ss of the events pictured in connection with the rise
and destruction of that monstrous despot.26 The truth of this
representation is sealed by the very first verses of the book,
indicating the nature of its contents and the period to which they
refer: "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him,
to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass:
Blessed are they who hear the words of this prophecy and keep
them; for the time is at hand."

This rescue and reward of the faithful, this overthrow and
punishment of the wicked, were to be effected by the agency of a
unique and sublime personage, who was expected very soon to
appear, with an army of angels from heaven, for this purpose. The
conception of the nature, rank, and offices of Jesus Christ which
existed in the mind of the writer of the Apocalypse is in some
respects but obscurely hinted in the words he employs; yet the
relationship of those words to other and fuller sources of
information in the contemporaneous notions of his countrymen is
such as to give us great help in arriving at his ideas. He
represents Christ as distinct from and subordinate to God. He
makes Christ say, "To him that overcometh I will give power over
the nations, even as I received of my Father." He characterizes
him as "the beginning of the creation of God," and describes him
as "mounted on a white horse, leading the heavenly armies to war,
and his name is called the Logos of God." These terms evidently
correspond to the phrases in the introduction to the Gospel of
John, and in the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon, where are unfolded
some portions of that great doctrine, so prevalent among the early
Fathers, which was borrowed and adapted by them from the Persian
Honover, the Hebrew Wisdom, and the Platonic Logos.27 "In the
beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and all
things were made by him;... and the Logos was made flesh and dwelt
among us."28 "God of our fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made
all things by thy Logos."29 "Thine almighty Logos leaped down from
heaven from his royal throne, a fierce warrior, into the midst of
a land of destruction."30 "Plainly enough, the Apocalyptic view of
Christ is based on that profound Logos doctrine so copiously

26 See the excursus by Stuart in his Commentary on the Apoc. xiii.
18, which conclusively shows that the Beast could be no other than
Nero.

27 Lucke, Einleitung in das Evang. Joh.

28 Evang. J