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The Sweep of Praise in the Apocalypse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2024

Roland Potter O.P.
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Extract

A total view of Scripture shows that Genesis tells of the emanation of all, of the Fall and the Promise; the apostolic writings speak of Redemptive Incarnation as relevant to all; now there remains the Apocalypse to throw light on the return of all, as it now is, and as it will be, fulfilled. Too often the prophecy is inadequately appreciated, precisely because of its apocalyptic character and the difficulty of its imagery. The difficulty of the book is lessened by a triumph of Catholic exegesis; its inner lessons are indispensable. Despite its utterly judaistic dress and a riot of oriental imagery, it is intensely realist in its deep doctrinal content, which is no less than Jésus-Christ vu et écouté dans sa gloire. It is a fifth gospel.

'…Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God in the blooo out of every tribe and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us to our God a kingdom and priests, and we shall reign on earth.’

Type
Research Article
Information
Life of the Spirit , Volume 6 , Issue 69 , March 1952 , pp. 382 - 387
Copyright
Copyright © 1952 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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References

1 cf. e.g., Porter in Hastings Dictionary of the Bible, iv, 265.

2 Allo. St Jean. L'Apocalypse.

3 Bossuet. Priface sur L'Apoc. (Ed. Gautier, 1838, t. xxi, p.343). A splendid example of Catholic attitude to the Apocalypse.

4 as much as twenty-nine times. The Lamb's blood is efficacious on earth, enabling the just to triumph over the wicked as in heaven, where the good are rewarded after the struggles of earth. Cf. 12, 11, & 19, 7-9. He has conquered Satan, and is the prize of those who conquer with him. (3, 21.)

5 Apoc. 6, 1-2; for a defence of this interpretation, cf. Allo in loco.

6 for St Jhon's use of symbol, picture, etc. Cf. Allo, p. LXXI.

7 jThe numbers are intended, thus 4 is the number of nature (with its four constituents, heaven, earth, hell, sea; or four quarters, N.S.E.W.), when it sings the praises of the Creator and Redeemer. Further, every number in this context is significant; thus 7 is reserved to the Lord Incarnate, who repairs and completes the work of creation and s his sevenfold gifts of the Spirit, etc. Cf. Allo. on 5, 13-14 and elsewhere.

8 This important characteristic of style, when grasped, simplifies the understanding of the book. Cf. Alb pp. LXXVIII seq. especially LXXXV. It is a feature of Joannine style, and capital evidence for the identity of authorship of the Apocalypse, the Joannine Epistles, and the fourth Gospel.

9 In the imagery of the book there are the Lamb, enthroned with God, or on earth reigning in Sion (14 & 17); the Dragon, leader of the anti-kingdom; the Woman (12) who is the Church of Old and New Law, and, as representing the chosen race, Mother Pjrae Christ; towards the end the Woman becomes the City (as in 4, Esdras 13), for the New Jerusalem is depicted both as city and as person, being the bride of the Lamb (21, 2, cf. 19, 7, & 22, 17); the Beasts are the visible, temporal agents of the Dragon (13-20); Babylon (17), like Jerusalem, is imagined as a Woman and City, but only depicted in the first guise; it is pagan Rome, the great enemy of the Church at the time, the first Incarnation of the Beast's power. Jerusalem is Bride of the Lamb, Babylon abandoned to the kings of earth, vassal of the Beast.