John. Other writers {278} have held that little
or no historical meaning can be found in the book, and that it is to be
interpreted on _ideal_ lines, as teaching certain principles of
religion. The truth seems to be that these two methods of
interpretation are both partly true. Certain historical facts, such as
the Ascension of our Lord, the destruction of Jerusalem, the
persecution of the Church, the struggle between the Church and the
Roman empire, are taken as a basis. Certain great principles of God's
dealings with the world, and of the continued conflict between good and
evil, are then illustrated in connection with these facts, and the
whole is knit together by the fixed expectation that Christ will come
again to vanquish the wicked and rescue the good. While each division
of the book thus possesses a real meaning, it seems hardly possible to
attach a significance to each detail in the imagery which is employed.
Many items and even numbers appear to be introduced in order to make
the scenes clear to the mind's eye rather than impart a knowledge of
independent events. In after-ages Dante, like St. John, showed this
care for minute imagery in the midst of verses of mystic vision. The
book is the highest example of Christian imagination led and inspired
by the Holy Spirit, and although at is written in prose it is of the
nature of a poem.

The book contains seven revelations, which are preceded by a prologue
concerning the divine Son of Man and the seven Churches of Asia. Of
these seven revelations, the fourth is central both in place and
meaning. It represents the kingdom of the world becoming the kingdom
of Christ as the result of the coming of the Messiah, born of that
glorious mother, the woman whose seed wars against the serpent (Gen.
iii. 15), and the maiden who bears Immanuel (Isa. vii. 14), and who
also represents the Church banished to the wilderness.

On each side are three revelations, which correspond with one another
like the petals of a mystical rose. The _third_, which deals with the
divine judgment upon Jerusalem, corresponds with the _fifth_, which
contains God's judgment upon {279} Rome. Here we see the triumph of
God over corrupt religion and corrupt imperialism. The _second_, which
describes the powers of divine judgment kept in check, and the seal of
God imprinted on the saints of the new Israel, corresponds with the
_sixth_, which describes the war of the Word of God with the Beast