_A book written within and without. [1] Books were their skin, membranes, or parchments, and when written on both sides part of the writing appeared, though they were rolled up. --- Sealed with seven seals, as containing mysteries and secrets of high importance. (Witham)_ [BIBLIOGRAPHY] Intus et f... [ Continue Reading ]
_No man was able, [2] &c. As to the contents, some understand the prophecies and mysteries both of the Old and New Testament; others, the events that should afterwards happen to the Church of Christ, as various persecutions against Christians. Alcazar would have the sense of these words to be, that... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold the lion, of the tribe of Juda, &c. viz. Jesus Christ, who was descended from that tribe, denominated a lion on account of his great power, by which title we find him designated also in the prophecy of Jacob. (Genesis xlix. 9.) (Calmet) -- It is he who has merited by his triple victory over... [ Continue Reading ]
I saw....a Lamb standing as it were slain, with the prints and marks of its wounds. It was of this lamb (i.e. of our Saviour Jesus Christ) that St. John the Baptist said: "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world." (John i. 29.) (Witham) --- Here again Jesus Christ is plainly m... [ Continue Reading ]
He....took the book, [3]... and when he had opened it, or was about to open it, (in the Greek is only, he took it: which was a sign that he would open it)... the four and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, to adore him, as appears by what follows, ver. 13. --- Having every one of them harps... [ Continue Reading ]
&c. called _new, as belonging to the New Testament, or alliance of the new law of Christ. (Witham) --- Canticle; that is, excellent. The Scripture generally attaches the epithet new to canticles. New canticles are always more agreeable, says Pindar. (Grotius) --- And hast redeemed, &c. The twenty-fo... [ Continue Reading ]
_And hast made us to our God, &c. See 1 Peter ii. 5, 9. (Witham) --- All Christians may justly be styled kings and priests of God, by the spiritual empire they possess over their passions and the world; and by the continual offering they make on the altar of their hearts, by means of the prayers the... [ Continue Reading ]
_The number of them was thousands of thousands. [4] In the Greek also, ten thousand times ten thousand. (Witham)_ [BIBLIOGRAPHY] Millia millium, _Greek: muriades muriadon, kai chiliades chiliadon._... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lamb is worthy....to receive power and divinity, [5] &c. The Socinians and new Arians from hence pretend that the Lamb, Jesus Christ, is not the same true God with the Father, but only deserved divinity, or to be made God, in an inferior and an improper sense. The argument is of no force at all... [ Continue Reading ]