he week," by the strong opposition to
Judaism which is called the "synagogue of Satan" (ii. 9; iii. 9), and
above all by the attitude of the writer towards Rome. The imperial
rule is no longer regarded with the tolerance which we find in Acts and
in St. Paul's Epistles. It is no longer the "restraining" and
protecting power. It is denounced as cruel and aggressive, and not
only is the worship offered to the Roman emperor mentioned as
widespread, but also the worship offered to Rome. The city is called
the Great Harlot, because in prophetical language idolatry is described
as an act of fornication, being a violation of the pure love which
should be felt by man towards his Creator. The worship of Rome does
not seem to have become common in {276} Asia until late in the 1st
century, and it is not even mentioned once in Acts.

The destruction of Jerusalem is definitely mentioned in xi. 2, where
the earthly Jerusalem is symbolized as the "court which is without the
temple," the temple which the prophet measures being the heavenly
temple only (xi. 19). This chapter seems to imply that Jerusalem is
already destroyed, and is founded on Ezek. xl., when the prophet
measures the ideal city, not the city which had been destroyed
previously. We are therefore pointed to a date later than A.D. 70.
The same seems to be suggested by xiii. 1 and xvii. 10. For the beast
in xiii. 1 is the pagan Roman State as typified by Nero, and so is the
number 666 in xiii. 18; for if the words Nero Caesar are written in
Hebrew letters, and the numerical values of the letters are added
together, the result is 666. In xvii. 8 Nero is described as dead, and
in xvii. 10 Vespasian is the sixth emperor, Titus the seventh, and the
eighth, in xvii. 11, is Domitian, who plays the Satanic part of Nero.
The sixth emperor is described as still living, and we therefore seem
compelled to assign part of this passage to Vespasian's reign.
Nevertheless, there is abundant internal evidence for thinking that the
book was not completed until the time of Domitian. It is worth noting
that Domitian exacted a more extravagant worship of his own person than
any previous emperor, and that his policy therefore made the
publication of the book doubly appropriate.

[Sidenote: Character and Contents.]

There were a number of Jewish books called by the name of Revelation or
Apocalypse (_i.e._ revelation or unveiling). In the Old Testament an
Apocalypse is to be found in