《Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments – Revelation》(Joseph Benson)

Commentator

One of the most eminent of the early Methodist ministers in England, Joseph Benson was born at Melmerby, in Cumberland, Jan. 25, 1748. At sixteen he became a Methodist and was converted. In 1766 Mr. Wesley appointed him classical master at Kingswood School. He devoted himself closely to philosophy and theology, studying constantly and zealously.

Joseph Benson became a Methodist circuit rider in 1771. A close associate of Wesley, he was chosen to be a member of the Legal One Hundred who governed the Conference at Wesley's death and he was president of the Conference two times. As one of post-Wesley Methodism's most popular preachers, he sometimes addressed crowds of over twenty thousand.

Wesley established an extensive organization, including the circuit riding system and a media or press to showcase books, pamphlets, and a monthly magazine. After the death of John Wesley, Joseph Benson took over the Methodist/Wesleyan movement and the organization that Wesley created.

During the Bristol dispute of 1794 he led the conservative Church Methodists and was against moves which suggested that the Methodists were breaking ties with the Church of England; he was one of the last leaders to contend for the methods and philosophy of eighteenth-century Wesleyan Methodism.

The circulation of The Methodist Magazine rose from ten thousand to twenty-four thousand per issue on his watch, and it was one of the most widely read periodicals in pre-Victorian England. He was an able writer, serving as apologist against Joseph Priestley, as biographer of John Fletcher, and as author of a multi-volume commentary on the Bible.

Benson was influential in Methodism, and through the press, especially the magazine, he was able to extend his influence to non-Methodists as well. He and other Methodist leaders, through preaching and publication, disseminated their conservative social and political credo and may be credited in part with creating a climate in which the seeds of Victorianism could thrive.

Introduction

REVELATION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE.

PREFACE

This Book of the Revelation has, for very good reasons, been received as one of the sacred books of the New Testament. The chief of these reasons have been mentioned by many authors, and are represented with great evidence and strength by Sir Isaac Newton, who observes, he does not find any other book of the New Testament so strongly attested, or commented upon so early, as this. And Dr. Lardner has collected with great care and faithfulness the testimonies of the most early Christian writers to the books of the New Testament, in his Treatise on the Credibility of the Gospel History. The testimony of some of the most eminent to the authority of this book is as follows: — 1. Justin Martyr, a person of great name, about the year of Christ 140, and so about fifty or sixty years after the writing of this book, expressly calls it a prophecy, and ascribes it to John the apostle, saying, “A man from among us, by name John, one of the apostles of Christ, in the Revelation to him, has prophesied,” &c. 2. Mileto, bishop of Sardis, one of the seven churches mentioned in the second and third chapters, wrote a book on the Revelation by St. John, which some think was an entire commentary; but whether or not, it shows he esteemed it a book of canonical authority. 3. Irenæus, who wrote about A.D. 178, within seventy or eighty years of St. John, expressly ascribes the Revelation to him, calling him the disciple of the Lord. His testimony to this book, as Lardner observes, “is so strong and full, that, considering the age of Irenæus, it seems to put it beyond all question that it was the work of St. John the apostle and evangelist.” 4. A little later, Theophilus of Antioch, in a book of his against the heresy of Hermogenes, makes use of testimonies from St. John’s Apocalypse. 5. Clement of Alexandria quotes these revelations as St. John’s, saying, “As John testifies in the Revelation.” And he refers to them as the words of an apostle, or as having the authority of apostolic writings. 6. Tertullian, who wrote about the year of Christ 200, and so somewhat about a hundred years after the time in which this book was written, observes, “John, in his Apocalypse, is commanded to correct those who ate things sacrificed to idols, and committed fornication.” And again: “We have churches, disciples of John; for, though Marcion rejects his Revelation, the succession of bishops, traced to the original, will assure us that John is the author of it.” We cannot wonder that Marcion should reject the Revelation, since he rejected all the Old Testament, and of the New received only the gospel of St. Luke, and ten epistles of St. Paul, which also he had corrupted and altered.

But this book of the Revelation, though never rejected by the ancient church, and as fully authenticated as any part of the canon of the New Testament, yet from the obscurity of the prophecies contained in it before their completion, was less known and less studied than the gospels, Acts, and epistles. Perhaps, says Dr. Apthorp, it was purposely concealed from being publicly read in the congregations of the early Christians, on principles of prudence and loyalty, as it distinctly foretold the subversion of the Roman empire, and the erecting other dynasties on its ruins. It was, however, universally received by the Latin Church, most interested in its predictions; and Eusebius and the Greek Church concurred with the Latins in venerating its authority as an essential part of the sacred canon. Indeed, the churches in general, nearest the times of the writing of this book, received it with so full consent, that, in a very few years, as Dr. Mill observes, it was acknowledged and placed in the number of apostolical writings, not only by the churches of Asia, but by the neighbouring churches of Syria and Samaria, by the more distant churches of Africa and Egypt, by Rome, and the other churches of Europe. Such reasons there are to receive this as one of the books of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, that hardly any one book has more early, full, or authentic attestations given to it.

Now all who thus receive it must acknowledge that it proceeds from the Spirit of prophecy; and that Spirit itself declares, “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear, the words of this prophecy,” &c., chap. Revelation 1:3. If we acknowledge this to be a true testimony respecting this book, as we must if we own it to be a book of Holy Scripture, we must acknowledge, also, that, how obscure soever the words of this prophecy may be, they are yet sufficiently intelligible to be very useful. Considering, however, the nature and design of prophecy, and the style and manner of expression generally used in it, we are not to expect that prophecies should be as easily understood as doctrines or precepts delivered in plain language, and the common familiar forms of speech. The nature and intention of prophecy were not to gratify our curiosity, by giving us to know future events, or, as it were, enabling us to tell the fortunes of the church and world; but to answer wise and good purposes; to confirm our faith, patience, and constancy; to encourage our hope and trust in God, and give us assurance of his protecting the cause of truth and righteousness, that is, of true religion: and especially to answer these good ends when we might be tempted to forsake true religion, by the power of prevailing error and reigning corruption, or might be greatly dejected and despair of success, when opposition to the truth is so powerful and violent as hardly to leave a reasonable prospect of bearing up against it. In such a state of things, which often has happened, it has been the use of prophecy to support the confidence and courage of good men, with lively and affecting representations of the majesty, power, and goodness of God; of his care to protect his cause and people, and of the power of his providence to superintend and order all things in the world in that way which shall most promote his own glory and the salvation of mankind. And, finally, the design of prophecy is to represent these things in such a manner as shall fix men’s attention, and confirm their faith in the truth of the Scriptures in which such prophecies are contained, and in his faithfulness certainly to accomplish his word in all things.

When such events of future time are foretold as shall, in their accomplishment, confirm our faith in the goodness, power, and faithfulness of God, and by such strong and lively representations thereof as shall make deep impressions on our minds, they answer a very wise and important design, and are of greater use than plainer precepts, enjoining constancy and perseverance, or plain promises of encouragement and reward, delivered in expressions more easy to be understood. In the first ages of Christianity, as well as in after times, good men were wont to be greatly discouraged with the afflictive state of the church, and the powerful opposition that was made to the gospel. For they hardly knew how to reconcile such a state of things with what they thought the Scriptures had given them reason to expect in the kingdom of the Messiah. It was, therefore, wise and proper, by a prophecy in the Christian Church, to support the minds of good men under these afflictions with assurances of Christ’s second coming, in its proper season, and of the watchful providence of God over his cause and people in the mean time. Thus the prophecies of this book are to us in the Christian Church of the like use that the prophecies of Christ’s first appearance were of to his ancient church.

That this is, properly speaking, a book of prophecy of things to come, as well as a description of the then present state and condition of the churches in Asia, Christ himself declares, Revelation 1:19, saying, “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;” and, Revelation 4:1, John heard a voice, which said, “Come up hither, and I will show thee the things that must be hereafter.” Some of these predictions, indeed, related to events not far distant from the time when the vision and prophecy were given, and, therefore, were soon to be accomplished. Thus the book is termed, Revelation 1:1, “the Revelation of Jesus Christ, &c., to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass;” and, Revelation 1:3, “Blessed is he that readeth, &c., for the time is at hand.” But from these and such like expressions we cannot infer, as some have done, that the whole prophecy was to be accomplished in a few years after the vision. They only show that the things foretold were soon to begin to be accomplished; not that their accomplishment was soon to end; the time included in these predictions evidently extending from the period when John had these visions to the day of final judgment.

At the time when John received the discoveries contained in this book, he was in banishment for “the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus;” and the church was under persecution so long as the Roman empire continued heathen. Severe persecutions were almost perpetually renewed; and, a little before the time of Constantine, they were so severe, that they seemed to threaten the utter destruction of all who could not be forced to renounce the Christian faith, and fall in with the idolatrous worship established in the empire. The last persecution, under Diocletian, destroyed such incredible numbers, that the persecutors boasted they had effaced the name and superstition of the Christians, and had restored and propagated the worship of the gods. Yet the divine providence, after several great revolutions, made way for the authority of Constantine the Great, who put an end to the long persecution of ten years, gave freedom to the churches, and finally gave all protection and countenance to the Christian Church, and all assistance to promote the Christian faith and worship. So that the same power which before persecuted now protected the religion of Christ. The first period of prophecy, then, seems naturally to point out this period of history, which in general answers to it with great propriety and exactness, and will direct us to look for the fulfilment of the several parts of it, in some of the events of providence, which took place between the time of the vision, and the year of Christ about 323, when the opposition of the idolatrous power of Rome gave way to the protection and favour of Christian emperors.

The second period of prophecy points out the period of history between the year of Christ 323 to about 750, in which compass of time we seem to be directed to look for the accomplishment of the several particular predictions contained in this period; namely, when the Roman empire beginning to lose its power, and becoming unable to protect the church, a swarm of idolatrous nations from the northern countries, under several names, broke in upon that empire, and divided the western part of it into several separate and independent governments, or kingdoms; so that the Christian faith and worship were in as much danger from the idolatry of the northern nations, who had divided the empire among them, as they were before in danger from the idolatry of the empire itself. It pleased God, also, to permit that impostor, Mohammed, and his successors, to gain so much ground, and to spread that imposture so far and so fast, that it threatened the ruin of the Christian name and religion in the East. Yet the idolatrous northern nations were soon themselves brought to embrace Christianity, and to use all their power and authority to protect and promote it. And though the Saracens made great inroads for some time, yet was their progress stopped both in the east and west, as shall be shown in the proper place.