of
the past. The visions of the Apocalypse he received "in the
Spirit" (chap. 1:10; 4:2); that is, in a state of ecstacy; and,
according to the plain language of the book, he _wrote them down
at the time_, beginning, as we must suppose, with the second
chapter, the introductory chapter and some closing remarks
having been added afterwards. The direction: "What thou seest
write in a book" (chap. 1:11, 19), does not indeed imply that he
should write upon the spot; but that he did so is plainly
indicated elsewhere: "When the seven thunders had uttered their
voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven
saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders
uttered, and write them not" (chap. 10:4). In entire harmony
with this is another passage: "And I heard a voice from heaven
saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord from henceforth," etc. (chap. 14:13); that is, "Write down
now these words of comfort." The apostle, therefore, wrote down
his visions one after another immediately after they were
received. When he wrote he was not in a state of
unconsciousness, but of mental and spiritual exaltation above
his ordinary condition. To affirm that he could not have
received this series of visions without being deprived of the
capacity to record them at the time, would be to limit the modes
of divine revelation by our ignorance. If we cannot understand
how the apostle could hear "in the Spirit" the voices of the
seven thunders, and immediately prepare to write down their
utterances, we ought, at least, reverently to receive the fact
as stated by him. To expect from one writing in such
circumstances careful attention to the rules of Greek syntax and
the idioms of the Greek language would be absurd. Undoubtedly
Plato in a like situation would have written pure Attic Greek,
because that would have been to him the most natural mode of
writing. But the Galilean fisherman, a Jew by birth and
education, fell back upon the Hebrew idioms with which he was so
familiar. Finally we must remember that, after the analogy of
the Old Testament prophecies, this prophetic book is expressed
in _poetic diction_. It is full of images borrowed from the old
Hebrew prophets, often spiritualized and applied in a higher
sense. Looking to the imagery alone,