies of the world and the punishment of the last enemies of God will all the details of the apocalyptic visions be realized.

The Apocalypse was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. A correct understanding of it is most hindered by people’s departure from faith and true Christian life, which always leads to dulling, or even complete loss of spiritual vision. The complete devotion of modern man to sinful passions is the reason that some modern interpreters of the Apocalypse want to see in it only one allegory, and even the Second Coming of Christ itself is taught to be understood allegorically. Historical events and personalities of our time convince us that to see only an allegory in the Apocalypse means to be spiritually blind, so much of what is happening now resembles the terrible images and visions of the Apocalypse.

The method of presentation of the Apocalypse is shown in the table attached here. As can be seen from it, the apostle simultaneously reveals to the reader several spheres of existence. To the highest sphere belongs the Angelic world, the Church triumphant in Heaven, and the Church persecuted on earth. This sphere of good is headed and guided by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Savior of people. Below is the sphere of evil: the unbelieving world, sinners, false teachers, conscious fighters against God and demons. They are led by a dragon - a fallen angel. Throughout the existence of mankind, these spheres have been at war with each other. The Apostle John in his visions gradually reveals to the reader different sides of the war between good and evil and reveals the process of spiritual self-determination in people, as a result of which some of them become on the side of good, others on the side of evil. During the development of the world conflict, God's Judgment is constantly being carried out on individuals and nations. Before the end of the world, evil will increase excessively, and the earthly Church will be extremely weakened. Then the Lord Jesus Christ will come to earth, all people will be resurrected, and the Last Judgment of God will be carried out over the world. The devil and his supporters will be condemned to eternal torment, but for the righteous, eternal, blissful life in Paradise will begin.

When read sequentially, the Apocalypse can be divided into the following parts:

1. Introductory picture of the Lord Jesus Christ appearing, commanding John to write down the Revelation to the seven churches of Asia Minor (chapter 1).
2. Letters to the 7 churches of Asia Minor (chapters 2 and 3), in which, along with instructions to these churches, the destinies of the Church of Christ are outlined - from the apostolic age to the end of the world.
3. Vision of God seated on the throne, the Lamb and heavenly worship (chapters 4 and 5). This worship is supplemented by visions in subsequent chapters.
4. From the 6th chapter the revelation of the destinies of humanity begins. The opening of the seven seals of the mysterious book by the Lamb-Christ serves as the beginning of a description of the different phases of the war between good and evil, between the Church and the devil. This war, which begins in the human soul, spreads to all aspects of human life, intensifies and becomes more and more terrible (until the 20th chapter).
5. The voices of the seven angelic trumpets (chapters 7-10) herald the initial disasters that must befall people for their unbelief and sins. The damage to nature and the appearance of evil forces in the world are described. Before the onset of disasters, believers receive a seal of grace on their forehead (forehead), which preserves them from moral evil and from the fate of the wicked.
6. The Vision of Seven Signs (chapters 11-14) shows humanity divided into two opposing and irreconcilable camps - good and evil. Good forces are concentrated in the Church of Christ, represented here in the image of a Woman clothed with the sun (chapter 12), and evil forces are concentrated in the kingdom of the beast-Antichrist. The beast that came out of the sea is a symbol of evil secular power, and the beast that came out of the earth is a symbol of decayed religious power. In this part of the Apocalypse, for the first time, a conscious, extra-worldly evil being is clearly revealed - the dragon-devil, who organizes and leads the war against the Church. The two witnesses of Christ symbolize here the preachers of the Gospel who fight the beast.
7. The Visions of the Seven Bowls (chapters 15-17) paint a grim picture of worldwide moral decay. The war against the Church becomes extremely intense (Armageddon) (Rev. 16:16), the trials become unbearably difficult. The image of Babylon the harlot depicts humanity that has apostatized from God, concentrated in the capital of the kingdom of the beast-Antichrist. The evil force extends its influence to all areas of the life of sinful humanity, after which God’s judgment on the forces of evil begins (here God’s judgment on Babylon is described in general terms, as an introduction).
8. The following chapters (18-19) describe the judgment of Babylon in detail. It also shows the death of the perpetrators of evil among people - the Antichrist and the false prophet - representatives of both civil and heretical anti-Christian authorities.
9. Chapter 20 summarizes spiritual warfare and world history. She speaks of the double defeat of the devil and the reign of martyrs. Having suffered physically, they won spiritually and are already blissful in Heaven. It covers the entire period of the existence of the Church, starting from apostolic times. Gog and Magog personify the totality of all the God-fighting forces, earthly and underworld, which throughout Christian history fought against the Church (Jerusalem). They are destroyed by the second coming of Christ. Finally, the devil, this ancient serpent who laid the foundation for all lawlessness, untruths and suffering in the Universe, is also subject to eternal punishment. The end of chapter 20 tells of the general resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment and the punishment of the wicked. This brief description summarizes the Last Judgment of mankind and the fallen angels and sums up the drama of the universal war between good and evil.
10. The final two chapters (21-22) describe the new Heaven, the new Earth, and the blessed life of the saved. These are the brightest and most joyful chapters in the Bible.

Each new section of the Apocalypse usually begins with the words: “And I saw...” and ends with a description of God’s judgment. This description marks the end of the previous topic and the beginning of a new one. Between the main sections of the Apocalypse, the viewer sometimes inserts intermediate pictures that serve as a connecting link between them. The table given here clearly shows the plan and sections of the Apocalypse. For compactness, we have combined the intermediate pictures together with the main ones. Walking horizontally along the table above, we see how the following areas are gradually revealed more and more fully: The heavenly world; Church persecuted on earth; sinful and godless world; underworld; the war between them and the judgment of God.

The meaning of symbols and numbers. Symbols and allegories enable the seer to speak about the essence of world events at a high level of generalization, so he uses them widely. So, for example, eyes symbolize knowledge, many eyes - perfect knowledge. The horn is a symbol of power and might. Long clothing signifies priesthood; crown - royal dignity; whiteness – purity, innocence; the city of Jerusalem, the temple and Israel symbolize the Church. Numbers also have a symbolic meaning: three symbolizes the Trinity, four symbolizes peace and world order; seven means completeness and perfection; twelve - the people of God, the fullness of the Church (numbers derived from 12, like 24 and 144,000, have the same meaning). One third means some relatively small part. Three and a half years is a time of persecution. The number 666 will be discussed specifically later in this booklet.

New Testament events are often depicted against the background of homogeneous Old Testament events. So, for example, the disasters of the Church are described against the backdrop of the suffering of the Israelites in Egypt, temptation under the prophet Balaam, persecution by Queen Jezebel and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans; the salvation of believers from the devil is depicted against the background of the salvation of the Israelites from Pharaoh under the prophet Moses; the atheistic power is represented in the image of Babylon and Egypt; the punishment of the godless forces is depicted in the language of the 10 Egyptian plagues; the devil is identified with the serpent who seduced Adam and Eve; future heavenly bliss is depicted in the image of the Garden of Eden and the tree of life.

The main task of the author of the Apocalypse is to show how evil forces operate, who organizes and directs them in the fight against the Church; to instruct and strengthen believers in fidelity to Christ; show the complete defeat of the devil and his servants and the beginning of heavenly bliss.

For all the symbolism and mystery of the Apocalypse, religious truths are revealed in it very clearly. So, for example, the Apocalypse points to the devil as the culprit of all temptations and disasters of mankind. The tools with which he tries to destroy people are always the same: unbelief, disobedience to God, pride, sinful desires, lies, fear, doubts, etc. Despite all his cunning and experience, the devil is not able to destroy people who are devoted to God with all their hearts, because God protects them with His grace. The devil enslaves more and more apostates and sinners to himself and pushes them to all sorts of abominations and crimes. He directs them against the Church and with their help produces violence and organizes wars in the world. The Apocalypse clearly shows that in the end the devil and his servants will be defeated and punished, the truth of Christ will triumph, and a blessed life will come in the renewed world, which will have no end.

Having thus made a quick overview of the content and symbolism of the Apocalypse, let us now dwell on some of its most important parts.

Letters to the Seven Churches (chap. 2-3).

The seven churches—Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea—were located in the southwestern part of Asia Minor (now Turkey). They were founded by the Apostle Paul in the 40s of the first century. After his martyrdom in Rome around the year 67, the Apostle John the Theologian took charge of these churches, who cared for them for about forty years. Having been imprisoned on the island of Patmos, the Apostle John from there wrote messages to these churches in order to prepare Christians for the upcoming persecution. The letters are addressed to the “angels” of these churches, i.e. bishops.

A careful study of the epistles to the seven churches of Asia Minor suggests that they contain the destinies of the Church of Christ, starting from the apostolic age until the end of the world. At the same time, the upcoming path of the New Testament Church, this “New Israel,” is depicted against the backdrop of the most important events in the life of Old Testament Israel, starting with the Fall in Paradise and ending with the time of the Pharisees and Sadducees under the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle John uses Old Testament events as prototypes of the destinies of the New Testament Church. Thus, three elements are intertwined in the letters to the seven churches:

b) a new, deeper interpretation of Old Testament history; And

c) the future fate of the Church.

The combination of these three elements in the letters to the seven churches is summarized in the table attached here.

Notes: The Ephesian church was the most populous, and had metropolitan status in relation to the neighboring churches of Asia Minor. In 431, the 3rd Ecumenical Council took place in Ephesus. Gradually, the lamp of Christianity in the Ephesian Church died out, as the Apostle John predicted. Pergamum was the political center of western Asia Minor. It was dominated by paganism with a magnificent cult of deified pagan emperors. On a mountain near Pergamum, a pagan monument-altar stood majestically, mentioned in the Apocalypse as the “throne of Satan” (Rev. 2:13). The Nicolaitans are ancient Gnostic heretics. Gnosticism was a dangerous temptation for the Church in the first centuries of Christianity. Favorable soil for the development of Gnostic ideas was the syncretic culture that arose in the empire of Alexander the Great, uniting East and West. The religious worldview of the East, with its belief in the eternal struggle between good and evil, spirit and matter, body and soul, light and darkness, combined with the speculative method of Greek philosophy, gave rise to various Gnostic systems, which were characterized by the idea of ​​​​the emanation origin of the world from the Absolute and about the many intermediate stages of creation connecting the world with the Absolute. Naturally, with the spread of Christianity in the Hellenistic environment, the danger arose of its presentation in Gnostic terms and the transformation of Christian piety into one of the religious and philosophical Gnostic systems. Jesus Christ was perceived by the Gnostics as one of the mediators (eons) between the Absolute and the world.

One of the first distributors of Gnosticism among Christians was someone named Nicholas - hence the name “Nicolaitans” in the Apocalypse. (It is believed that this was Nicholas, who, along with the other six chosen men, was ordained by the apostles to the diaconate, see: Acts 6:5). By distorting the Christian faith, the Gnostics encouraged moral laxity. Beginning in the mid-first century, several Gnostic sects flourished in Asia Minor. The apostles Peter, Paul and Jude warned Christians not to fall into the snares of these heretical debauchees. Prominent representatives of Gnosticism were the heretics Valentinus, Marcion and Basilides, who were opposed by the apostolic men and early fathers of the Church.

The ancient Gnostic sects disappeared long ago, but Gnosticism as a fusion of heterogeneous philosophical and religious schools exists in our time in theosophy, cabala, Freemasonry, modern Hinduism, yoga and other cults.

Vision of heavenly worship (4-5 chapters).

The Apostle John received revelation on the “Day of the Lord,” i.e. on Sunday. It should be assumed that, according to apostolic custom, on this day he performed the “breaking of bread,” i.e. Divine Liturgy and received communion, so he “was in the Spirit,” i.e. experienced a special inspired state (Rev. 1:10).

And so, the first thing he is honored to see is, as it were, a continuation of the divine service he performed - the heavenly Liturgy. The Apostle John describes this service in the 4th and 5th chapters of the Apocalypse. An Orthodox person will recognize here the familiar features of the Sunday Liturgy and the most important accessories of the altar: the throne, the seven-branched candlestick, the censer with smoking incense, the golden cup, etc. (These objects, shown to Moses on Mount Sinai, were also used in the Old Testament temple). The slain Lamb seen by the apostle in the middle of the throne reminds a believer of the Communion lying on the throne under the guise of bread; the souls of those killed for the word of God under the heavenly throne - an antimension with particles of the relics of the holy martyrs sewn into it; elders in light robes and with golden crowns on their heads - a host of clergy celebrating the Divine Liturgy together. It is noteworthy here that even the exclamations and prayers themselves, heard by the Apostle in Heaven, express the essence of the prayers that the clergy and singers pronounce during the main part of the Liturgy - the Eucharistic Canon. The whitening of the robes of the righteous with the “Blood of the Lamb” is reminiscent of the sacrament of Communion, through which believers sanctify their souls.

Thus, the apostle begins the revelation of the destinies of humanity with a description of the heavenly Liturgy, which emphasizes the spiritual significance of this service and the need for the prayers of the saints for us.

Notes. The words “Lion of the Tribe of Judah” refer to the Lord Jesus Christ and are reminiscent of the prophecy of Patriarch Jacob about the Messiah (Gen. 49:9-10), “Seven Spirits of God” - the fullness of the gracious gifts of the Holy Spirit (see: Is. 11:2 and Zechariah 4th chapter). Many eyes symbolize omniscience. The twenty-four elders correspond to the twenty-four priestly orders established by King David for serving in the temple - two intercessors for each tribe of New Israel (1 Chron. 24:1-18). The four mysterious animals surrounding the throne are similar to the animals seen by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:5-19). They appear to be the creatures closest to God. These faces - man, lion, calf and eagle - were taken by the Church as emblems of the four Evangelists.

In the further description of the heavenly world we encounter many things that are incomprehensible to us. From the Apocalypse we learn that the angelic world is immensely large. Disembodied spirits - angels, like people, are endowed by the Creator with reason and free will, but their spiritual abilities are many times greater than ours. Angels are completely devoted to God and serve Him through prayer and the fulfillment of His will. So, for example, they lift up the prayers of the saints to the throne of God (Rev. 8:3-4), assist the righteous in achieving salvation (Rev. 7:2-3; 14:6-10; 19:9), sympathize with the suffering and persecuted (Rev. 8:13; 12:12), according to the command of God, sinners are punished (Rev. 8:7; 9:15; 15:1; 16:1). They are clothed with power and have power over nature and its elements (Rev. 10:1; 18:1). They wage war against the devil and his demons (Rev. 12:7-10; 19:17-21; 20:1-3), take part in the judgment of the enemies of God (Rev. 19:4).

The teaching of the Apocalypse about the angelic world radically overthrows the teaching of the ancient Gnostics, who recognized intermediate beings (eons) between the Absolute and the material world, which govern the world completely independently and independently of Him.

Among the saints whom the Apostle John sees in Heaven, two groups, or “faces,” stand out: martyrs and virgins. Historically, martyrdom is the first kind of holiness, and therefore the apostle begins with the martyrs (6:9-11). He sees their souls under the heavenly altar, which symbolizes the redemptive meaning of their suffering and death, with which they participate in the suffering of Christ and, as it were, complement them. The blood of the martyrs is likened to the blood of the Old Testament victims, which flowed under the altar of the Jerusalem Temple. The history of Christianity testifies that the suffering of the ancient martyrs served to morally renew the decrepit pagan world. The ancient writer Tertulian wrote that the blood of martyrs serves as the seed for new Christians. Persecution of believers will either subside or intensify during the continued existence of the Church, and therefore it was revealed to the seer that new martyrs would be added to the number of the first.

Later, the Apostle John sees in Heaven a huge number of people whom no one could count - from all tribes, tribes, peoples, and languages; They stood in white clothes with palm branches in their hands (Rev. 7:9-17). What this innumerable host of righteous people have in common is that “they came out of great tribulation.” For all people, the path to Paradise is one - through sorrow. Christ is the first Sufferer, who took upon Himself as the Lamb of God the sins of the world. Palm branches are a symbol of victory over the devil.

In a special vision, the seer describes virgins, i.e. people who have given up the pleasures of married life for the sake of wholehearted service to Christ. (Voluntary “eunuchs” for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, see about this: Matt. 19:12; Rev. 14:1-5. In the Church, this feat was often accomplished in monasticism). The viewer sees the “name of the Father” written on the foreheads of virgins, which indicates their moral beauty, reflecting the perfection of the Creator. The “new song,” which they sing and which no one can repeat, is an expression of the spiritual heights that they achieved through the feat of fasting, prayer and chastity. This purity is unattainable for people of a worldly lifestyle.

The song of Moses, which the righteous sing in the next vision (Rev. 15:2-8), is reminiscent of the hymn of thanksgiving that the Israelites sang when, having crossed the Red Sea, they were saved from Egyptian slavery (Ex. 15 ch.). In a similar way, New Testament Israel is saved from the power and influence of the devil by moving into a life of grace through the sacrament of baptism. In subsequent visions, the seer describes the saints several more times. The “fine linen” (precious linen) in which they are clothed is a symbol of their righteousness. In the 19th chapter of the Apocalypse, the wedding song of the saved speaks of the approaching “marriage” between the Lamb and the saints, i.e. about the coming of the closest communication between God and the righteous (Rev. 19:1-9; 21:3-4). The book of Revelation ends with a description of the blessed life of the saved nations (Rev. 21:24-27; 22:12-14 and 17). These are the brightest and most joyful pages in the Bible, showing the triumphant Church in the Kingdom of glory.

Thus, as the destinies of the world are revealed in the Apocalypse, the Apostle John gradually directs the spiritual gaze of believers to the Kingdom of Heaven - to the final goal of earthly wandering. He speaks, as if under duress and reluctantly, about the gloomy events in a sinful world.

Opening of the seven seals.

Vision of the Four Horsemen (6th chapter).

Who are the four horsemen of the Apocalypse?

The vision of the seven seals is introductory to the subsequent revelations of the Apocalypse. The opening of the first four seals reveals four horsemen, who symbolize the four factors that characterize the entire history of mankind. The first two factors are the cause, the second two are the effect. The crowned rider on the white horse “came out to conquer.” He personifies those good principles, natural and grace-filled, that the Creator invested in man: the image of God, moral purity and innocence, the desire for goodness and perfection, the ability to believe and love, and the individual “talents” with which a person is born, as well as grace-filled gifts The Holy Spirit, which he receives in the Church. According to the Creator, these good principles were supposed to “win,” i.e. determine a happy future for humanity. But man already in Eden succumbed to the temptation of the tempter. The nature damaged by sin passed on to his descendants; Therefore, people are prone to sin from an early age. Repeated sins intensify their bad inclinations even more. Thus, a person, instead of growing and improving spiritually, falls under the destructive influence of his own passions, indulges in various sinful desires, and begins to envy and be at enmity. All crimes in the world (violence, wars and all kinds of disasters) arise from internal discord in a person.

The destructive effect of passions is symbolized by the red horse and rider, who took the world away from people. Giving in to his disorderly sinful desires, a person wastes the talents given to him by God and becomes poor physically and spiritually. In public life, hostility and war lead to the weakening and disintegration of society, to the loss of its spiritual and material resources. This internal and external impoverishment of humanity is symbolized by a black horse with a rider holding a measure (or scales) in his hand. Finally, the complete loss of God's gifts leads to spiritual death, and the final consequence of hostility and wars is people and the collapse of society. This sad fate of people is symbolized by a pale horse.

The Four Apocalyptic Horsemen depicts the history of mankind in very general terms. First - the blissful life in Eden of our first parents, called to “reign” over nature (white horse), then - their fall from grace (red horse), after which the life of their descendants was filled with various disasters and mutual destruction (crow and pale horses). Apocalyptic horses also symbolize the life of individual states with their periods of prosperity and decline. Here is the life path of every person - with its childish purity, naivety, great potential, which are overshadowed by stormy youth, when a person wastes his strength, health and ultimately dies. Here is the history of the Church: the spiritual fervor of Christians in apostolic times and the efforts of the Church to renew human society; the emergence of heresies and schisms in the Church itself, and the persecution of the Church by pagan society. The Church is weakening, going into the catacombs, and some local churches are disappearing altogether.

Thus, the vision of the four horsemen summarizes the factors that characterize the life of sinful humanity. Further chapters of the Apocalypse will develop this theme more deeply. But by opening the fifth seal, the seer also shows the bright side of human misfortunes. Christians, having suffered physically, won spiritually; Now they are in Paradise! (Rev. 6:9-11) Their exploit brings them eternal reward, and they reign with Christ, as described in chapter 20. The transition to a more detailed description of the disasters of the Church and the strengthening of the atheistic forces is marked by the opening of the seventh seal.

Seven pipes.

Imprinting the chosen ones.

The beginning of disasters and the defeat of nature (chap. 7-11).

Angelic trumpets foretell disasters for humanity, physical and spiritual. But before the disaster begins, the Apostle John sees an angel placing a seal on the foreheads of the sons of New Israel (Rev. 7:1-8). “Israel” here is the New Testament Church. The seal symbolizes chosenness and grace-filled protection. This vision is reminiscent of the sacrament of Confirmation, during which the “seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit” is placed on the forehead of the newly baptized. It also resembles the sign of the cross, by which those protected “resist the enemy.” People who are not protected by the seal of grace suffer harm from the “locusts” that emerged from the abyss, i.e. from the power of the devil (Rev. 9:4). The prophet Ezekiel describes a similar sealing of the righteous citizens of ancient Jerusalem before its capture by the Chaldean hordes. Then, as now, the mysterious seal was placed with the purpose of preserving the righteous from the fate of the wicked (Ezek. 9:4). When listing the 12 tribes of Israel by name, the tribe of Dan was deliberately omitted. Some see this as an indication of the origin of the Antichrist from this tribe. The basis for this opinion are the mysterious words of the patriarch Jacob regarding the future of the descendants of Dan: “a serpent is in the way, an asp in the way,” (Gen. 49:17).

Thus, this vision serves as an introduction to the subsequent description of the persecution of the Church. Measuring the temple of God in chapter 11. has the same meaning as the sealing of the sons of Israel: the preservation of the children of the Church from evil. The Temple of God, like the Woman clothed in the sun, and the city of Jerusalem are different symbols of the Church of Christ. The main idea of ​​these visions is that the Church is holy and dear to God. God allows persecution for the sake of the moral improvement of believers, but protects them from enslavement to evil and from the same fate as those who fight against God.

Before the seventh seal is opened, there is silence “for about half an hour,” (Rev. 8:1). This is the silence before the storm that will rock the world during the Antichrist. (Isn’t the current process of disarmament as a result of the collapse of communism a break that is given to people to turn to God?). Before the onset of disasters, the Apostle John sees saints earnestly praying for mercy for people (Rev. 8:3-5).

Disasters in nature. Following this, the trumpets of each of the seven angels are sounded, after which various disasters begin. First, a third of the vegetation dies, then a third of fish and other sea creatures, followed by poisoning of rivers and water sources. The fall of hail and fire, a flaming mountain and a luminous star onto the earth seems to allegorically indicate the enormous extent of these disasters. Is this not a prediction of the global pollution and destruction of nature that is observed today? If so, then environmental catastrophe foreshadows the coming of the Antichrist. More and more desecrating the image of God within themselves, people cease to appreciate and love His beautiful world. With their waste they pollute lakes, rivers and seas; spilled oil affects vast coastal areas; destroy forests and jungles, exterminate many species of animals, fish and birds. Both the guilty and the innocent victims of their cruel greed get sick and die from the poisoning of nature. The words: “The name of the third star is wormwood... And many of the people died from the waters because they became bitter” are reminiscent of the Chernobyl disaster, because “Chernobyl” means wormwood. But what does it mean that a third of the sun and stars are defeated and eclipsed? (Rev. 8:12). Obviously, here we are talking about air pollution to such a state when sunlight and starlight, reaching the ground, seem less bright. (For example, due to air pollution, the sky in Los Angeles usually looks dirty brown in color, and at night almost no stars are visible above the city, except for the brightest ones.)

The story of the locusts (fifth trumpet, (Rev. 9:1-11)) emerging from the abyss speaks of the strengthening of demonic power among people. It is headed by “Apollyon,” which means “destroyer,” the devil. As people lose the grace of God through their unbelief and sins, the spiritual emptiness that forms in them is increasingly filled by demonic power, which torments them with doubts and various passions.

Apocalyptic wars. The trumpet of the sixth angel sets in motion a huge army beyond the Euphrates River, from which a third of the people perish (Rev. 9:13-21). In the biblical view, the Euphrates River marks the boundary beyond which peoples hostile to God are concentrated, threatening Jerusalem with war and extermination. For the Roman Empire, the Euphrates River served as a stronghold against the attacks of eastern peoples. The ninth chapter of the Apocalypse was written against the backdrop of the cruel and bloody Judeo-Roman war of 66-70 AD, still fresh in the memory of the Apostle John. This war had three phases (Rev. 8:13). The first phase of the war, in which Gasius Florus led the Roman forces, lasted five months, from May to September 66 (the five months of the locust, Rev. 9:5 and 10). The second phase of the war soon began, from October to November 66, in which the Syrian governor Cestius led four Roman legions, (four angels at the Euphrates River, Rev. 9:14). This phase of the war was especially devastating for the Jews. The third phase of the war, led by Flavian, lasted three and a half years - from April 67 to September 70, and ended with the destruction of Jerusalem, the burning of the temple and the scattering of captive Jews throughout the Roman Empire. This bloody Roman-Jewish war became a prototype of the terrible wars of recent times, which the Savior pointed out in His conversation on the Mount of Olives (Matt. 24:7).

In the attributes of the hellish locusts and the Euphrates horde one can recognize modern weapons of mass destruction - tanks, guns, bombers and nuclear missiles. Further chapters of the Apocalypse describe the ever-increasing wars of the end times (Rev. 11:7; 16:12-16; 17:14; 19:11-19 and 20:7-8). The words “the river Euphrates was dried up so that the way for kings would be ready from the rising of the sun” (Rev. 16:12) may indicate the “yellow peril.” It should be borne in mind that the description of apocalyptic wars has the features of actual wars, but ultimately refers to spiritual war, and proper names and numbers have an allegorical meaning. So the Apostle Paul explains: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). The name Armageddon is made up of two words: “Ar” (in Hebrew - plain) and “Megiddo” (an area in the north of the Holy Land, near Mount Carmel, where in ancient times Barak defeated the army of Sisera, and the prophet Elijah destroyed more than five hundred priests of Baal), ( Rev. 16:16 and 17:14; Judges 4:2-16; 1 Kings 18:40). In the light of these biblical events, Armageddon symbolizes the defeat of the godless forces by Christ. The names Gog and Magog in the 20th chapter. reminiscent of Ezekiel's prophecy about the invasion of Jerusalem by countless hordes led by Gog from the land of Magog (in the south of the Caspian Sea), (Ezek. 38-39; Rev. 20:7-8). Ezekiel dates this prophecy to Messianic times. In the Apocalypse, the siege of the “camp of saints and the beloved city” (i.e., the Church) by the hordes of Gog and Magog and the destruction of these hordes by heavenly fire must be understood in the sense of the complete defeat of the atheistic forces, human and demonic, by the Second Coming of Christ.

As for the physical disasters and punishments of sinners, often mentioned in the Apocalypse, the seer himself explains that God allows them for admonition, in order to lead sinners to repentance (Rev. 9:21). But the apostle notes with sorrow that people do not heed the call of God and continue to sin and serve demons. They, as if “having the bit between their teeth,” rush towards their own destruction.

Vision of two witnesses (11:2-12). Chapters 10 and 11 occupy an intermediate place between the visions of the 7 trumpets and the 7 signs. In the two witnesses of God, some holy fathers see the Old Testament righteous Enoch and Elijah (Or Moses and Elijah). It is known that Enoch and Elijah were taken alive to Heaven (Gen. 5:24; 2 Kings 2:11), and before the end of the world they will come to earth to expose the deceit of the Antichrist and call people to loyalty to God. The executions that these witnesses will bring on people are reminiscent of the miracles performed by the prophets Moses and Elijah (Exodus 7-12; 3 Kings 17:1; 2 Kings 1:10). For the Apostle John, the prototypes of the two apocalyptic witnesses could be the apostles Peter and Paul, who shortly before suffered in Rome from Nero. Apparently, the two witnesses in the Apocalypse symbolize other witnesses of Christ, spreading the Gospel in a hostile pagan world and often sealing their preaching with martyrdom. The words “Sodom and Egypt, where our Lord was crucified” (Rev. 11:8) point to the city of Jerusalem, in which the Lord Jesus Christ, many prophets and the first Christians suffered. (Some suggest that at the time of the Antichrist, Jerusalem will become the capital of a world state. At the same time, they provide an economic justification for this opinion).

Seven signs (chap. 12-14).

The Church and the Kingdom of the Beast.

The further, the more clearly the viewer reveals to the readers the division of humanity into two opposing camps - the Church and the kingdom of the beast. In previous chapters, the Apostle John began to introduce readers to the Church, speaking of the sealed ones, the Jerusalem temple and the two witnesses, and in chapter 12 he shows the Church in all its heavenly glory. At the same time, he reveals her main enemy - the devil-dragon. The vision of the Woman clothed with the sun and the dragon makes it clear that the war between good and evil extends beyond the material world and extends to the world of angels. The apostle shows that in the world of disembodied spirits there is a conscious evil being who, with desperate persistence, wages war against angels and people devoted to God. This war of evil with good, permeating the entire existence of mankind, began in the angelic world before the creation of the material world. As we have already said, the seer describes this war in different parts of the Apocalypse not in its chronological sequence, but in different fragments, or phases.

The vision of the Woman reminds the reader of God's promise to Adam and Eve about the Messiah (the Seed of the Woman) who would wipe out the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). One might think that in chapter 12 the Wife refers to the Virgin Mary. However, from the further narrative, which talks about the other descendants of the Wife (Christians), it is clear that here by the Wife we ​​must mean the Church. The Sunshine of the Woman symbolizes the moral perfection of the saints and the grace-filled illumination of the Church with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The twelve stars symbolize the twelve tribes of the New Israel - i.e. a collection of Christian peoples. The Wife's pangs during childbirth symbolize the exploits, hardships and sufferings of the servants of the Church (prophets, apostles and their successors) suffered by them in spreading the Gospel in the world and in establishing Christian virtues among their spiritual children. (“My little children, for whom I am again in the throes of birth, until Christ is formed in you,” said the Apostle Paul to the Galatian Christians (Gal. 4:19)).

The Firstborn of the Woman, “who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron,” is the Lord Jesus Christ (Ps. 2:9; Rev. 12:5 and 19:15). He is the New Adam, who became the head of the Church. The “Rapture” of the Child obviously points to the ascension of Christ to Heaven, where He sat “at the right hand of the Father” and has since ruled the destinies of the world.

“The dragon with his tail drew a third of the stars from Heaven and threw them to the earth,” (Rev. 12:4). By these stars, interpreters understand the angels whom the proud Dennitsa-devil rebelled against God, as a result of which a war broke out in Heaven. (This was the first revolution in the universe!). The good angels were led by Archangel Michael. The angels who rebelled against God were defeated and could not stay in Heaven. Having fallen away from God, they became demons from good angels. Their underworld, called the abyss or hell, became a place of darkness and suffering. According to the opinion of the holy fathers, the war described here by the Apostle John took place in the angelic world even before the creation of the material world. It is presented here with the purpose of explaining to the reader that the dragon that will haunt the Church in further visions of the Apocalypse is the fallen Dennitsa - the original enemy of God.

So, having been defeated in Heaven, the dragon takes up arms against the Woman-Church with all his fury. His weapon is various temptations, which he directs at his Wife like a stormy river. But she saves herself from temptation by fleeing into the desert, that is, by voluntarily renouncing the blessings and comforts of life with which the dragon tries to captivate her. The two wings of the Woman are prayer and fasting, with which Christians are spiritualized and made inaccessible to the dragon crawling on the earth like a serpent (Gen. 3:14; Mark 9:29). (It should be remembered that many zealous Christians, already from the first centuries, moved to the desert in the literal sense, leaving noisy cities full of temptations. In remote caves, hermitages and laurels, they devoted all their time to prayer and contemplation of God and reached such spiritual heights that modern Christians have no idea. Monasticism flourished in the East in the 4th-7th centuries, when many monasteries were formed in the desert places of Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Asia Minor, numbering hundreds and thousands of monks and nuns. From the Middle East, monasticism spread to Athos, and from there - to Russia, where in pre-revolutionary times there were more than a thousand monasteries and hermitages).

Note. The expression “a time, times and half a time” - 1260 days or 42 months (Rev. 12:6-15) - corresponds to three and a half years and symbolically denotes the period of persecution. The public ministry of the Savior continued for three and a half years. The persecution of believers continued for approximately the same amount of time under King Antiochus Epiphanes and the emperors Nero and Domitian. At the same time, the numbers in the Apocalypse should be understood allegorically (see above).

The beast that came out of the sea and the beast that came out of the earth (Rev. 13-14 chapters)

Most of the holy fathers understand the Antichrist by the “beast from the sea”, and the false prophet by the “beast from the earth”. The sea symbolizes the unbelieving human mass, eternally worried and overwhelmed by passions. From the further narrative about the beast and from the parallel narrative of the prophet Daniel (Dan. 7-8 chapters). it should be concluded that the “beast” is the entire godless empire of the Antichrist. In appearance, the dragon-devil and the beast that came out of the sea, to which the dragon transferred its power, are similar to each other. Their external attributes speak of their dexterity, cruelty and moral ugliness. The heads and horns of the beast symbolize the godless states that make up the anti-Christian empire, as well as their rulers (“kings”). The report of a fatal wound to one of the beast’s heads and its healing is mysterious. In due time, events themselves will shed light on the meaning of these words. The historical basis for this allegory could be the belief of many of the contemporaries of the Apostle John that the murdered Nero came to life and that he would soon return with the Parthian troops (located across the Euphrates River (Rev. 9:14 and 16:12)) to take revenge on his enemies. There may be an indication here of the partial defeat of atheistic paganism by the Christian faith and the revival of paganism during the period of general apostasy from Christianity. Others see here an indication of the defeat of God-fighting Judaism in the 70s AD. “They are not Jews, but the synagogue of Satan,” the Lord said to John (Rev. 2:9; 3:9). (See more about this in our brochure “Christian Doctrine of the End of the World”).

Note. There are common features between the beast of the Apocalypse and the four beasts of the prophet Daniel, who personified the four ancient pagan empires (Dan. 7th chapter). The fourth beast referred to the Roman Empire, and the tenth horn of the last beast meant the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes - a prototype of the coming Antichrist, whom the Archangel Gabriel called “despicable,” (Dan. 11:21). The characteristics and actions of the apocalyptic beast also have much in common with the tenth horn of the prophet Daniel (Dan. 7:8-12; 20-25; 8:10-26; 11:21-45). The first two books of Maccabees provide a vivid illustration of the times before the end of the world.

The seer then describes a beast that came out of the earth, which he later refers to as a false prophet. The earth here symbolizes the complete lack of spirituality in the teachings of the false prophet: it is all saturated with materialism and pleasing the sin-loving flesh. The false prophet deceives people with false miracles and makes them worship the first beast. “He had two horns like a lamb, and spoke like a dragon” (Rev. 13:11), - i.e. he looked meek and peace-loving, but his speeches were full of flattery and lies.

Just as in the 11th chapter the two witnesses symbolize all the servants of Christ, so, obviously, the two beasts of the 13th chapter. symbolize the totality of all haters of Christianity. The beast from the sea is a symbol of civil atheistic power, and the beast from the earth is a combination of false teachers and all perverted church authorities. (In other words, the Antichrist will come from the civil environment, under the guise of a civil leader, preached and praised by those who betrayed religious beliefs by a false prophet or false prophets).

Just as during the earthly life of the Savior both of these authorities, civil and religious, in the person of Pilate and the Jewish high priests, united in condemning Christ to be crucified, so throughout the history of mankind these two authorities often unite in the fight against faith and to persecute believers. As has already been said, the Apocalypse describes not only the distant future, but also a constantly recurring one - for different peoples at one time. And the Antichrist is also his own for everyone, appearing in times of anarchy, when “he who holds back is taken.” Examples: the prophet Balaam and the Moabite king; Queen Jezebel and her priests; false prophets and princes before the destruction of Israel and later the Jews, “apostates from the holy covenant” and King Antiochus Epiphanes (Dan. 8:23; 1 Macc. and 2 Macc. 9), adherents of the Mosaic law and Roman rulers in apostolic times. In New Testament times, heretical false teachers weakened the Church with their schisms and thereby contributed to the conquering successes of the Arabs and Turks, who flooded and ruined the Orthodox East; Russian freethinkers and populists prepared the ground for the revolution; modern false teachers are seducing unstable Christians into various sects and cults. All of them are false prophets who contribute to the success of the atheistic forces. Apocalypse clearly reveals the mutual support between the dragon-devil and both beasts. Here, each of them has his own selfish calculations: the devil craves self-worship, the Antichrist seeks power, and the false prophet seeks his own material gain. The Church, calling people to faith in God and to strengthening virtues, serves as a hindrance to them, and they jointly fight against it.

Mark of the Beast.

(Rev. 13:16-17; 14:9-11; 15:2; 19:20; 20:4). In the language of the Holy Scriptures, wearing a seal (or mark) means belonging to or subordinating to someone. We have already said that the seal (or the name of God) on the forehead of believers means their chosenness by God and, therefore, God’s protection over them (Rev. 3:12; 7:2-3; 9:4; 14:1; 22: 4). The activities of the false prophet, described in the 13th chapter of the Apocalypse, convince us that the kingdom of the beast will be of a religious and political nature. By creating a union of different states, it will simultaneously implant a new religion instead of the Christian faith. Therefore, to submit to the Antichrist (allegorically - to accept the mark of the beast on your forehead or right hand) will be tantamount to renouncing Christ, which will entail the deprivation of the Kingdom of Heaven. (The symbolism of the seal is drawn from the custom of antiquity, when warriors burned the names of their leaders on their hands or foreheads, and slaves - voluntarily or forcibly - accepted the seal of the name of their master. Pagans devoted to some deity often wore a tattoo of this deity on themselves) .

It is possible that during the time of the Antichrist, advanced computer registration will be introduced, similar to modern bank cards. The improvement will consist in the fact that the computer code, invisible to the eye, will be printed not on a plastic card, as it is now, but directly on the human body. This code, read by an electronic or magnetic “eye,” will be transmitted to a central computer in which all information about that person, personal and financial, will be stored. Thus, establishing personal codes directly in public will replace the need for money, passports, visas, tickets, checks, credit cards and other personal documents. Thanks to individual coding, all monetary transactions - receiving salaries and paying debts - can be carried out directly on the computer. If there is no money, the robber will have nothing to take from the person. The state, in principle, will be able to control crime more easily, since the movements of people will be known to it thanks to a central computer. It seems that this personal coding system will be proposed in such a positive aspect. In practice, it will also be used for religious and political control over people, when “no one will be allowed to buy or sell except the one who has this mark” (Rev. 13:17).

Of course, the idea expressed here about stamping codes on people is an assumption. The point is not in electromagnetic signs, but in fidelity or betrayal of Christ! Throughout the history of Christianity, pressure on believers from anti-Christian authorities took a variety of forms: making a formal sacrifice to an idol, accepting Mohammedanism, joining a godless or anti-Christian organization. In the language of the Apocalypse, this is the acceptance of the “mark of the beast:” the acquisition of temporary advantages at the cost of renouncing Christ.

The number of the beast is 666.

(Rev. 13:18). The meaning of this number still remains a mystery. Obviously, it can be deciphered when the circumstances themselves contribute to this. Some interpreters see the number 666 as a decrease in the number 777, which in turn means threefold perfection, completeness. With this understanding of the symbolism of this number, the Antichrist, who strives to show his superiority over Christ in everything, will in fact turn out to be imperfect in everything. In ancient times, name calculation was based on the fact that the letters of the alphabets had a numerical value. For example, in Greek (and in Church Slavonic) A equaled 1, B = 2, G = 3, etc. A similar numerical value of letters exists in Latin and Hebrew. Each name could be arithmetically calculated by adding up the numerical value of the letters. For example, the name Jesus written in Greek is 888 (possibly denoting supreme perfection). There are a huge number of proper names, which the sum of their letters translated into numbers gives 666. For example, the name Nero Caesar, written in Hebrew letters. In this case, if the Antichrist’s own name were known, then calculating its numerical value would not require special wisdom. Maybe here we need to look for a solution to the riddle in principle, but it is not clear in which direction. The Beast of the Apocalypse is both the Antichrist and his state. Perhaps at the time of the Antichrist, initials will be introduced to denote a new worldwide movement? By the will of God, the personal name of the Antichrist is hidden from idle curiosity for the time being. When the time comes, those who should decipher it will decipher it.

The talking image of the beast.

It is difficult to understand the meaning of the words about the false prophet: “And it was given to him to put breath into the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should speak and act, so that everyone who would not worship the image of the beast would be killed” (Rev. 13:15). The reason for this allegory could have been the demand of Antiochus Epiphanes that the Jews bow to the statue of Jupiter, which he erected in the Temple of Jerusalem. Later, Emperor Domitian demanded that all inhabitants of the Roman Empire bow to his image. Domitian was the first emperor to demand divine veneration during his lifetime and to be called “our lord and god.” Sometimes, for a greater impression, priests were hidden behind the statues of the emperor, who spoke from there on his behalf. Christians who did not bow to the image of Domitian were ordered to be executed, and those who bowed to be given gifts. Maybe in the prophecy of the Apocalypse we are talking about some kind of device like a television that will transmit the image of the Antichrist and at the same time monitor how people react to it. In any case, in our time, movies and television are widely used to instill anti-Christian ideas, to accustom people to cruelty and vulgarity. Daily indiscriminate watching of TV kills the good and holy in a person. Isn't television the forerunner of the talking image of the beast?

Seven bowls.

Strengthening the atheistic power.

Judgment of sinners (chap. 15-17).

In this part of the Apocalypse, the seer describes the kingdom of the beast, which has reached its apogee of power and control over people's lives. Apostasy from the true faith covers almost all of humanity, and the Church reaches extreme exhaustion: “And it was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them” (Rev. 13:7). To encourage the believers who remained faithful to Christ, the Apostle John raises their gaze to the heavenly world and shows a great host of righteous people who, like the Israelites who escaped from Pharaoh under Moses, sing a song of victory (Exodus 14-15 ch.).

But just as the power of the pharaohs came to an end, the days of anti-Christian power are numbered. Next chapters (16-20 chapters). in bright strokes they depict God's judgment over those who fight against God. The defeat of nature in the 16th chapter. similar to the description in the 8th chapter, but here it reaches worldwide proportions and makes a terrifying impression. (As before, obviously, the destruction of nature is carried out by people themselves - wars and industrial waste). The increased heat from the sun that people are suffering from may be due to the destruction of ozone in the stratosphere and an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. According to the Savior’s prediction, in the last year before the end of the world, living conditions would become so unbearable that “if God had not shortened those days, no flesh would have been saved” (Matt. 24:22).

The description of judgment and punishment in chapters 16-20 of the Apocalypse follows the order of increasing guilt of the enemies of God: first, the people who received the mark of the beast and the capital of the anti-Christian empire, “Babylon,” are punished, then the Antichrist and the false prophet, and finally the devil.

The story of the defeat of Babylon is given twice: first in general terms at the end of the 16th chapter, and in more detail in chapters 18-19. Babylon is depicted as a harlot sitting on a beast. The name Babylon is reminiscent of Chaldean Babylon, in which the atheistic power was concentrated in Old Testament times. (Chaldean troops destroyed ancient Jerusalem in 586 BC). Describing the luxury of a “harlot,” the Apostle John had in mind rich Rome with its port city. But many features of apocalyptic Babylon do not apply to ancient Rome and, obviously, refer to the capital of the Antichrist.

Equally mysterious is the angel's explanation at the end of chapter 17 about the “mystery of Babylon” in detail relating to the Antichrist and his kingdom. These details will probably be understood in the future when the time comes. Some allegories are taken from the description of Rome, which stood on seven hills, and its godless emperors. “Five kings (the heads of the beast) fell” - these are the first five Roman emperors - from Julius Caesar to Claudius. The sixth head is Nero, the seventh is Vespasian. “And the beast that was and is not, is the eighth, and (he is) from among the seven” - this is Domitian, the revived Nero in the popular imagination. He is the Antichrist of the first century. But, probably, the symbolism of the 17th chapter will receive a new explanation during the time of the last Antichrist.

Comments on Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION TO THE REVELATION OF JOHN

A BOOK THAT STANDS ALONE

When a person studies the New Testament and begins Revelation, he feels transported to another world. This book is not at all like the other books of the New Testament. Revelation is not only different from other New Testament books, it is also extremely difficult for modern people to understand, and therefore it has often been either ignored as incomprehensible scripture, or religious madmen have turned it into a battlefield, using it to compile heavenly chronological tables and graphs of what will happen when.

But, on the other hand, there have always been those who loved this book. Philip Carrington, for example, said: "The author of Revelation is a greater master and artist than Stevenson, Coleridge or Bach. John the Evangelist has a better sense of words than Stevenson; he has a better sense of unearthly, supernatural beauty than Coleridge; he has a richer sense melody, rhythm and composition than Bach... It is the only masterpiece of pure art in the New Testament... Its fullness, richness and harmonic variety place it above Greek tragedy."

We will undoubtedly find that this is a difficult and shocking book; but, at the same time, it is highly advisable to study it until it gives us its blessing and reveals its riches.

APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE

When studying Revelation, we must remember that, for all its uniqueness in the New Testament, it is nevertheless representative of the most widespread literary genre in the era between the Old and New Testaments. Revelation is usually called Apocalypse(from the Greek word apocalypse, meaning revelation). In the era between the Old and New Testaments, a huge mass of so-called apocalyptic literature, the product of an irresistible Jewish hope.

The Jews could not forget that they were the chosen people of God. This gave them confidence that they would one day achieve world domination. In their history, they were waiting for the arrival of a king from the line of David, who would unite the people and lead them to greatness. "A branch will arise from the root of Jesse" (Isa. 11:1.10). God will restore to David the righteous Branch (Jer. 23.5). One day the people “will serve the Lord their God and David their king.” (Jer. 30:9). David will be their shepherd and their king (Ezek.34:23; 37:24). The Tabernacle of David will be rebuilt (Amos 9:11). From Bethlehem will come a Ruler in Israel, whose origin is from the beginning, from the days of eternity, who will be great to the ends of the earth (Mic. 5:2-4).

But the entire history of Israel has not fulfilled these hopes. After the death of King Solomon, the kingdom, already small in itself, split in two under Rehoboam and Jeroboam and lost its unity. The northern kingdom, with its capital in Samaria, fell in the last quarter of the eighth century BC under the blows of Assyria, disappeared from the pages of history forever, and is known today under the name of the ten lost tribes. The southern kingdom, with its capital Jerusalem, was enslaved and taken away by the Babylonians at the beginning of the sixth century BC. Later it was dependent on the Persians, Greeks and Romans. The history of Israel was a record of defeats, from which it became clear that no mortal could deliver or save her.

TWO CENTURIES

The Jewish worldview stubbornly clung to the idea of ​​​​the chosenness of the Jews, but gradually the Jews had to adapt to the facts of history. To do this, they developed their own history scheme. They divided all history into two centuries: present century, completely vicious, hopelessly lost. Only complete destruction awaits him. And so the Jews waited for his end. Moreover, they expected the coming century, which was, in their minds, to be excellent, the Golden Age of God, in which there would be peace, prosperity and righteousness, and God's chosen people would be rewarded and take their rightful place.

How should this present age become the age to come? The Jews believed that this change could not be accomplished by human forces and therefore they expected the direct intervention of God. He will burst upon the stage of history in great force to completely destroy and destroy this world and introduce His golden time. They called the day of God's coming Lord's Day and it was to be a terrible time of horror, destruction and judgment, and at the same time it was to be the painful beginning of a new age.

All apocalyptic literature covered these events: the sin of the present age, the horrors of the transitional time and the bliss in the future. All apocalyptic literature was inevitably mysterious. She invariably tries to describe the indescribable, express the inexpressible, depict the indescribable.

And all this is complicated by another fact: these apocalyptic visions flashed even brighter in the minds of people living under tyranny and oppression. The more the alien force suppressed them, the more they dreamed of the destruction and destruction of this force and of their justification. But if the oppressors realized the existence of this dream, things would get even worse. These writings would seem to them to be the work of rebellious revolutionaries, and therefore they were often written in code, deliberately presented in a language incomprehensible to outsiders, and many remained incomprehensible because there was no key to decipher them. But the more we know about the historical background of these writings, the better we can discover their intent.

REVELATION

Revelation is the Christian apocalypse, the only one in the New Testament, although there were many others that were not included in the New Testament. It is written on the Jewish model and preserves the basic Jewish concept of the two periods. The only difference is that the Day of the Lord is replaced by the coming of Jesus Christ in power and glory. Not only the outline of the book itself is identical, but also the details. Jewish apocalypses are characterized by a standard set of events that were supposed to happen in the last times; all of them were reflected in Revelation.

Before moving on to consider these events, we need to understand one more problem. AND apocalypses And prophecies relate to future events. What is the difference between them?

APOCALYPSE AND PROPHECY

1. The Prophet thought in terms of this world. His message often contained protest against social, economic and political injustice and always called for obedience and service to God in this world. The Prophet sought to transform this world and believed that the Kingdom of God would come in it. They said that the prophet believed in history. He believed that in history and in the events of history the ultimate purposes of God are realized. In a sense, the prophet was an optimist, for, no matter how severely he condemned the actual state of things, he believed that everything could be corrected if people would do the will of God. In the minds of the author of apocalyptic books, this world was already incorrigible. He believed not in the transformation, but in the destruction of this world, and expected the creation of a new world after this one had been shaken to its foundations by the vengeance of God. And therefore the author of apocalyptic books was, in a sense, a pessimist, because he did not believe in the possibility of correcting the existing state of affairs. True, he believed in the advent of the Golden Age, but only after this world was destroyed.

2. The prophet proclaimed his message orally; The message of the author of apocalyptic books was always expressed in written form, and it constitutes a literary work. If it were expressed orally, people simply would not understand it. It is difficult to understand, confusing, often incomprehensible, it needs to be delved into, it needs to be carefully disassembled in order to understand.

MANDATORY ELEMENTS OF APOCALYPSE

Apocalyptic literature is created according to a certain pattern: it seeks to describe what will happen in the last times and beyond bliss; and these pictures appear in apocalypses again and again. She dealt with the same issues over and over again, so to speak, and they all found their way into our Book of Revelation.

1. In apocalyptic literature, the Messiah is Divine, Redeemer, strong and glorious, waiting for His hour to descend into the world and begin his all-conquering activity. He was in heaven before the creation of the world, sun and stars, and is in the presence of the Almighty (En. 48.3.6; 62.7; 4 Esdras. 13.25.26). He will come to throw down the mighty from their places, the kings of the earth from their thrones, and to judge sinners (En. 42.2-6; 48.2-9; 62.5-9; 69.26-29). In the apocalyptic books there was nothing human and soft in the image of the Messiah; He was a Divine figure of vengeful power and glory, before whom the earth trembled in horror.

2. The coming of the Messiah was to occur after the return of Elijah, who would prepare the way for Him (Mal. 4,5.6). Elijah will appear on the hills of Israel, the rabbis asserted, and with a loud voice, heard from one end to the other, will announce the coming of the Messiah.

3. The terrible end times were known as the “birth pangs of the Messiah.” The coming of the Messiah should be like birth pangs. In the Gospels, Jesus predicts a sign of the last days and the following words are put into His mouth: “Yet this is the beginning of diseases.” (Matt. 24:8; Mark 13:8). In Greek illness - one what does it literally mean birth pains.

4. The end times will be a time of horror. Then even the bravest will cry out bitterly (Zeph. 1:14); all the inhabitants of the earth will tremble (Joel 2:1); people will be gripped by fear, will look for a place to hide and will not find it (En. 102,1.3).

5. The end times will be a time when the world will be shaken, a time of cosmic upheaval, when the universe as men know it will be destroyed; the stars will be destroyed, the sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood (Isa. 13:10; Joel. 2:30.31; 3:15); the vault of heaven will be destroyed; there will be a furious rain of fire and all creation will turn into a molten mass (Siv. 3:83-89). The order of the seasons will be disrupted, there will be neither night nor dawn (Siv. 3,796-800).

6. In the last times, human relations will be disrupted, hatred and enmity will rule the world, and everyone’s hand will rise against the hand of his neighbor (Zech. 14:13). Brothers will kill brothers, parents will kill their children, from dawn to sunset they will kill each other (En. 100,1.2). Honor will be turned into shame, strength into humiliation, beauty into ugliness. The humble will become envious and passion will take possession of the man who was once peaceful ((2 Var. 48.31-37).

7. The end times will be the days of judgment. God will come like a purifying fire and who will stand when He appears? (Mal. 3.1-3)? The Lord will bring judgment on all flesh with fire and sword (Isa. 66:15.16).

8. In all these visions, the pagans are also given a certain, but not always the same place.

a) Sometimes they see the pagans completely destroyed. Babylon will come to such desolation that there, among the ruins, there will be no place for a wandering Arab to pitch a tent, or for a shepherd to graze his sheep; it will be a desert inhabited by wild beasts (Isa. 13:19-22). God trampled the pagans in His wrath (Isa. 63.6); they will come in chains to Israel (Isa. 45:14).

b) Sometimes they see how the pagans gather for the last time against Israel against Jerusalem and for the last battle, in which they will be destroyed (Ezek. 38:14-39,16; Zech. 14:1-11). The kings of nations will attack Jerusalem, they will try to destroy the shrines of God, they will place their thrones around the city and with them their unbelieving peoples, but all this is only for their final destruction (Siv. 3,663-672).

c) Sometimes they paint a picture of the conversion of the Gentiles by Israel. God made Israel the light of the nations so that God's salvation would reach to the ends of the earth (Isa. 49:6). The islands will trust in God (Isa. 51.5); the survivors of the nations will be called to come to God and be saved (Isa. 45:20-22). The Son of Man will be a light to the Gentiles (En. 48.4.5). Nations will come from the ends of the earth to Jerusalem to see the glory of God.

9. The Jews scattered throughout the world will in the last times be gathered again in the Holy City; they will come from Assyria and Egypt and worship God on the holy mountain (Isa. 27:12.13). Even those who died as exiles in a foreign land will be brought back.

10. In the last times, the New Jerusalem that existed there from the beginning will come down to earth from heaven. (4 Esdras 10:44-59; 2 Var 4:2-6) and will dwell among men. It will be a beautiful city: its foundations will be of sapphires, its towers will be of agates and its gates will be of pearls, and its fence will be of precious stones. (Isa. 54:12.13; Tov. 13:16.17). The glory of the last temple will be greater than the former (Hagg. 2.7-9).

11. An important part of the end-time apocalyptic picture was the resurrection of the dead. "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awaken, some to everlasting life, others to everlasting contempt and disgrace. (Dan. 12:2.3). Sheol and the graves will return those who were entrusted to them (En. 51.1). The number of those resurrected varies: sometimes it applied only to the righteous of Israel, sometimes to all of Israel, and sometimes to all people in general. Whatever form it took, it is fair to say that here the hope that there would be life beyond the grave first arose.

12. In Revelation, the view is expressed that the Kingdom of the Saints will last a thousand years, after which there will be a final battle with the forces of evil, and then the Golden Age of God.

BLESSES OF THE COMING AGE

1. The divided kingdom will be united again. The house of Judah will come again to the house of Israel (Jer. 3:18; Isa. 11:13; Hos. 1:11). The old divisions will be eliminated and God's people will be united.

2. The fields in this world will be unusually fertile. The desert will become a garden (Isa. 32:15), it will become like heaven (Isa. 51.3);"The desert and the dry land will rejoice, ... and blossom like a daffodil" (Isa. 35:1).

3. In all visions of the new age, a constant element was the end of all wars. Swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks (Isa. 2:4). There will be no sword, no war trumpet. There will be one law for all people and great peace on earth, and kings will be friends (Siv. 3,751-760).

4. One of the most beautiful ideas expressed in connection with the new century is that there will be no enmity between animals or between man and animals. “Then the wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the lamb, and the young lion and the ox will be together, and a little child will lead them.” (Isa. 11:6-9; 65:25). A new alliance will be made between man and the beasts of the field (Hos. 2:18).“And the child will play in the nest of the asp (snake), and the child will stretch out his hand into the nest of the snake.” (Isa. 11:6-9; 2 Var. 73:6). Friendship will reign throughout nature, where no one will want to harm another.

5. The coming age will put an end to fatigue, sadness and suffering. People will no longer languish (Jer. 31:12), and eternal joy will be over their heads (Isa. 35:10). Then there will be no premature death (Isa. 65:20-22) and not one of the inhabitants will say: “I am sick” (Isa. 33:24)."Death will be swallowed up forever, and the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces..." (Isa. 25:8). Diseases, anxieties and lamentations will disappear, there will be no pain during childbirth, reapers will not get tired, builders will not be exhausted by work (2 Var. 73.2-74.4).

6. The age to come will be an age of righteousness. People will be completely holy. Humanity will be a good generation living in the fear of God V days of mercy (Psalms of Solomon 17:28-49; 18:9.10).

Revelation is the representative of all these apocalyptic books in the New Testament, telling of the horrors that will happen before the end of time, and of the blessings of the age to come; Revelation uses all these familiar visions. They will often present difficulties for us and will even be unintelligible, but, for the most part, pictures and ideas were used that were well known and understandable to those who read him.

AUTHOR OF REVELATION

1. Revelation was written by a man named John. From the very beginning he says that the vision he is about to recount was sent by God to His servant John (1,1). He begins the main part of the message with the words: John, to the seven churches in Asia (1:4). He speaks of himself as John, brother and partner in sorrow of those to whom he writes (1,9). “I am John,” he says, “I saw and heard this.” (22,8). 2. John was a Christian who lived in the same area in which the Christians of the seven churches lived. He calls himself the brother of those to whom he writes, and says that he shares with them the sorrows that have befallen them (1:9).

3. Most likely, he was a Palestinian Jew who came to Asia Minor in old age. This conclusion can be drawn if we take into account his Greek language - lively, strong and imaginative, but, from the point of view of grammar, the worst in the New Testament. It is quite obvious that Greek is not his native language; it is often clear that he writes in Greek but thinks in Hebrew. He immersed himself in the Old Testament. He quotes it or alludes to relevant passages 245 times; quotations are taken from almost twenty books of the Old Testament, but his favorite books are the Books of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Psalms, Exodus, Jeremiah and Zechariah. But he not only knows the Old Testament very well, he is also familiar with the apocalyptic literature that arose in the era between the Old and New Testaments.

4. He considers himself a prophet, and on this he bases his right to speak. The Risen Christ commanded him to prophesy (10,11); It is through the spirit of prophecy that Jesus gives His prophecies to the Church (19,10). The Lord God is the God of the holy prophets and He sends His angels to show His servants what is about to happen in the world (22,9). His book is a typical book of the prophets, containing prophetic words (22,7.10.18.19).

John bases his authority on this. He does not call himself an apostle, as Paul does, wanting to emphasize his right to speak. John has no “official” or administrative position in the Church; he is a prophet. He writes what he sees, and because everything he sees comes from God, his word is truthful and true (1,11.19).

At the time when John wrote - somewhere around 90 - prophets occupied a special place in the Church. At that time there were two types of shepherds in the Church. Firstly, there was a local pastorate - it lived settled in one community: presbyters (elders), deacons and teachers. Secondly, there was an itinerant ministry, the scope of which was not limited to any particular community; this included the apostles, whose messages were spread throughout the Church, and the prophets, who were itinerant preachers. Prophets were greatly respected; to question the words of a true prophet was to sin against the Holy Spirit, says the Didache,"The Teachings of the Twelve Apostles" (11:7). IN Didache the accepted order for administering the Lord's Supper is given, and at the end the sentence is added: “Let the prophets give thanks as much as they want” ( 10,7 ). Prophets were looked upon solely as men of God, and John was a prophet.

5. It is unlikely that he was an apostle, otherwise he would hardly have emphasized that he was a prophet. John looks back to the apostles as the great foundations of the Church. He speaks of the twelve foundations of the wall of the Holy City, and further: “and on them are the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.” (21,14). He would hardly have spoken about the apostles like that if he had been one of them.

Such considerations are further confirmed by the title of the book. Most translations of the book's title read: Revelation of Saint John the Theologian. But in some recent English translations the title reads: Revelation of Saint John, A Theologian omitted because it is absent from most of the oldest Greek lists, although it generally goes back to ancient times. In Greek it is theologos and used here in the meaning theologian, not in meaning saint. This very addition should have distinguished John, the author of Revelation, from John the Apostle.

Already in 250, Dionysius, a major theologian and leader of the Christian school in Alexandria, understood that it was extremely unlikely that the same person wrote both the fourth Gospel and Revelation, if only because their Greek languages ​​were so different. The Greek of the Fourth Gospel is simple and correct, the Greek of Revelation is rough and bright, but very irregular. Further, the author of the fourth Gospel avoids mentioning his name, but John, the author of Revelation, mentions him repeatedly. In addition, the ideas of both books are completely different. The great ideas of the fourth gospel - light, life, truth and grace - do not occupy the main place in Revelation. However, at the same time, in both books there are enough similar passages both in thoughts and in language, which clearly shows that they come from the same center and from the same world of ideas.

Elisabeth Schüsler-Fiorenza, an expert on Revelation, recently found that, “from the last quarter of the second century until the beginning of modern critical theology, it was widely believed that both books (the Gospel of John and Revelation) were written by an apostle” (“The Book of Revelation” . Justice and punishment of God", 1985, p. 86). Such external, objective evidence was required by theologians because the internal evidence lying in the books themselves (style, words, statements of the author about his rights) did not seem to speak in favor of the fact that their author was the Apostle John. Theologians who defend the authorship of the Apostle John explain the differences between the Gospel of John and Revelation in the following ways:

a) They indicate the difference in the spheres of these books. One talks about the earthly life of Jesus, while the other talks about the revelation of the Risen Lord.

b) They believe that there is a large interval of time between their writing.

c) They claim that the theology of one complements the theology of the other and together they constitute a complete theology.

d) They suggest that the language and linguistic differences are explained by the fact that the recording and revision of the texts was carried out by different secretaries. Adolf Pohl states that sometime around 170, a small group in the Church deliberately introduced a false author (Cerinthus) because they did not like the theology of Revelation and found it easier to criticize a less authoritative author than the Apostle John.

TIME OF WRITING REVELATION

There are two sources for establishing the time of its writing.

1. On the one hand - church traditions. They point out that during the era of the Roman emperor Domitian, John was exiled to the island of Patmos, where he had a vision; after the death of Emperor Domitian, he was released and returned to Ephesus, where he enrolled. Victorinus wrote sometime at the end of the third century in a commentary on Revelation: "When John saw all this, he was on the island of Patmos, condemned by the emperor Domitian to work in the mines. There he saw the revelation... When he was subsequently released from work in the mines, he wrote down this revelation he received from God." Jerome of Dalmatia dwells on this in more detail: “In the fourteenth year after the persecution of Nero, John was exiled to the island of Patmos and wrote the Revelation there... After the death of Domitian and the repeal of his decrees by the Senate, due to their extreme cruelty, he returned to Ephesus, when the emperor was Nerva." The Church historian Eusebius wrote: “The apostle and evangelist John related these things to the church when he returned from exile on the island after the death of Domitian.” According to legend, it is clear that John had visions during his exile on the island of Patmos; one thing is not completely established - and it does not really matter - whether he wrote them down during his exile, or upon his return to Ephesus. With this in mind, it would not be wrong to say that Revelation was written around the year 95.

2. The second evidence is the material of the book itself. In it we find a completely new attitude towards Rome and the Roman Empire.

As follows from the Acts of the Holy Apostles, Roman courts were often the most reliable protection for Christian missionaries from the hatred of Jews and angry crowds of people. Paul was proud to be a Roman citizen and repeatedly demanded for himself the rights that were guaranteed to every Roman citizen. In Philippi, Paul frightened the administration by declaring that he was a Roman citizen (Acts 16:36-40). In Corinth, the consul Gallio treated Paul fairly, according to Roman law. (Acts 18:1-17). In Ephesus, the Roman authorities ensured his safety against the rioting crowd. (Acts 19:13-41). In Jerusalem, the captain saved Paul, one might say, from lynching (Acts 21:30-40). When the commander heard that an attempt was being made on Paul's life during the transition to Caesarea, he took all measures to ensure his safety (Acts 23,12-31).

Desperate to achieve justice in Palestine, Paul exercised his right as a Roman citizen and complained directly to the emperor (Acts 25:10.11). In the Epistle to the Romans, Paul urges his readers to be submissive to the authorities, for authorities are from God, and they are terrible not for good, but for evil. (Rom. 13.1-7). Peter gives the same advice to be submissive to authorities, kings, and rulers because they are doing the will of God. Christians should fear God and honor the king (1 Pet. 2:12-17). It is believed that in the Epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul points to the power of Rome as the only force capable of containing the chaos that threatens the world (2 Thess. 2:7).

In Revelation, only one irreconcilable hatred of Rome is visible. Rome is Babylon, mother of harlots, intoxicated with the blood of saints and martyrs (Rev. 17:5.6). John expects only his final destruction.

The explanation for this change lies in the widespread worship of the Roman emperors, which, combined with the accompanying persecution of Christians, is the background against which Revelation is written.

At the time of Revelation, the cult of Caesar was the only universal religion of the Roman Empire, and Christians were persecuted and executed precisely for their refusal to comply with its demands. According to this religion, the Roman emperor, who embodied the spirit of Rome, was divine. Every person had to appear before the local administration once a year and burn a pinch of incense to the divine emperor and proclaim: “Caesar is Lord.” Having done this, a person could go and worship any other god or goddess, as long as such worship did not violate the rules of decency and order; but he had to perform this ceremony of worshiping the emperor.

The reason was simple. Rome was now a diverse empire, stretching from one end of the known world to the other, with many languages, races and traditions. Rome was faced with the task of uniting this heterogeneous mass into a unity that had some kind of common consciousness. The strongest unifying force is a common religion, but none of the then popular religions could become universal, but the veneration of the deified Roman emperor could. It was the only cult that could unite the empire. To refuse to burn a pinch of incense and to say, “Caesar is Lord,” was not an act of unbelief, but an act of disloyalty; that is why the Romans treated so cruelly a person who refused to say: “Caesar is Lord,” and not a single Christian could say Lord anyone other than Jesus, because that was the essence of his creed.

Let's see how this worship of Caesar developed and why it reached its apogee in the era of the writing of Revelation.

One very important fact should be noted. The veneration of Caesar was not imposed on people from above. It arose among the people, one might even say, despite all the attempts of the first emperors to stop, or at least limit it. It should also be noted that of all the peoples inhabiting the empire, only the Jews were exempt from this cult.

The worship of Caesar began as a spontaneous outburst of gratitude to Rome. The peoples in the provinces knew well what they owed to him. Imperial Roman law and legal proceedings replaced arbitrary and tyrannical arbitrariness. Security has replaced dangerous situations. The great Roman roads connected different parts of the world; the roads and seas were free from robbers and pirates. The Roman world was the greatest achievement of the ancient world. As the great Roman poet Virgil put it, Rome saw its purpose as “spare the fallen and overthrow the proud.” Life has found a new order. Goodspeed wrote about it this way: "This was package of the novel. The provincials could, under Roman rule, conduct their affairs, provide for their families, send letters, and travel in safety thanks to the strong hand of Rome."

The cult of Caesar did not begin with the deification of the emperor. It began with the deification of Rome. The spirit of the empire was deified in a goddess called Roma. Roma symbolized the powerful and benevolent force of the empire. The first temple to Rome was erected in Smyrna back in 195 BC. It was not difficult to imagine the spirit of Rome embodied in one person - the emperor. Worship of the emperor began with Julius Caesar after his death. In 29 BC, Emperor Augustus granted the provinces of Asia and Bithynia the right to erect temples in Ephesus and Nicaea for the general worship of the goddess Roma and the already deified Julius Caesar. Roman citizens were encouraged and even exhorted to worship at these sanctuaries. Then the next step was taken: Emperor Augustus gave the inhabitants of the provinces, Not who had Roman citizenship, the right to erect temples in Pergamum in Asia and Nicomedia in Bithynia for the worship of the goddess Roma and to myself. At first, worship of the reigning emperor was considered acceptable for residents of the province who did not have Roman citizenship, but not for those who had citizenship.

This had inevitable consequences. It is human nature to worship a god who can be seen, rather than a spirit, and gradually people began to worship the emperor himself more, instead of the goddess Roma. At that time, special permission from the Senate was still needed to build a temple in honor of the reigning emperor, but by the middle of the first century this permission was increasingly granted. The cult of the emperor became the universal religion of the Roman Empire. A caste of priests arose and worship was organized in presbyteries, the representatives of which were accorded the highest honor.

This cult did not at all seek to completely replace other religions. Rome was generally very tolerant in this regard. Man could honor Caesar And their god, but over time, the veneration of Caesar increasingly became a test of trustworthiness; it became, as someone put it, a recognition of the dominion of Caesar over the life and soul of man. Let us trace the development of this cult before the writing of Revelation and immediately after that.

1. Emperor Augustus, who died in 14, allowed the worship of Julius Caesar, his great predecessor. He allowed the inhabitants of the provinces, who did not have Roman citizenship, to worship themselves, but forbade this to his Roman citizens. Note that he did not show any violent measures in this.

2. Emperor Tiberius (14-37) could not stop the cult of Caesar; but he forbade the building of temples and the appointment of priests to establish his cult, and in a letter to the city of Giton in Laconia he decisively refused all divine honors for himself. He not only did not encourage the cult of Caesar, but also discouraged it.

3. The next emperor Caligula (37-41) - an epileptic and a madman with delusions of grandeur, insisted on divine honors for himself, tried to impose the cult of Caesar even on the Jews, who had always been and remained an exception in this regard. He intended to place his image in the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem Temple, which would certainly lead to outrage and rebellion. Fortunately, he died before he could carry out his intentions. But during his reign, worship of Caesar became a requirement throughout the empire.

4. Caligula was replaced by Emperor Claudius (41-54), who completely changed the perverted policy of his predecessor. He wrote to the ruler of Egypt - about a million Jews lived in Alexandria - fully approving of the Jews' refusal to call the emperor a god and giving them complete freedom in the conduct of their worship. Having ascended the throne, Claudius wrote to Alexandria: “I forbid the appointment of me as a high priest and the erection of temples, because I do not want to act against my contemporaries, and I believe that sacred temples and all that in all ages have been attributes of the immortal gods, as well as the special accord given to them honor".

5. Emperor Nero (54-68) did not take his divinity seriously and did nothing to consolidate the cult of Caesar. He, however, persecuted Christians, but not because they did not respect him as a god, but because he needed scapegoats for the great fire of Rome.

6. After the death of Nero, three emperors were replaced in eighteen months: Galba, Otto and Vitelius; With such confusion, the question of the cult of Caesar did not arise at all.

7. The next two emperors - Vespasian (69-79) and Titus (79-81) were wise rulers who did not insist on the cult of Caesar.

8. Everything changed radically with the coming to power of Emperor Domitian (81-96). It was like he was the devil. He was the worst of all - a cold-blooded persecutor. With the exception of Caligula, he was the only emperor who took his divinity seriously and demanding observance of the cult of Caesar. The difference was that Caligula was a mad Satan, and Domitian was mentally healthy, which is much more terrible. He erected a monument to “the divine Titus, son of the divine Vespasian,” and began a campaign of severe persecution of everyone who did not worship the ancient gods - he called them atheists. He especially hated Jews and Christians. When he appeared with his wife at the theater, the crowd must have shouted: “Everyone salutes our master and our lady!” Domitian proclaimed himself a god, informed all provincial rulers that all government messages and announcements should begin with the words: “Our Lord and God Domitian commands...” Any appeal to him - written or oral - had to begin with the words: “Lord and God".

This is the background of Revelation. Throughout the empire, men and women had to call Domitian a god, or die. The cult of Caesar was a deliberately implemented policy. Everyone was supposed to say: “The Emperor is Lord.” There was no other way out.

What could Christians do? What could they hope for? There were not many wise and powerful among them. They had neither influence nor prestige. The power of Rome rose up against them, which no people could resist. Christians were faced with a choice: Caesar or Christ. Revelation was written to inspire people in such difficult times. John did not close his eyes to the horrors; he saw terrible things, he saw even more terrible things ahead, but above all this he saw the glory that awaits the one who refuses Caesar for the love of Christ.

Revelation appeared during one of the most heroic eras in the entire history of the Christian Church. Domitian's successor, Emperor Nerva (96-98), however, abolished the wild laws, but they had already caused irreparable damage: Christians found themselves outside the law, and Revelation turned out to be the trumpet call that called for remaining faithful to Christ until death in order to receive the crown of life .

A BOOK WORTH STUDYING

We cannot close our eyes to the difficulties of Revelation: it is the most difficult book of the Bible, but its study is extremely useful because it contains the burning faith of the Christian Church in an era when life was pure agony, and people were waiting for the end of the heaven and earth they knew, but still They believed that behind the horrors and human rage is the glory and power of God.

GOD'S REVELATION TO MEN (Rev. 1:1-3)

This book is sometimes called Revelation and sometimes - Apocalypse. It begins with the words: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ,” which does not mean revelation about Jesus Christ, and the revelation given Jesus Christ. Revelation - in Greek apocalypse, and this word has its own history.

1. Apocalypse consists of two words: apo, What means away from And calupsis - cover, and that's why apocalypse Means unveiling, revelation. Initially, this word was not strictly religious, but simply meant the exposure of some fact. The Greek historian Plutarch uses this word very interestingly (“How to distinguish a flatterer from a friend,” 32). He talks about how Pythagoras once publicly reprimanded one of his devoted students, and how this young man went and hanged himself. “From then on, Pythagoras never again instructed anyone in front of strangers, because mistakes must be treated in the same way as an infectious disease and any instruction and clarification (apocalupsis) must be done in secret." But then apocalypse became an exclusively Christian word.

2. It is used to reveal the will of God for the direction of our actions. So Paul says that he came to Jerusalem by revelation (apocalupse). He went because God told him that's what he wanted him to do. (Gal. 2:2).

3. It is used to reveal the truth of God to people. The gospel that Paul preached, he received not from man, but through revelation (apocalupse) Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:12). The message of the preacher in the Christian congregation - revelation (1 Cor. 14:6).

4. It is also used to reveal God’s hidden secrets to people, especially in the incarnation of Jesus Christ (Rom. 14:24; Eph. 3:3).

5. It is especially used to designate the revelation of the power and holiness of God which is to come in the last days; this will be the revelation of righteous judgment (Rom. 2.5); for Christians this will be a revelation “to praise, honor and glory” (1 Pet. 1:7), grace (1 Pet. 1:13), joy (1 Pet. 4:13).

Before turning to the more specific use of the word apocalypse, Two facts should be noted.

1. Revelation is connected in a special way with the activity of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:17).

2. It should be understood that here we have before us an image of the entire Christian life, because there is no part of it that would not be illuminated by the revelation of God. God reveals to us what we ought to do and say; in Jesus Christ He reveals Himself to us, for whoever has seen Jesus has seen the Father (John 14:9), and life moves toward the final and final revelation, in which there will be judgment for those who have disobeyed God, and grace, glory, and joy for those who abide in Jesus Christ. Revelation is not a specifically theological idea; this is what God offers to anyone who is willing to listen.

Now let's turn to the specific meaning of the word apocalypse, which is directly related to this book.

The Jews had long ceased to hope that they could, on their own, receive the reward due to them as the chosen people, and therefore hoped for the direct intervention of God. To do this, they divided all time into two centuries - into present century, subject to vice, and on the coming century, which is God's age. And in between there is a time of great tribulation. In the era between the Old and New Testaments, the Jews wrote many books that presented visions of the terrible end times and the bliss that would follow. These books were called apocalypses; Revelation is such a book. Although there is nothing else like it in the New Testament, it belongs to a literary genre typical of the era between the Old and New Testaments. There was something wild and incomprehensible in these books, because they try to describe the indescribable. Revelation is so difficult to understand precisely because of the subject and topic it deals with.

THE MEANS OF GOD'S REVELATION (Rev. 1:1-3 continued)

This passage briefly shows how the revelation reached the people.

1. Revelation comes from God, the source of all truth. Every truth discovered by people contains two elements: it is a discovery of the human mind and a gift from God. However, it is important to remember that a person will never creates truth, and receives it is from God. We should also remember that he receives it in two ways. A person comprehends it as a result serious searches. God gave man reason and therefore He often speaks to us through our mind. Of course, He does not trust the truth to anyone who is too lazy to think about it. It is realized as a result reverent anticipation. God gives His truth to those who not only think intensely about it, but also quietly await its revelation in prayer and devotion. But again we must remember that prayer and devotion to God are not a purely passive activity, but reverent listening to the voice of God.

2. God gave His revelation to Jesus Christ. The Bible does not make Jesus into a second God; rather, on the contrary, it emphasizes His absolute dependence on God. “My teaching,” said Jesus, “is not Mine, but of Him who sent Me.” (John 7:16).“I... do nothing of Myself, but as My Father taught Me, so I speak.” (John 8:28).“For I spoke not of Myself, but the Father who sent Me gave Me a commandment, what to say and what to say.” (John 12:49). Jesus proclaims God's truth to people and that is why His teaching is unique and final.

3. Jesus gave this truth to John through His Angel (Rev. 1:1). Therefore, the author of Revelation is a child of his time. During that period of history, the transcendence (unknowability) of God was especially realized. In other words, they were greatly impressed by the difference between God and man, so much so that they considered direct communication between God and man impossible, and that intermediaries were always necessary for this. In the Old Testament, Moses received the law directly from the hands of God (Ex. 19 and 20), and the New Testament twice says that the law was made through the ministry of angels (Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19).

4. Finally, revelation is given to John. There is something sublime in thinking about the role people play in the process of communicating God's revelation. God needed to find someone whom He could trust with His truth and whom He could use as His mouthpiece.

5. It should be noted content revelation given to John. This is the revelation “what must soon be” (1:1). There are two important words here: first, proper. Let us note that there is nothing accidental in history; it has its own purpose. Secondly, soon. This serves as proof that it would be wrong to use Revelation as some kind of mysterious table of future events that may take place in a thousand years. In John's view, what is spoken of in Revelation must happen immediately. And therefore Revelation must be interpreted in the context of that time.

Servants of GOD (Rev. 1:1-3 (continued))

Word slave used twice in this passage. God gave revelation slaves Yours through slave His John. In Greek it is doulos, A in Hebrew - ebedh. Both words are difficult to translate. Usually doulos translated as slave. A true servant of God is, in fact, His slave. The servant can quit whenever he pleases; he has set hours of work and rest; he works for a certain fee, has his own opinion and can bargain when and for how much he will work. The slave is deprived of this; he is the complete property of his master, and has neither his own will nor his own time. Words doulos And ebedh indicate how absolute our submission to God should be.

It is very interesting to note to whom these words refer in Scripture.

Abraham - servant of God (Gen. 26.24). Moses - servant of God (2 Chron. 24.6; Neh. 1.7; 10.29; Ps. 104.26; Dan. 9.11). Jacob - servant of God (Isa. 44:1.2; 45:4; Ezek. 37:25). Caleb and Joshua - servants of God (Num. 14.24; Joshua 24.29; Judg. 2.8). After Moses, David is most often called the servant of God. (1 Kings 8.66; 11.36; 2 Kings 19.34; 20.6; 1 Chronicles 17.4; Ps. 132.10; 144.10; in the titles to Ps. 17 and 35; Ps. 88.4; Ezekiel 34.24). Elijah - servant of God (2 Kings 9.36; 10.10). Isaiah - servant of God (Isa. 20:3); Job - servant of God (Job 1.8; 42.7). Prophets are servants of God (2 Kings 21:10; Amos 3:7). Apostles are servants of God (Phil. 1:1; Titus 1:1; James 1:1; Jude 1; Rom. 1:1; 2 Cor. 4:5). A man like Epaphras is a slave of Jesus Christ (Col. 4:12). All Christians are servants of Christ (Eph. 6:6). From this we can come to the following conclusions.

1. The greatest men considered it an honor to be servants of God.

2. It is interesting to note the extent of their ministry: Moses the lawgiver; brave wanderer Abraham; the shepherd boy David, the sweet singer of Israel and its king; Caleb and Joshua are warriors and active men; Elijah and Isaiah are prophets and men of God; Job - faithful and in trouble; the apostles who brought people the news about Jesus; every Christian - servant of God. God can use all who agree to serve Him.

BLESSED BY GOD (Rev. 1:1-3 continued)

This passage ends with three blessings.

1. Blessed is the man who reads these words. Reading - in this case it is not a person reading by himself, but who publicly reads the word of God in the presence of the entire community. The reading of Scripture was at the center of every service in the Jewish synagogue (Luke 4:16; Delhi 13:15). In the Jewish synagogue, the Scriptures were read to the community by seven ordinary members of the community, but if a priest or Levite was present, then the right of primacy belonged to him. The Christian Church borrowed much from the synagogue service order, and the reading of Scripture remained a central part of the service. The earliest description of a Christian church service is found in Justin Martyr; it included reading “the tales of the apostles (that is, the Gospels), and the writings of the prophets” (Justin Martyr: I, 67). With time reading became an official in the Church. Tertullian complains, among other things, that in heretical communities a person could too quickly obtain an official position without first receiving proper training for this. He writes: “And so it happens that today they have one bishop, and tomorrow another, today he is a deacon, and tomorrow he is a reader” (Tertullian, “On Prescription Against Heretics,” 41).

2. He who hears these words is blessed. We will do well if we remember how great the advantage is to hear the word of God in our own language, and this right is bought at a price. People died to give it to us; and the professional clergy for a long time tried to preserve the old languages, incomprehensible to the people, for themselves. However, to this day, every work is being done that offers people the Scriptures in their own language.

3. Blessed is the man who keeps these words. Hearing the word of God is a privilege; obeying Him is a duty. There is no genuine Christian feeling in anyone who hears the word and forgets or deliberately ignores them.

This is all the more important because the time is near (1,3). The early Church lived in a living expectation of the coming of Jesus Christ and this expectation was their sure hope in trouble and a constant warning sign. Regardless of this, no one knows when he will be called from the earth and, in order for him to meet God with hope, he needs to complement listening with obedience.

Revelation contains seven bliss.

1. Blessed are those of whom we have just spoken. Blessed are all those who read the Word, listen to it and obey it.

2. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord (14,13). This can be called the heavenly bliss of Christ's friends on earth.

3. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his clothes (16,15). This can be called the bliss of the waking wanderer.

4. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (19,9). This can be called the bliss of God's invited guests.

5. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection (20,6). This can be called the bliss of a person over whom the second death has no power.

6. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book (22,7). This can be called the blessedness of the wise man who reads the Word of God.

7. Blessed are those who keep His commandments (22,14). This can be called the bliss of those who listen and obey.

Such beatitudes are available to every Christian.

THE MESSAGE AND ITS PURPOSE (Rev. 1:4-6)

Revelation is a message written seven churches located in Asia. In the New Testament, Asia is not the continent of Asia, but a Roman province. This was once the kingdom of Attala the Third, who bequeathed it to Rome. It included the western Mediterranean coast of the Asia Minor peninsula with the regions of Phrygia, Mysia, Caria and Lycia; its capital was Pergamum.

Seven churches are listed in 1,11 - Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. Of course, there were not only these seven churches in Asia. There was a church at Colosse (Col. 1,2); in Hierapolis (Col. 4:13); in Troas (2 Cor. 2:12; Acts 20:5); in Milita (Acts 20:17); and in Magnesia and Tralles, as can be seen from the epistles of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch. Why did John choose only these seven? There could be several reasons for this.

1. These churches can be considered as the centers of seven postal districts, connected among themselves by a kind of ring road passing through the Province. Troas lay away from the road, and Hierapolis and Colossae were relatively close to Laodicea - they could be reached on foot; and Tralles, Magnesia and Mylitus were near Ephesus. The messages to these seven cities were easily distributed to the surrounding areas, and since each message was handwritten, they had to be sent where they would reach the largest number of people.

2. When reading Revelation, John's preference for the number seven is immediately revealed. It occurs fifty-four times: these are the seven golden lampstands (1,12); Seven Stars (1,16); seven fire lamps (4,5); seven seals (5,1); seven horns and seven eyes (5,6); seven thunders (10,3); seven angels, seven golden bowls and seven plagues (15,6. 7-8). In ancient times the number seven was considered perfect, and it runs throughout Revelation.

Some early commentators drew an interesting conclusion from this. Seven is a perfect number because it symbolizes completeness, completeness. And so they assumed that when John wrote seven to the churches he, in essence, wrote all Churches. The first official list of books of the New Testament in the Muratorium canon on Revelation says:

“For John also, although he writes in Revelation to the seven churches, yet addresses himself to all.” This is all the more likely if we remember how often John says: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (2,7.11.17.29; 3,6.13.22).

3. Although the reasons we have given for choosing these seven churches are justified, it may be that the real reason why he chose them was that he was especially respected there. They were, so to speak his church, and in addressing them he directed the Revelation first of all to those who knew him best and loved him best, and through them to every church in every generation.

BLESSINGS AND THEIR SOURCE (Rev. 1:4-6 continued)

John begins by conveying blessings from God to them.

He sends them grace, and that means all the undeserved gifts of God’s wonderful love. He sends them world, which one English theologian defined as, "the harmony restored between God and the man Christ."

John sends greetings from the One who is and who was and who is to come. Actually, this is the usual title of God. IN Ref. 3.14 God says to Moses: "I am the seven." The Jewish rabbis explained that God meant by this: “I was; I still exist and in the future I will be.” The Greeks said: "Zeus who was, Zeus who is and Zeus who will be." The followers of the Orphic religion said: “Zeus is the first and Zeus the last; Zeus is the head and Zeus is the middle, and everything came from Zeus.” All this got in Heb. 13.8 such a beautiful expression: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

During that terrible time, John remained unfailingly faithful to the idea of ​​the immutability of God.

SEVEN SPIRITS (Rev. 1:4-6 (continued))

Anyone who reads this passage should be surprised by the order of the persons of the Trinity given here. We say: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Here we are talking about the Father and Jesus Christ, the Son, and instead of the Holy Spirit - seven spirits before the throne. These seven spirits are mentioned more than once in Revelation (3,1; 4,5; 5,6). Three explanations have been given.

1. The Jews spoke of seven angels of the presence, whom they beautifully called "the first seven white ones" (1 En. 90.21). These were, as we call them, archangels and they "offer the prayers of the saints and ascend before the glory of the Holy One" (Tob. 12:15). They do not always have the same names, but they are often called Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Gabriel, Sarakiel (Sadakiel) and Jerimiel (Phanuel). They regulated the various elements of the earth - fire, air and water and were the guardian angels of the peoples. These were the most famous and closest servants of God. Some commentators believe that they are the seven spirits mentioned. But this is impossible; no matter how great these angels were, they were still created.

2. The second explanation is related to the famous passage from Is. 11.2-For:“And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and godliness, and will be filled with the fear of the Lord.” This passage provided the basis for a great concept seven gifts of the Spirit.

3. The third explanation connects the idea of ​​seven spirits with the fact of the existence of seven churches. IN Heb. 2.4 we read about the “dispensing of the Holy Spirit” according to His will. In the Greek expression translated into Russian by the word distribution, worth the word merismos, which means share, part, and seems to convey the idea that God gives each person a share of His Spirit. The idea here, then, was that these seven spirits symbolized the portions of the Spirit which God had given to each of the seven churches, and the meaning was that no Christian society was left without the presence, power, and sanctification of the Spirit.

NAMES OF JESUS ​​CHRIST (Rev. 1:4-6 (continued))

In this passage we see three great titles of Jesus Christ.

1. He is a faithful witness. This is one of the favorite ideas of the author of the fourth Gospel, that Jesus is a witness to the truth of God. Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, We speak of what we know and testify of what we see.” (John 3:11). Jesus said to Pontius Pilate: “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I came into the world, to testify to the truth.” (John 18:37). The witness speaks of what he saw with his own eyes. This is why Jesus is God's witness: He alone has first-hand knowledge about God.

2. He is the firstborn from the dead. Firstborn, in Greek prototokos, can have two meanings, a) It can literally mean firstborn, first, eldest child. If it is used in this sense, then it must be a reference to the Resurrection. Through the Resurrection, Jesus achieved a victory over death, in which everyone who believes in Him can participate, b) Due to the fact that the firstborn is a son who inherits the honor and power of the father, prototokos got the meaning a person invested with power and glory; taking first place a prince among ordinary people. When Paul speaks of Jesus as being the firstborn of every creation (Col. 1:15), he emphasizes that first place and honor belong to Him. If we accept this meaning of the word, it means that Jesus is Lord of the dead, as well as Lord of the living. In the whole universe, in this world and in the world to come, in life and in death, there is no place where Jesus is not Lord.

3. He is the ruler of the kings of the earth. Two points should be noted here, a) This is a parallel to Ps. 88,28: "And I will make him the firstborn, above the kings of the earth." The Jewish scribes always believed that this verse was a description of the coming Messiah; and, therefore, to say that Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth is to say that He is the Messiah, b) One commentator points out the connection of this title of Jesus with the story of His temptation, when the devil took Jesus to a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and said to Him, “I will give all this to You if you fall and worship me.” (Matthew 4:8.9; Luke 4:6.7). The devil claimed that he had been given power over all the kingdoms of the earth (Luke 4:6) and offered Jesus, if He would enter into an alliance with him, to give Him a share in them. It is amazing that Jesus Himself, through His suffering and death on the Cross and the power of the Resurrection, acquired what the devil promised Him, but could never give. It was not compromise with evil, but unshakable fidelity and true love, which even accepted the Cross, that made Jesus Lord of the universe.

WHAT JESUS ​​DID FOR THE PEOPLE (Rev. 1:4-6 (continued))

Few passages describe so beautifully what Jesus did for people.

1. He loved us and washed us from our sins with His Blood. In Greek the words wash And rid very similar, respectively Luane And liein, but they are pronounced exactly the same. But there remains no doubt that in the oldest and best Greek lists there is liein, that is rid.

John understands this to mean that Jesus freed us from our sins at the cost of His blood. This is exactly what John says later when he speaks of those who have been redeemed by God by the blood of the Lamb. (5,9). That's what I meant

Paul, when he said that Christ redeemed us from the oath of the law (Gal. 3:13). In both of these cases Paul used the word eksagoradzein, What means redeem from, to pay the price when purchasing a person or thing from someone who owns the person or thing.

Many should feel relieved when they learn that John is saying here that we are freed from our sins at the cost of blood, that is, at the cost of the life of Jesus Christ.

There is another very interesting point here. It is necessary to pay special attention to the tense in which the verbs appear. John insists that the expression Jesus loves us costs in present tense, which means that the love of God in Jesus Christ is something constant and continuous. Expression freed (washed) on the contrary, it stands in past tense; the Greek aorist form conveys a completed action in the past, that is, our liberation from sins was complete in one act of the Crucifixion. In other words, what happened on the Cross was the only act available in time that served to express the ongoing love of God.

2. Jesus made us kings and priests to God. This is a quote from Ref. 19.6:“And you will be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Jesus did two things for us.

a) He gave us royal dignity. Through Him we can become true children of God; and if we are children of the King of kings, then there is no higher bloodline than ours.

b) He made us priests. According to the previous tradition, only the priest had the right of access to God. A Jew entering the temple could pass through the court of the Gentiles, the court of the women, and the court of the Israelites, but here he had to stop; he could not enter the court of the priests, he could not approach the Holy of Holies. In a vision of the great days to come, Isaiah said, “And ye shall be called priests of the Lord.” (Isa. 61:6). On that day, every person will be a priest and have access to God. This is what John means here. Because of what Jesus did for us, everyone has access to God. This is the priesthood of all believers. We can come boldly to the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16), because we have a new and living way into the presence of God (Heb. 10:19-22).

THE COMING GLORY (Rev. 1:7)

From this point on, we will have to constantly, in almost every passage, note John's appeal to the Old Testament. John was so steeped in the Old Testament that he could hardly write a paragraph without quoting it. This is remarkable and interesting. John lived in an era when it was simply scary to be a Christian. He himself experienced exile, imprisonment and hard work; and many accepted death in the most brutal forms. The best way to maintain courage and hope in this situation is to remember that God has never abandoned His people in the past, and that His authority and power have not diminished.

In this passage, John sets out the motto and text of his book, his belief in the victorious return of Christ who will save Christians in trouble from the atrocities of their enemies.

1. For Christians, the return of Christ is the promise with which they feed their souls. John took the picture of this return from Daniel's vision of the four great beasts that ruled the world. (Dan. 7:1-14). It was Babylon - a beast like a lion with eagle wings (7,4); Persia is a beast that looks like a wild bear (Dan. 7.5); Greece is a beast like a leopard, on its back it has four bird wings (Dan. 7.6); and Rome is a terrible and terrible beast, it has large iron teeth, indescribable (Dan. 7:7). But the time of these beasts and cruel empires is past, and dominion must be transferred to a gentle power, like the Son of Man. “I saw in the night visions, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, came to the Ancient of Days and was brought to Him. And to Him was given power, glory and a kingdom, that all nations, tribes and languages ​​should serve Him.” (Dan. 7:13.14). It is from this vision of the prophet Daniel that the picture of the Son of Man coming on the clouds appears again and again. (Matt. 24:30; 26:64; Mark 13:26; 14:62). If we clear this picture of the elements of imagination characteristic of that time - we, for example, no longer think that heaven is located somewhere just beyond the firmament - we are left with the unchanging truth that the day will come when Jesus Christ will be the Lord of all . Christians, whose life was difficult and whose faith often meant death, have always drawn strength and consolation from this hope.

2. His coming will bring fear to the enemies of Christ. Here John refers to a quotation from Zach. 12.10:"... they will look at Him, whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only begotten son, and mourns, as one mourns for a firstborn." The quote from the Book of the Prophet Zechariah is connected with the story of how God gave His people a good shepherd, but the people, in their disobedience, insanely killed him and took for themselves worthless and selfish shepherds, but the day will come when they will bitterly repent, and on that day they They will look at the good shepherd whom they have pierced and will mourn for him and for what they have done. John takes this picture and applies it to Jesus: the people crucified Him, but the day will come when they will look at Him again, and this time it will not be the humiliated Christ on the Cross, but the Son of God in the glory of heaven, to whom authority has been given over all things. universe.

It is clear that John was originally referring here to the Jews and Romans who actually crucified Him. But in every generation and in every era, those who sin crucify Him again and again. The day will come when those who turned away from Jesus Christ or opposed Him will see that He is the Lord of the universe and the judge of their souls.

The passage ends with two exclamations: Hey, amen! In the Greek text this expression corresponds to the words nay And amine. Nye - it's a Greek word and amine - word of Hebrew origin. Both of them signify a solemn agreement: “So be it!” By using both Greek and Hebrew words at once, John emphasizes their special solemnity.

GOD WE TRUST IN (Rev. 1:8)

Before us is the majestic image of God, in whom we believe and whom we worship.

1. He is Alpha and Omega. Alpha - first, and omega - the last letter of the Greek alphabet, and the combination alpha And omega indicates completeness and completeness. In the Hebrew alphabet the first letter is aleph, and the last one - tav; the Jews had a similar expression. This expression points to the absolute fullness of God, in whom, in the words of one English commentator, there is “limitless life, which embraces all and transcends all.”

2. God is, He was and He is coming. In other words, He is Eternal. He was when time began, He is now and He will be when time ends. He was the God of all who believed in Him, He is the God in whom we can trust today and in the future nothing can ever happen that can separate us from Him.

3. God is Almighty. In Greek Pantocrator - Pantocrator - the one whose power extends to everything.

It is interesting to note that this word appears seven times in the New Testament: once in 2 Cor. 6.18 in a quotation from the Old Testament, and all the other six times in Revelation. It is obvious that the use of this word is characteristic only of John. Just think of the situation in which he wrote: the armored might of the Roman Empire had risen to crush the Christian Church. No empire before could resist Rome; What chance did the suffering, small, huddled herd, whose only crime was Christ, have against Rome? Purely humanly speaking, none; but when a person thinks like this, he misses the most important factor - God Pantocrator, Pantocrator, Who holds everything in his hands.

This word in the Old Testament characterizes the Lord God of Hosts (Am. 9.5; Os. 12.5). John uses the same word in a stunning context: “... the Lord God Almighty reigns” (Rev. 19:6). If people are in such hands, nothing can destroy them. When there is such a God behind the Christian Church, and as long as the Christian Church is faithful to its Lord, nothing can destroy it.

THROUGH THE TRIPLES TO THE KINGDOM (Rev. 1:9)

John is not presented by any official title, but simply as your brother and companion in sorrow. He gained his right to speak because he himself went through the circumstances that those to whom he wrote went through. The prophet Ezekiel writes in his book: “And I came to those who had been exiled to Tel Aviv, living by the river Chebar, and stopped where they lived.” (Ezek. 3:15). People will never listen to someone who preaches patience from a comfortable chair or heroic courage, having first secured for himself a prudently safe place. Only those who have gone through this themselves can help those who are going through it now. The Indians have a saying: “No one can criticize another unless he has been in his moccasins for a day.” John and Ezekiel could speak because they were sitting where their listeners were now sitting.

John puts three words in one row: tribulation, kingdom and patience. In Greek grief - flipsis. Initially flipsis it simply meant pressure, burden and could, for example, mean the pressure of a large stone on a person’s body. At first the word was used in a completely literal sense, but in the New Testament it came to mean the burden of events known to us as persecution. Patience - in Greek it is Hupomone. Hupomone - This is not the kind of patience that passively endures all vicissitudes and events; it is the spirit of courage and triumph, which gives courage and courage to a person and turns even suffering into glory. Christians were in this situation. They were in grief, flipsis, and, as John believed, at the center of the terrible events preceding the end of the world. They were waiting basileia, a kingdom they wanted to enter and longed for. There was only one way from flipsis V basileia, from misfortune to glory, and this path lay through hupomone, all-conquering patience. Jesus said, “He who endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13). Paul told his readers, “We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22). IN 2 Tim. 2.12 we read: “If we endure, then we will reign with Him.”

The road to the Kingdom of God is a path of long patience. But before we move on to the next passage, let us make one more point: this patience must be found in Christ. He Himself endured to the end and He can give those who walk with Him the ability to gain the same long-suffering and achieve the same goal.

ISLAND OF LINKS (Rev. 1:9 continued)

John reports that at the moment when he was given the visions of Revelation, he was on the island of Patmos. The tradition of the early Christian Church is unanimous that John was exiled to the island of Patmos during the reign of Emperor Domitian. Jerome of Dalmatia says that John was exiled in the fourteenth year after the death of the Emperor Nero and was released after the death of the Emperor Domitian (On Illustrious Men: 9). This means that he was exiled to Patmos around the year 94 and released around the year 96.

Patmos is a small barren rocky island, from the Southern Sporades group, measuring 40 x 2 km.

It is in the shape of a crescent moon, with its horns facing east. Its shape makes it a good natural bay; the island lies 60 km from the coast of Asia Minor and was important because it was the last harbor on the way from Rome to Ephesus and the first in the opposite direction.

Exile to a remote island was widely practiced in the Roman Empire as a punishment, especially for political prisoners, and it must be said that this was far from the worst punishment for political criminals. Such punishment entailed deprivation of civil rights and property, with the exception of the subsistence level. The exiles were not treated badly in this way and did not have to go to prison; they could move freely within the narrow confines of their island. This was the case with political exiles, but with John everything was completely different. He was the leader of the Christians, and the Christians were criminals. It is even surprising that he was simply not executed immediately. For John, exile was associated with hard work in quarries and quarries. One theologian believes that John's exile was preceded by scourging and was associated with wearing shackles, poor clothing, insufficient food, sleeping on the bare floor, a dark prison, and working under the whip of military overseers.

The Patmos exile left its marks on John's writing style. To this day, the island shows visitors a cave on a cliff above the sea where the Revelation is said to have been written. The island of Patmos has majestic views of the sea and, as someone said, Revelation is full of "the sights and sounds of the vast sea." Word sea, falassa appears at least twenty-five times in Revelation. As the same commentator put it, "Nowhere else do the voices of many waters create such music as on Patmos; nowhere else does the rising and setting sun form such a beautiful sea of ​​​​glass mixed with flame, and yet nowhere else is it so natural wish that there would no longer be this dividing sea."

John took upon himself all these hardships, suffering and hard work of the exile. for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. The Greek text of this phrase can be interpreted in three ways: it can mean that John went to Patmos in order to preach The Word of God; it may mean that he went alone to Patmos to get The Word of God and the Vision of Revelation. But it is quite obvious that John's exile to Patmos was a consequence of his unwavering faithfulness to the Word of God and his persistence in preaching the good news of Jesus Christ.

IN THE SPIRIT ON THE SUNDAY DAY (Rev. 1:10-11)

This is an extremely interesting passage in a historical sense, because here we have the first mention in literature of the Lord's Day - Sunday.

We have often spoken about the Day of the Lord - the day of wrath and judgment, when the present age, the age of evil, will pass into the age to come. Some commentators directly claim that in his vision John was transported to the Day of the Lord and saw in advance all the amazing things that would happen then. Such people, however, are few and far between, and that is not the meaning of these words.

It is quite obvious that when speaking about Sunday - the Lord's Day - John uses it in the same sense as we do, and this is the first mention of it in literature. How did it happen that the Christian Church stopped observing the Sabbath and began to observe the Lord's Day - Sunday? The Sabbath was observed in memory of the rest for which God settled down after the creation of the world; The Lord's Day - Sunday - was established in memory of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Apparently, the first three mentions of Sunday - the Lord's Day - include the following: in Didache, The Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles, the first manual and instruction for Christian worship, says: “On the day of the Lord we gather together and break bread.” (Didache: 14.1). Ignatius of Antioch in his letter to the Magnesians says that Christians are those who “no longer live for the Sabbath, but for the Lord’s Day” (Ignatius: “Epistle to the Magnesians” 9:1). Melitus of Sardis wrote a treatise "On the Day of the Lord." Already somewhere in the second century, Christians stopped observing the Sabbath and Sunday, the Lord's Day, became their recognized day.

One thing is certain: all these early references belong to Asia Minor and it was there that Sunday was originally observed. But what caused Christians to become weekly observe the first day of the week? In the east there was a day of the month and a day of the week called Sebaste, What means Emperor's Day; without a doubt, it was this fact that prompted Christians to dedicate the first day of the week to the Lord.

John was in spirit that is, in an ecstatic state of divine inspiration, which means that he was elevated above the world of matter and time into the world of eternity. “And the spirit lifted me up,” says Ezekiel, “and I heard a great voice of thunder behind me.” (Ezek. 3:12). John heard a loud voice, like a trumpet. The sound of the trumpet is woven into the language of the New Testament (Matt. 24:31; 1 Cor. 15:52; 1 Thess. 4:16). Without a doubt, John had another picture from the Old Testament in his mind's eye. The story of how Moses received the law says: "...there were thunders, and lightning, and a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very strong sound of a trumpet." (Ex. 19:16). The voice of God is comparable to the commanding, unmistakable clarity of the sound of a trumpet.

These two verses form a unity. John was on the island of Patmos And he was in good spirits. We have already seen what Patmos was like, and we have seen what difficulties and sufferings John had to endure; but no matter where a person lives, no matter how difficult life may be, no matter what he should not go through, he can still be in the spirit. And, if he is in spirit, even on the island of Patmos the glory and message of God will come to him.

HEAVENLY MESSENGER (Rev. 1:12-13)

We begin with John's first vision and note that his mind is so saturated with Scripture that for every element of the picture there are analogs and parallels from the Old Testament.

John says he turned around to see whose voice. We would say, “I turned around to see who the voice belonged to.”

Turning around, he saw seven golden lamps. John not only alludes to the Old Testament, he takes elements from various places and creates a whole picture from them. This picture has - seven golden lamps, - three sources.

a) The lampstand of pure gold in the tabernacle. It had six branches, three on each side, and seven lamps (Ex. 25:31-37).

b) Picture of Solomon's Temple. It had five lamps of pure gold on the right side and five on the left side. (1 Kings 49).

c) Vision of the prophet Zechariah. He saw “a lampstand all of gold, and a cup of oil on top of it, and seven lamps on it.” (Zech. 4:2).

John's vision consists of various Old Testament elements and instances where God had already revealed himself to His people. There is certainly a lesson for us in this. The best way to prepare yourself for the discovery of new truth is to study the revelation that God has already given to people.

In the middle of the seven lamps he saw like the Son of Man. Here we return again to Dan. 7.13.14, where the Ancient of Days gives power, glory and kingdom to one like the Son of Man. As we already well know from the way Jesus used this expression, the Son of Man became no less and no more than the title of the Messiah; and by using it here, John makes it clear that the revelation he received comes from Jesus Christ Himself.

This figure was dressed in tear up And girded across the chest with a golden belt. And here are associations with three paintings.

A) Podir - in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, - the long toe-length robe of the Jewish high priests (Ex. 28.4; 29.5; Lev. 16.4. The Roman historian Josephus also carefully describes the clothing that the priests and high priest wore during services in the temple. They wore “long clothing down to the toes” and around the chest, “above the elbows” - a belt loosely wound several times around the body. The belt was decorated and embroidered with colors and flowers, with woven gold threads (Josephus: "Antiquities of the Jews", 3.7: 2,4). All this means that the description of the robe and belt of Christ clothed with the glory almost exactly corresponds to the description of the vestments of the priests and high priests. This is a symbol of the high priestly nature of the activity of the Risen Lord. In the Jewish understanding, a priest was a person who had access to God and gave others access to Him; even in heaven, Jesus, the great High Priest, carries out His priestly work, giving all people access to the presence of God.

b) But not only priests wore long robes and high belts. This was the clothing of the greats of this world - princes and kings. Podir Jonathan's robe was called (1 Sam. 18.4), and Saul (1 Samuel 24:5.11), and princes of the sea (Ezek. 26:16). The garments worn by the Risen Christ are those of royal dignity. He was no longer a criminal on the cross; He was clothed like a king.

Christ is the Priest and Christ is the King.

c) But this picture has another parallel. A man appeared to the Prophet Daniel in a vision, clothed in linen clothing (in the Greek translation of the Old Testament it is called podir) and his loins were girded with gold from Uphaz (Dan. 10.5). This is the robe of the messenger of God. Thus, before us is Jesus Christ as the highest messenger of God.

And it is a majestic picture. Tracing the source of John's thoughts, we see that by the very garment of the Risen Lord he presents Him to us in His threefold ministry: prophet, priest and king, who brings the truth of God, who gives others access to the presence of God, and to whom God has given power and authority forever.

IMAGE OF THE RISEN CHRIST (Rev. 1:14-18)

Before examining the passage in detail, let us note two general facts.

1. It is easy to overlook how carefully Revelation was conceived and written. This book is not one that was written hastily; it is a closely woven and integral work of artistic literature. In this passage we see several descriptions of the Risen Christ, and it is interesting to note that each of the letters to the seven churches in the following chapters, with the exception of the letter to the Laodicean church, begins with one of the descriptions of the Risen Christ taken from that chapter. This chapter seems to touch on several topics that should later become the texts of the epistles to the churches. Let us write down the beginnings of each of the first six messages and see how they correspond to the description of Christ given here.

“Write to the angel of the church of Ephesus: thus says He holds the seven stars in His right hand" (2:1).

“Write to the angel of the church in Smyrna: Thus says the First and the Last, who was dead and is now alive” ( 2,8 ).

“Write to the angel of the Church of Pergamum: thus says having a sword sharp on both sides" (2:12).

“Write to the angel of the church of Thyatira: Thus says the Son of God, whose eyes are like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like chalkoliban” ( 2,18 ).

"Write to the angel of the Sardinian church: thus says having the seven spirits of God and the seven stars" (3:1).

"Write to the angel of the Philadelphian church: Thus says the Holy One, the True One, having the key of David, He who opens, and no one will shut; He who shuts, and no one will open." (3,7).

This is literary skill of a very high class.

2. Secondly, it should be noted that in this passage John uses titles that in the Old Testament are titles of God, and gives them to the Risen Christ.

“His head and hair are white, like white wool, like snow.”

IN Dan. 7.9 - this is a description of the Ancient of Days.

"His voice is like the sound of many waters."

In the Old Testament, God Himself controls the stars. God asks Job: “Can you tie the knot of Him or once loose the knot of Kesil?” Job. 38.31.

"I am the first and the last."

"I alive".

In the Old Testament God is usually the "living God" Iis. N. 3.10; Ps. 41.3; Os. 1.10.

"I have the keys to hell and death."

U The rabbis had a saying that God owns three keys, which He will not give to anyone - the keys of birth, rain and resurrection of the dead.

This, like nothing else, shows with what reverence John treats Jesus Christ. He treats Him with such reverence that He cannot give Him titles less than those that belong to God Himself.

TITLES OF THE RISEN LORD (Rev. 4:14-18 continued)

Let us briefly consider each of the titles by which the Risen Lord is named.

“His head and hair are as white as white wool, as white as snow.”

This characteristic, taken from the description of the Ancient of Days from Dan. 7.9, symbolizes the following:

a) It symbolizes extreme old age and speaks of the eternal existence of Jesus Christ.

b) She talks about Divine purity. “Though your sins be as scarlet,” said Isaiah, “they shall be as white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall be as white as wool.” (Isa. 1:18). This is a symbol of the precedence and sinlessness of Christ.

"His eyes are like a flame of fire."

John always remembers the book of Daniel; this is taken from the description of the Divine figure who brought Daniel the vision. "His eyes are like burning lamps" (Dan. 10:6). When reading the gospel story, one gets the impression that a person who has seen the eyes of Jesus at least once could never forget them. Again and again we clearly see His eyes surveying the people around Him (Mark 3:34; 10:23; 11:11). Sometimes His eyes flash with anger (Mark 3:5); sometimes they settle on someone with love (Mark 10:21); and sometimes they contain all the sorrow of a person offended by friends to the depths of his soul (Luke 22:61).

“His feet are like halkolivan, like those heated in a furnace.”

It turned out to be impossible to determine what kind of metal it was - chalcolivan. Maybe this is that fabulous mineral, an alloy of gold and silver, which the ancients called electrum and were considered more valuable than both gold and silver. And this vision has its source in the Old Testament. The Book of Daniel says about the heavenly messenger: “His hands and feet were like shiny brass in appearance.” (Dan. 10.6); The prophet Ezekiel said about angelic beings that “their soles... sparkled like shiny copper” (Ezek. 1:7). Maybe this picture symbolizes two things. Halkolivan symbolizes strength, the steadfastness of God, and the luminous rays of heat - speed, the speed with which He hastens to help His people or to punish sin.

This is a description of the voice of God in Ezek. 43.2. But perhaps this is the echo of the small island of Patmos that has reached us. As one commentator put it: “The sound of the Aegean Sea has always been in the ears of the seer, and the voice of God does not sound on one note: here it is like the roll of the sea surf, but it can be like the breeze of a quiet wind; it can give a stern reprimand, or it can sing soothingly, like a mother over a hurt child.

"He held in His right hand seven stars."

And this was the prerogative of God Himself. But there is something beautiful here. As the seer fell in awe at the vision of the Risen Christ, He stretched out His right hand and laid it on him, saying, “Fear not.” The right hand of Christ is strong enough to uphold the heavens and gentle enough to wipe away our tears.

TITLES OF THE RISEN LORD - 2 (Rev. 1:14-18 (continued))

“Out of His mouth came a sword, sharp on both sides.”

It was not long and narrow, like a swordsman's, but a short, tongue-shaped sword for close combat. And again, the seer found elements for his image in various places in the Old Testament. The prophet Isaiah speaks of God: “He... will smite the earth with the rod of his mouth.” (Isa. 11:4) and about himself: “And I made my mouth like a sharp sword” (Isa. 49:2). This symbol speaks of the all-pervading power of the Word of God. When we listen to Him, no shield of self-deception can protect us from Him; it removes our self-deception, exposes our sins, and leads us to forgiveness. “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.” (Heb. 4:12);"...the wicked one, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth..." (2 Thess. 2:8).

"His face is like the sun shining in its strength."

There is a grandiose picture in the Book of Judges that could well have been in John's mind. All God’s enemies will perish, but “let those who love Him be like the sun rising in all its strength.” (Judges 5:31). If this awaits those who love God, how much more likely is it that this awaits the beloved Son of God. One English commentator sees in this something even more attractive: nothing more and nothing less than a memory of the Transfiguration. Then Jesus was transfigured in the presence of Peter, James and John, “and His face shone like the sun.” (Matthew 17:2). None of those who saw this could no longer forget this radiance, and if the author of Revelation was the same John, then it is possible that he saw on the face of the Risen Christ the glory he saw on the Mount of Transfiguration.

"When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as if dead."

This is what the prophet Ezekiel experienced when God spoke to him. (Ezek. 1:28; 3:23; 43:3). But we, of course, can find an echo of the gospel story here too. On that great day in Galilee, when many fish were caught, Simon Peter, seeing who Jesus was, fell at His knees, realizing only that he was a sinful man (Luke 5:1-11). In the last days, man can only stand reverently in the presence of the holiness and glory of the Risen Christ.

"Don't be afraid".

And here, of course, we have an analogy in the gospel story, because His disciples heard these words from Jesus more than once. He told them this as he walked towards them on the water of the lake. (Matt. 14:27; Mark 6:50), and, above all, on the Mount of Transfiguration, when they were horrified by heavenly voices (Matthew 17:7). Even in heaven, as we approach unattainable glory, Jesus says, "I am here; do not be afraid."

"I am the first and the last."

In the Old Testament, similar words belong to God himself (Isa. 44.6; 48.12). Jesus thereby declares that he was present in the beginning and will be present in the end; He is present at the moment of birth and at the moment of death; He is present when we take the Christian path and when we finish our path.

"I am alive, and I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever."

This is at once Christ's declaration of His rights and promises; the declaration of Him who has conquered death and the promise of Him who lives to be with His people forever.

"I have the keys of hell and death."

Death has its own gates (Ps. 9.14; 106.18; Is. 38.10), and Christ has the keys to these gates. Some understood this statement of His - and still understand it today - as an indication of the descent into hell (1 Pet. 3:18-20). In the ancient Church there was an idea according to which Jesus, having descended into hell, opened the doors and brought out Abraham and all the people faithful to God who lived and died in previous generations. We can understand His words in an even broader sense, for we Christians believe that Jesus Christ destroyed death forever and brought life and immortality through beatitude through the Gospel. (2 Tim. 1:10), that we will live because He lives (John 14:19) and that, therefore, for us and for those we love, the bitterness of death is gone forever.

CHURCHES AND THEIR ANGELS (Rev. 1:20)

This passage begins with a word that is used throughout the New Testament on a very special occasion. The Bible says about the secret seven stars and seven golden lamps. But Greek musterion, translated in the Bible as secret, means something other than mystery in in our sense of the word. Musterion means something that has no meaning to an outsider, but has meaning to an initiate who has the key to it. Thus, here the Risen Christ explains the inner meaning of the seven stars and seven lamps.

The seven lamps symbolize the seven churches. Christian is the light of the world (Matt. 5:14; Phil. 2:15); this is one of the greatest titles of a Christian. And one interpreter gives a very insightful commentary on this phrase. He says that churches are not the light itself, but the lamp in which the light is lit. It is not the churches themselves who create the light; Jesus Christ gives light, and churches are only vessels in which this light shines. A Christian shines not with his own light, but with borrowed light.

One of the important problems raised by Revelation has to do with the meaning John gives to To the angels of the churches. Several explanations have been proposed.

1. Greek word Aggelos - in Greek yy pronounced like ng, - has two meanings; it means angel, but even more often it means messenger, messenger. It has been suggested that messengers from all the churches gathered to receive John's message and bring it to their communities. If this were the case, then each message would begin with the words: “To the Messenger... of the Church...”. As far as the Greek text and the Greek language are concerned, such an interpretation is quite possible; and there is a lot of meaning in this; but the thing is that the word Aggelos used in Revelation about fifty times, not counting its use here and in the addresses to the seven churches, and in each and every case it has a meaning angel.

2. It has been suggested that Aggelos what matters is the bishop of the church. It has also been suggested that these bishops of the churches gathered to meet John, or that John sent these messages to them. In support of this theory, the words of the prophet Malachi are quoted: “For the mouth of the priest must keep knowledge, and the law is sought from his mouth, because he messenger Lord of Hosts" (Mal. 2.7). In the Greek translation of the Old Testament messenger, messenger translated as Aggelos, and it has been suggested that this title may have been simply given to the bishops of the churches. They are messengers, messengers of the Lord to His churches, and John addresses them with a speech. And this explanation is quite reasonable, but it does not stand up to the same counterargument as the first: then the title angel attributed to people, and John does not do this anywhere else.

3. It has been suggested that the idea behind this guardian angels. According to the Jewish worldview, each nation had its own supreme angel (cf. Dan. 10:13.20.21). So, for example, Archangel Michael was the guardian angel of Israel (Dan. 12:1). People also have their own guardian angels. When Rhoda returned with the news that Peter had left prison, those gathered did not believe her, but thought that it was his angel (Acts 12:15). And Jesus Himself spoke of angels who guard children (Matthew 18:10). If this meaning is accepted, then the guardian angels are blamed for the sins of the churches. Actually, Origen believed that this was so. He said that a guardian angel of the church befits a child's mentor. If the child’s behavior has deteriorated, the mentor must be reprimanded; and if the church has become corrupted, God, in His mercy, reproaches the angel for this. But the difficulty is that, although the angel of the church is mentioned in the address of each message, the address is undoubtedly addressed to the members of the church.

4. Both the Greeks and the Jews believed that everything on earth had a heavenly counterpart, and therefore it was suggested that the angel is the ideal of the church, and that John addresses the churches as their ideal images in order to return them to the true path.

We now come to study the messages to the seven churches. In each case we will give a brief historical background and describe the historical background of the city in which the church was located; and having studied the general historical background, we will move on to a detailed study of each message.

Commentary (introduction) to the entire book of Revelation

Comments on Chapter 1

As we read the words of this Prophecy, our hearts should be filled with praise to our Lord for the grace that has saved us from all that is to come in this age. Another blessing for us is the assurance of final victory and glory. Arnaud S. Gabelin

Introduction

I. SPECIAL POSITION IN THE CANON

The uniqueness of the last book of the Bible is obvious from the very first word - "Revelation", or, in the original, "Apocalypse". This is the word that means "secrets revealed"- equivalent of our word "Apocalypse", a type of writing that we find in the OT in Daniel, Ezekiel, and Zechariah, but only here in the NT. It refers to prophetic visions of the future and uses symbols, imagery, and other literary devices.

Revelation not only sees the fulfillment of all that was foretold and the final triumph of God and the Lamb in future, it also connects the disjointed endings of the first 65 books of the Bible. In fact, this book can only be understood by knowing the entire Bible. Images, symbols, events, numbers, colors, etc. - almost We have encountered all this previously in the Word of God. Someone rightly called this book the "great main station" of the Bible, because all the "trains" arrive at it.

What kind of trains? Trains of thinking that originate in the book of Genesis and trace the idea of ​​atonement, ideas about the people of Israel, the pagans, the Church, Satan - the enemy of God's people, the Antichrist and much more, running through all subsequent books as a red thread.

The Apocalypse (since the fourth century so often erroneously called the "Revelation of St. John" and so rarely the "Revelation of Jesus Christ," 1:1) is the necessary climax of the Bible. He tells us how everything will happen.

Even a cursory reading of it should serve as a stern warning to unbelievers to repent, and an encouragement to God's people to persevere in the faith!

The book itself tells us that its author is John (1.1.4.9; 22.8), writing at the command of his Lord Jesus Christ. Long-standing compelling and widespread external evidence support the view that the John in question is the Apostle John, son of Zebedee, who spent many years working in Ephesus (Asia Minor, where all the seven churches addressed in chapters 2 and 3 were located). He was exiled by Domitian to Patmos, where he described the visions that our Lord vouchsafed him to see. Later he returned to Ephesus, where he died in a good old age, full of days. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Clement of Alexandria and Origen all attribute this book to John. More recently, a book called the Apocrypha of John (circa 150 AD) was found in Egypt, which quite definitely attributes the Revelation to John, the brother of James.

The first opponent of the authorship of the apostle was Dionysius of Alexandria, but he did not want to recognize John as the author of Revelation for the reason that he was against the teaching of the Millennial Kingdom (Rev. 20). His vague, unsubstantiated references first to John Mark and then to “John the Presbyter” as the possible authors of Revelation could not withstand such convincing evidence, although many modern more liberal theologians also reject the authorship of the Apostle John. There is no evidence in church history confirming the existence of such a person as John the presbyter (elder), except the author of the 2nd and 3rd epistles of John. But these two epistles are written in the same style as 1 John, and are also very similar in simplicity and vocabulary to Heb. from John.

If the external evidence given above is quite strong, then internal evidence are not so certain. The vocabulary, rather of a crude "Semitic" Greek style (there are even a few expressions that philologists would call solecisms, stylistic errors), as well as the word order convince many that the man who wrote the Apocalypse could not have written the Gospel.

However, these differences are understandable, and there are also many similarities between these books.

For example, some believe that Revelation was written much earlier, in the 50s or 60s (the reign of Claudius or Nero), and Gospel John wrote much later, in the 90s, when he had improved his knowledge of the Greek language. However, this explanation is difficult to prove.

It is quite possible that when John wrote the Gospel, he had a scribe, and during his exile to Patmos he was completely alone. (This in no way violates the doctrine of inspiration, since God uses the personal style of the author, and not the general style of all the books of the Bible.) In both the Gospel of John and Revelation we find common themes such as light and darkness. The words “Lamb,” “overcome,” “word,” “faithful,” “living waters,” and others also unite these two works. In addition, both John (19:37) and Revelation (1:7) quote Zechariah (12:10), while in the meaning of “pierced” they use not the same word that we find in the Septuagint, but a completely different word with the same meaning. (In the Gospel and Revelation the verb is used ekkentesan; in the Septuagint in Zechariah its form katorchesanto.)

Another reason for the differences in vocabulary and style between the Gospel and Revelation is the very different literary genres. In addition, much of the Hebrew phraseology in Revelation is borrowed from descriptions that are widespread throughout the OT.

So, the traditional opinion that the Apostle John, son of Zebedee and brother of James, really wrote Revelation, has a historically solid basis, and all the problems that arise can be resolved without denying his authorship.

III. WRITING TIME

The earliest date for the writing of Revelation is believed by some to be the 50s or late 60s. As noted, this partly explains the less elaborate artistic style of Revelation.

Some believe that the number 666 (13.18) was a prediction about the Emperor Nero, who was supposedly supposed to be resurrected.

(In Hebrew and Greek, letters also have a numerical value. For example, aleph and alpha - 1, beth and beta - 2, etc. Thus, any name can be represented using numbers. Interestingly enough, the Greek name Jesus ( Iesous) denoted by 888. The number eight is the number of a new beginning and resurrection. It is believed that the numerical designation of the letters of the name of the beast is 666. Using this system and slightly changing the pronunciation, “Caesar Nero” can be represented by the number 666. Other names can be represented by this number, but we need to avoid such rash assumptions.)

This suggests an early date. The fact that this event did not happen does not affect the perception of the book. (Perhaps he proves that Revelation was written much later than the reign of Nero.) The Church Fathers quite specifically point to the end of the reign of Domitian (about 96) as the time when John was on Patmos, where he received the Revelation. Since this opinion is earlier, well-founded, and widely held among orthodox Christians, there is every reason to accept it.

IV. PURPOSE OF WRITING AND TOPIC

The key to understanding the book of Revelation is simple - to imagine that it is divided into three parts. Chapter 1 describes John's vision of Christ in the robe of a Judge standing in the midst of seven churches. Chapters 2 and 3 cover the Church age in which we live. The remaining 19 chapters deal with future events following the end of the Church Age. The book can be divided as follows:

1. What John saw that is, the vision of Christ as Judge of the churches.

2. What is: a survey of the Church age from the death of the apostles to the time when Christ takes His saints into heaven (chapters 2 and 3).

3. What will happen after this: description of future events after the rapture of the saints into the Eternal Kingdom (chap. 4 - 22).

The contents of this section of the book can be easily remembered by making the following outline: 1) chapters 4-19 describe the great tribulation, a period spanning at least seven years when God will judge unbelieving Israel and the unbelieving Gentiles; this judgment is described using the following figurative objects: a) seven seals; b) seven pipes; c) seven bowls; 2) Chapters 20-22 cover the second coming of Christ, His reign on earth, the Great White Throne Judgment, and the Eternal Kingdom. During the Great Tribulation period, the seventh seal contains seven trumpets. And the seventh trumpet is also the seven bowls of wrath. Therefore, the great tribulation can be depicted in the following diagram:

SEAL 1-2-3- 4-5-6-7
	PIPES 1-2-3-4-5-6-7
	BOWLS 1-2-3-4-5-6-7

Inserted episodes in the book

The above diagram shows the main plot of the entire book of Revelation. However, there are frequent digressions throughout the narrative, the purpose of which is to introduce the reader to various important personalities and events of the great tribulation. Some writers call them interludes, or inserted episodes. Here are the main interludes:

1. 144,000 sealed Jewish saints (7:1-8).

2. Believing pagans during this period (7.9 -17).

3. Strong Angel with a book (chapter 10).

4. Two witnesses (11.3-12).

5. Israel and the dragon (chapter 12).

6. Two beasts (chapter 13).

7. 144,000 with Christ on Mount Zion (14:1-5).

8. Angel with the candlelight Gospel (14.6-7).

9. Preliminary announcement of the fall of Babylon (14.8).

10. Warning to those who worship the beast (14:9-12).

11. Harvest and grape gathering (14:14-20).

12. Destruction of Babylon (17.1 - 19.3).

Symbolism in the book

The language of Revelation is mostly symbolic. Numbers, colors, minerals, precious stones, animals, stars and lamps all symbolize people, things or various truths.

Luckily, some of these symbols are explained in the book itself. For example, seven stars are the Angels of the seven churches (1.20); the big dragon is the devil, or Satan (12.9). Clues to understanding some other symbols are found in other parts of the Bible. The four living creatures (4:6) are almost the same as the four living creatures in Ezekiel (1:5-14). And Ezekiel (10:20) says that these are cherubim. The leopard, bear and lion (13.2) remind us of Daniel (7), where these wild animals represent the world empires: Greece, Persia and Babylon, respectively. Other symbols are not clearly explained in the Bible, so one must be very careful in interpreting them.

The purpose of writing the book

As we study the book of Revelation, and indeed the entire Bible, we must remember that there is a difference between the Church and Israel. The Church is a people belonging to heaven, their blessings are spiritual, their calling is to share the glory of Christ as His Bride. Israel is God's ancient people living on earth, to whom God promised the land of Israel and a literal Kingdom on earth under the leadership of the Messiah. The true Church is mentioned in the first three chapters, and then we do not see it until the wedding feast of the Lamb (19:6-10).

The period of great tribulation (4.1 - 19.5) in its nature is predominantly the period of the Jews.

In conclusion, it remains to add that not all Christians interpret Revelation as stated above. Some believe that the prophecies of this book were fully fulfilled during the history of the early Church. Others teach that Revelation presents a continuing picture of the Church of all times, from John to the very end.

This book teaches all of God's children that living for the sake of what is transitory is meaningless. It encourages us to be a witness to the lost and encourages us to wait patiently for the return of our Lord. For non-believers, this is an important warning that a terrible destruction awaits all who reject the Savior.

Plan

I. WHAT JOHN SAW (Ch. 1)

A. Theme of the book and greeting (1.1-8)

B. Vision of Christ in a judge's robe (1:9-20)

II. WHAT IS: MESSAGES FROM OUR LORD (Ch. 2 - 3)

A. Epistle to the Church of Ephesus (2:1-7)

B. Epistle to the Church of Smyrna (2:8-11)

B. Epistle to the Church of Pergamum (2:12-17)

D. Epistle to the Church of Thyatira (2:18-29)

E. Epistle to the Sardinian Church (3:1-6) E. Epistle to the Philadelphia Church (3:7-13)

G. Epistle to the Laodicean Church (3:14-22)

III. WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER THIS (Ch. 4 - 22)

A. Vision of God's Throne (Chapter 4)

B. The Lamb and the Book Sealed with Seven Seals (Ch. 5)

B. Opening of the seven seals (Chapter 6)

D. Saved During the Great Tribulation (Ch. 7)

D. The Seventh Seal. Seven trumpets begin to sound (Ch. 8 - 9)

E. Strong Angel with a book (Ch. 10)

G. Two Witnesses (11.1-14) H. Seventh Trumpet (11.15-19)

I. The main characters in the great tribulation (Ch. 12 - 15)

J. The Seven Bowls of God's Wrath (Ch. 16)

L. The Fall of the Great Babylon (Ch. 17 - 18)

M. The Coming of Christ and His Millennial Kingdom (19.1 - 20.9).

N. Judgment of Satan and all unbelievers (20:10-15)

O. New heaven and new earth (21.1 - 22.5)

P. Final Warnings, Consolations, Invitations and Blessings (22:6-21)

I. WHAT JOHN SAW (Ch. 1)

A. Theme of the book and greeting (1.1-8)

1,3 Of course, God wanted this book to be read in the Church, because He promised to especially bless reading her aloud and to everyone in the congregation who listens and takes it to heart. Time fulfillment of prophecy close.

1,4 John addresses the book seven churches located in the Roman province Asia. This province was located in Asia Minor (modern Turkey). First of all, John wishes for all churches grace and peace. Grace- God's undeserved favor and strength, constantly needed in the Christian life. World- peace emanating from God, helping the believer to endure persecution, persecution and even death itself.

Grace and peace come from the Trinity.

He gives them Which is and was and is to come. This refers to God the Father and gives a proper definition of the name Jehovah. He is eternally existing and unchanging. Grace and peace also come from seven spirits who are before His throne. This refers to God the Holy Spirit in His fullness, since seven is the number of perfection and completeness. It is not surprising that the number seven appears fifty-four times in this final book of the Bible.

1,5 Grace and peace flow forth and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and ruler of the kings of the earth. This is a detailed description of God the Son. He - witness loyal.

How firstborn from the dead, He is the first to rise from dead and shall die no more, and Who occupies the place of honor and primacy among all who rise from the dead, to enjoy eternal life. He is also ruler of the kings of the earth. Immediately after his initial greeting, John sets forth a worthy praise of the Lord Jesus.

First he speaks of the Savior as the One Who loved or loves us and washed us from our sins with His Blood.(The Book of Revelation contains some discrepancies in the manuscripts. The reason is that Erasmus, who published the first NT in Greek (1516), had only one copy of Revelation, and that with flaws. Therefore, there are minor variations. Only the most basic ones are noted in this commentary , critical changes. Where there is a difference, preference will be given to the majority of texts.)

Pay attention to the tenses of the verbs: loves- present ongoing action; washed- past completed action. Notice also the word order: He loves us and truly loved us long before washed. And pay attention to the price: By His blood. Honest self-evaluation prompts us to admit that the price of redemption is too high. We don't deserve to be saddled with such an exorbitant price.

1,6 His love was not limited to just washing us, although it could have been that way. He made us kings and priests to His God and Father.

Like saints priests, we offer spiritual sacrifices to God: ourselves, our possessions, our praise and our service to Him. How regal priests, we proclaim the perfections of Him who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light. Having thought about such love, we can inevitably come to the conclusion that He is worthy of all that many glory, all the honor, worship and praise we can muster for Him. He is worthy to be the Lord of our life, the Church, the world and the entire universe. Amen.

1,7 This Blessed One again is coming to the ground on cloud chariots. His coming will not be local or invisible, because every eye will see Him(cf. Matt. 24:29-30).

Those responsible for His crucifixion will be horrified. In fact, everyone will cry tribes of the earth, because He will come to judge His enemies and establish His Kingdom. But the faithful will not mourn his coming; they say: "To her, come. Amen".

1,8 Here the speaker changes. The Lord Jesus introduces Himself like Alpha and Omega(first and last letters of the Greek alphabet), beginning and the end.(NU and M texts omit "beginning and end".) It measures time and eternity and exhausts the entire vocabulary. He is the source and goal of creation, and He is the One who began and will complete the Divine program for the world.

He is and was and is to come, God eternal in being and power Almighty.

B. Vision of Christ in a judge's robe (1:9-20)

1,9 Takes the floor again John, who introduces himself as brother and accomplice all believers in the tribulation, and in the kingdom, and in the patience of Jesus Christ.

It unites sorrow, durability ( patience) and the kingdom. Paul also unites them in Acts (14:22), exhorting the saints to “continue in the faith and teach that through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God.”

For loyalty the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ John was in prison on the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. But the prison became for him a reception room of heaven, where visions of glory and judgment were revealed to him.

1,10 John was in the Spirit that is, he was in pure close fraternal communion with Him and was thus able to receive Divine information. This reminds us that one must be quick to hear. “The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him” (Ps. 24:14). The described vision occurred on Sunday day, or on the first day of the week. That was the day of Christ's resurrection, two subsequent appearances to His disciples, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles on the day of Pentecost.

The disciples also met to break bread on Sunday, and Paul instructed the Corinthians to take an offering on the first day of the week. Some believe that John here refers to the time of judgment about which he will write, but in the original Greek the expression “day of the Lord” is expressed in different words in both cases.

1,11-12 It was Jesus who commanded him to write a book that he will soon will see and send written seven churches. Turning to see the One who spoke, John saw seven golden lamps, each of which had a base, a vertical trunk and an oil lamp on the top.

1,13 In the middle of the seven lamps was like the Son of Man.

There was nothing between Him and each lamp: no intermediary, no hierarchy, no organization. Each church was autonomous. Describing the Lord, McConkie says: “The Spirit finds for symbols such a sphere of reality as might give to our sluggish and limited minds some faint idea of ​​the glory, splendor and majesty of the One to come, who is the Christ of the Revelation.”(James H. McConkey, The Book of Revelation: A Series of Outline Studies in the Apocalypse, p. 9.)

He was clothed in a long judge's robe. Belt by His Persians symbolizes the justice and infallibility of His judgment (see Isa. 11:5).

1,14 His head and hair are white as a wave. This reflects His eternal essence as the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:9), wisdom, as well as the purity of His clothing.

Eyes, like a flame of fire, they speak of perfect knowledge, unerring insight, and the fact that it is impossible to escape His searching gaze.

1,15 Legs The gentlemen were similar polished copper, like hot ones in a furnace. Since brass is a recurring symbol of judgment, this confirms the opinion that He is represented here primarily with authority judges. His voice sounded like the sound of sea waves or like the sound of a mountain waterfall, majestic and terrifying.

1,16 What He kept in To His right hand there are seven stars, indicates possession, power, dominance and glory. Out of His mouth came a sword sharp on both sides, Word of God (Heb. 4:12). Here it refers to the strict and precise judgments against His people, as seen in the letters to the seven churches. His face was like radiant Sun, when it is high in the zenith, dazzling in the splendor and extraordinary glory of His Divinity.

Putting all these reflections together, we see Christ in all His perfection, having the highest qualification to judge the seven churches. Later in this book He will judge His enemies, but “the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God” (1 Pet. 4:17). However, we note that in each specific case this is a different court. Judgment is brought upon the churches to purify them and to bestow rewards; over the world - for judgment and punishment.

1,17 The sight of this Judge caused John to His feet feel like they're dead but the Lord restored him, revealing Himself to him as the First and the Last (one of the names of Jehovah; Isa. 44:6; 48:12).

1,18 This judge is the Living One, Who was dead but now alive forever and ever. He has the keys of hell and death, that is, control over them and the unique ability to resurrect from the dead. ("Hell" - in the Synodal translation. In English it is "hades", hence the following explanation.) Hell, or Hades, here refers to the soul, and death- to the body. When a person dies, his soul remains in Hades, or in an incorporeal state. The body goes to the grave. For a believer, the disembodied state is equivalent to being with the Lord. At the moment of resurrection from the dead, the soul will unite with the glorified body and ascend to the Father's house.

1,19 John should write that he saw(chapter 1), what is(Ch. 2-3) and what happens after that(Ch. 4-22). This constitutes the general content of the book.

1,20 Then the Lord explained to John the hidden meaning seven stars And seven golden lamps. Stars- This angels, or messengers, seven churches, whereas lamps- themselves seven churches.

There are different explanations for the word "angels". Some believe that these are angelic beings who represented the churches, just as angels represent the nations (Dan. 10:13.20.21).

Others say they are bishops (or pastors) of churches, although this explanation lacks spiritual basis. There are those who say that these are messengers - people who took messages from John on Patmos and delivered them to each individual church.

Greek word "angelos" means both “angel” and “messenger”, but in this book the first meaning is clearly visible.

Although the messages are addressed angels their content is clearly intended for all who constitute the Church.

Lamps- bearers of light and serve as a suitable prototype of local churches, who are meant to shine God's light amidst the darkness of this world.

II. WHAT IS: MESSAGES FROM OUR LORD (Ch. 2 - 3)

In chapters 2 and 3 we are introduced to personal messages addressed to the seven churches in Asia. These messages can be applied in at least three ways. First, they describe the actual state seven local churches at the time John wrote. Secondly, they illustrate Christianity on earth at any moment his stories. The characteristics that we find in these epistles were found at least partially in every century after Pentecost. In this respect the messages are remarkably similar to the seven parables in chapter 13 of Hebrews. from Matthew. And finally, the messages are given serial preliminary an overview of the history of Christianity, where each church represents a separate historical period. The usual trend in the condition of churches is towards deterioration. Many believe that the first three messages are sequential, and the last four are coincidental and refer to the rapture period. According to the third point of view, the eras in the history of the Church usually represent the following order:

Ephesus: A church of the first century, which is generally worthy of praise, but has already left its first love.

Smyrna: From the first to the fourth centuries the Church experienced persecution at the hands of the Roman emperors.

Pergamon: in the fourth and fifth centuries, thanks to the patronage of Constantine, Christianity was recognized as the official religion.

Thyatira: From the sixth to the fifteenth centuries, the Roman Catholic Church exerted a wide influence on Western Christianity until it was shaken by the Reformation. The Orthodox Church dominated in the East.

Sardis: The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were the post-Reformation period. The light of the Reformation quickly dimmed.

Philadelphia: the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw powerful revivals and great missionary movements.

Laodicea: The latter-day church is depicted as lukewarm and backslidden. This is the church of liberalism and ecumenism.

There are similarities in the construction of these messages. For example, each of them begins with a personal greeting to each church; each represents the Lord Jesus in the image best suited to that particular church; in each it is noted that He knows the affairs of this church, as indicated by the word “I know.”

Words of praise are addressed to all churches except Laodicea; the reproach sounds to everyone except the Philadelphia and Smyrna churches. Each church is given a special exhortation to hear what the Spirit says, and each message contains a special promise for the overcomer.

Each church has its own distinctive character. Phillips identified the following characteristics that reflect these dominant traits: Ephesian church - lost love; Smirnskaya- enduring persecution; Pergamon- too tolerant; Thyatira- a church that makes compromises; Sardinian- sleeping church; Philadelphia- a church with favorable opportunities, and Laodicean- a self-righteous church. Walvoord describes their problems as follows: 1) loss of first love; 2) fear of suffering; 3) deviation from religious doctrine; 4) moral decline; 5) spiritual deadness; 6) loose holding and 7) warmth. (John F. Walvoord, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, pp. 50-100.)