14:1. “…a Lamb stood on Mount Sion and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name written in their foreheads.”
See 17:9-10 for discussion of Mount Sion. These were standing upon the true Mount of God, the Highest of Mountains, the spiritual, not physical, place where Man rises up to fellowship and commune with God Himself, “mount Sion”.
“…Betwixt the north gates and the Temple, Zion was situated; on the west, was part of Zion and Millo; on the south, Jerusalem, as it is distinguished from Zion; on the east, the east street, whose gate is not the Sheep-gate but the Water-gate….
“We have elsewhere made it plain that Sion was situated on the north part of the city, contrary to the mistake of the tables, which place it on the south….” [1:362]
14:4. “…These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.”
The Talmudic tradition was that the first-fruits of the barley harvest could only be brought in from the land of Judea, and that as near as possible to the city of Jerusalem.
We understand, therefore that these one hundred forty-four thousand who are the ‘First-fruits’ represent those who were redeemed from the land of Judea and believed in Jesus Christ. [1:23]
“The sheaf of first-fruits was reaped from the Ashes’-valley of the brook Kedron. The first day of the feast of the Passover, certain persons, deputed from the Sanhedrim, went forth into that valley, a great company attending them; and very many out of the neighbouring towns flocked together, that the thing might be done, a great multitude being present.” ….
The sheaf of first-fruits was reaped with great pomp and ceremony attended by great crowds of people. A ritual was recited, part of which was: “…’I will reap;’ and they answered, ‘Reap.’–‘I will reap;’ and they answered, ‘Reap.’ This he said thrice; and they answered thrice, ‘Well.'” [1:84-5]
14:4. “… These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins … ”
After the destruction of the Temple, {circa 70 A.D.), the Pharisees passed additional prohibitions against eating flesh, drinking wine, and contracting marriages and having children.
Lightfoot says: “Behold, men prepared and sworn almost to perpetual abstinence from marriage by reason of calamities. From the like cause, also, I suspect some Christians might be in doubt in the times of the apostles. Our Saviour had foretold that those time should be very rough that went before the destruction of Jerusalem, Matt.xxiv: and that not within the bound of Judea only, but that ‘judgment should begin from the Temple of God,’ everywhere, 1 Pet.iv.17; and ‘a day of temptation should come upon the whole world,’ Rev.iii.20. So that the prediction being known to the churches, and the times now inclining towards those calamities, it is no wonder if concern and care about those straits invaded the Christians, and deterred very many single persons from marriage.” [4:216-7]
14:5. “…they are without fault before the throne of God….”
“In the room Gazith the great council of Israel sat, and judged concerning the priesthood. The Priest in whom any blemish was found, being clothed and veiled in black, went out and was dismissed: but if he had no blemish, he was clothed and veiled in white, and going in ministered, and gave his attendance with the rest of the priests his brethren….’And they made a gaudy day…when there was no blemish found in the seed of Aaron the priest.'” [3:31]
14:6. “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” (See 6:10 above).
On Matt. 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come,” Lightfoot says: “Jerusalem was not to be destroyed before the gospel was spread over all the world: God so ordering and designing it that the world, being first a catechumen in the doctrine of Christ, might have at length an eminent and undeniable testimony of Christ presented to it; when all men, as many as ever heard the history of Christ, should understand that dreadful wrath and severe vengeance which was poured out upon that city and nation by which he was crucified.” [2:313]
After the destruction of Jerusalem, persecution was so decreased that the gospel could be trumpeted throughout the earth in order to gather his elect from every nation. [2:320]
14:8 “And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
The following passage makes it clear that Rome was not a major consideration in the Rabbinic religion. The word ‘Edom‘ was sometimes interpreted to mean ‘Rome’ by the Rabbis. The historical Edom became known as Idumea from whence came Antipater, father of Herod the Great who became procurator of Judea. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD the Idumeans disappeared from history. Those who interpret Babylon the Great to be Rome, make Rome much more important than it actually was in Judaism in the time of John the Revelator. See commentary on 14:8, ‘Babylon’ is fallen”.
14:10. “…the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation;…”.
This should be seen in the context also of 16:1. “…Pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth….”
When Jesus spoke of his coming crucifixion and death in Matt. 20:22, He referred to it as a ‘cup’ and as a ‘baptism’. “The phrase…concerning the cup, is taken from divers places of Scripture, where sad and grievous things are compared to draughts of a bitter cup. You may think that …the cup of vengeance, of which there is mention in Bab Beracoth, means the same thing, but it is far otherwise: give me leave to quote it,…’Let them not talk (say they) over their cup of blessing; and let them not bless over their cup of vengeance ….What is the cup of vengeance? The second cup, saith R. Nachman Bar Isaac.’ Rabbena Asher and Piske are more clear: ‘If he shall drink off two cups, let him not bless over the third.’ The Gloss, ‘He that drinks off double cups is punished by devils.’….” [2:269]
Jesus gave his disciples the cup of wine saying: “This is my blood of the new covenant…” The traditions of the Jews have it that every person was to drink four cups of wine at the Passover. Some say that it was to be four “…according to the number of the four cups of vengeance which God shall give to the nations to drink, Jer.xxv.15; li.7; Psalm xi.6; lxxv.8. And according to the number of the four cups which God shall give Israel to drink, Psalm xxiii.5; xvi.5; cxvi. 13….
“…If he drinks wine pure, and not mingled with water, he hath performed his duty; but commonly they mingled water with it: hence, when there is mention of wine in the rubric of the feasts, they always use the word…they mingle him a cup….Their wine was very strong, and not fit to be drunk without water,’ &c….The mingling of water with every cup was requisite for health, and the avoiding of drunkenness.” [2:350-1]
14:10. “… fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”
The Jews’ conception of heaven and hell was that they were far distant from each other, but visible one to the other: “…’God hath set the one against the other [Eccles.vii.14;] that is… hell and paradise….How far are they distant? A handbreadth. R. Jochanan saith … A wall is between.’ But the Rabbins say, … They are so even with one another, that you may see out of one into the other.
“That of seeing out of the one into the other agrees with the passage before us {Luke 16:26}; nor is it very dissonant that it is said, They are so even with one another; that is, they are so even, that they have a plain view one from the other, nothing being interposed to hinder it, and yet so great a gulf between, that it is impossible to pass the one to the other. That is worth noting, Rev.xiv.10, ‘Shall be tormented with fire and brimstone, in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.'” [3:175-6]
14:13:”… blessed are the dead…”
Davies, [302]”‘… Wisd.3.1-4:”But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. 2. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery, 3. And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace. 4. For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality.’ (Cf. also 1.15;4.1,7,10;8.13,17;15.3.)”
Davies, [303]”… We read of the Essenes in Josephus:1 ”For their doctrine is this: ‘That bodies are corruptible, and that the matter they are made of is not permanent; but that the souls are immortal, and continue for ever; and that they come out of the most subtile air and are united to their bodies as in prisons, into which they are drawn by a certain natural enticement; but that when they are set free from the body of the flesh, they then, as released from a long bondage, rejoice and mount upward….’ [Note 1:”Wars of the Jews 2,10.11….”]
Davies, [318-9] “… Paul … speaks not of the resurrection of Christians but of their revelation. In Romans 8.19 we read: ‘The earnest longing of the creation waiteth for the revelation of the sons of God.’ and in Col.3.4, we read: ‘When Christ who is our life shall be revealed then shall ye also be revealed with him in glory.’ There is no need to resurrect those who have already died and risen with Christ and received their heavenly body, but they may be revealed. The final consummation would merely be the manifestation of that which is already existent but ‘hidden’ in the eternal order…. The unity of Christians with Christ their Lord is such for Paul that just as Christ Himself had already passed into the eternal order so had Christians also, although they still lived in the flesh. Thus the Colossians had already risen with Christ and although still living in the flesh yet they are ‘dead’ and their ‘life is hid with Christ in God’….If Christ died to this world, so have the members of His body; if He has risen into newness [p.319] of life, so have they; if He being risen from the dead dieth no more, neither do they; if God has glorified Him, He has also glorified them. They are righteous, holy, glorious, immortal, according to the prophecies, with the righteousness, holiness, glory and immortality which are His in full reality, and are theirs in the communion of His Body— ‘in Christ’.”
14:15-20. “…reap, for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe…”
Concerning the time of the Messiah the Jewish traditions read: “…’Then comes the thrashing; the straw they throw into the fire, the chaff into the wind; but the wheat they keep upon the floor: so the nations of the world shall be as the burning of a furnace; but Israel alone shall be preserved.'” {‘The nations of the world’ is, of course, by their notion, the Gentiles.) [1:84-5]
At the preparation of the Passover, “…That day drawing towards night, those that were deputed by the Sanhedrim to reap the sheaf of the first fruits went out. ‘Those that were deputed by the Sanhedrim to reap went forth … in the evening of the feast day.” [the first day of the feast], ‘and bound their corn in sheafs….All the neighboring towns about gathered together, that it might be done with the greater pomp. When it grew duskish, he that was about to reap said, ”The sun is set;’ and they answered, ‘Well.’ ‘The sun is set;’ and they answered ‘well.’ ‘With this sickle;’ ‘Well.’ ‘With this sickle;’ ‘Well.’ … ‘I will reap,’ and they said, ‘Reap.’ ‘I will reap;’ ‘Reap.’ And so as he said these things thrice over, they answered thrice to every one of them, ‘Well, Well, Well.’…
“About that hour of the day wherein our Saviour was buried, they went forth to this reaping; and when the sabbath was now come, they began the work; for the sabbath itself did not hinder this work….” [3:438] {The Sabbath began at twilight in the evening.}
14:18. “…gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.”
{The vine of the earth/land as opposed to the ‘true vine’.}
When Jesus said: “I am the true vine,” … “We may take these words in opposition to what is spoken concerning Israel. Israel is called a vine, Psalm lxxx.8; Is7; Jer.ii.21, &c.
“But that which is principally to be regarded in this place is that, that hitherto, indeed, Israel had been the vine, into which every one that would betake himself to the worship of the true God was to be set and grafted in. But from henceforward they were to be planted no more into the Jewish religion, but into the profession of Christ. To which that in Acts xi.26 hath some reference, where the disciples were first called ‘Christians,’ that is, no longer Jews or Israelites.
“Our Saviour … discoursed these things immediately after that he had instituted the holy eucharist: while he was ordaining that holy sacrament he had said, ‘This is the new testament in my blood;’ and from thence immediately adds, I am the true vine: so that for the future the church is to be under the administration of a new testament, and not, as the Jewish church, under that of the old; and from henceforward I am the true vine, into which all the branches of the church must be ingrafted, and not into the Israelitish vine any more….
“… Abide in me.] Indeed, a true fixing and abiding in Christ is by a true faith. But may we not suppose our Saviour here more peculiarly warning them against apostasy, or falling back from the gospel into Judaism, a plague likely to rage exceedingly in the church?” [3:403-3]
14:20. “…blood came out of the winepresses…”
“It obtained among the Jews, ‘That the land of Israel contained the square of four hundred parsae’….A parsa contains in it four miles. ‘Ten parsae…are forty miles.’…four hundred parsae…made a thousand six hundred miles. Which measure why they ascribed it to the land of Israel on every side of the square of it, whether from the measurings of Ezekiel, or from somewhat else, we do not here inquire. But we cannot but observe this, that the same number is mentioned and perhaps the same measure understood, Rev. xiv, 20: ‘Blood issued out of the lake to the horses’ bridles, for a thousand six hundred furlongs.’ Where the Arabic reads….’for the space of a thousand six hundred miles.'” [1:262]
Lightfoot estimates the actual breadth of the land at fifty-three miles from the Mediterranean sea to the Dead Sea (p. 267) and a little wider in the northern part of the country. The length of the land is approximately 232, more or less. [1:268]
“‘Hence it appears (saith R. Akibah), that there was a certain cave, whereby filth and uncleanness was carried down into the valley of Kedron.'”
“By such a pipe and evacuation under-ground, did the filth of the Court of the Temple run into the valley of Kedron. ‘The blood poured at the foot of the altar…flowed into a pipe, and emptied itself into the valley of Kedron: and it was sold to the gardeners to dung their gardens….'” [1:85].
“… The blood {of the sacrifices} that was over and above …, after the sprinkling of the inward altar, was poured out towards the foundation on the west of the outward altar. And the blood that was over and above at the outward altar was poured out at the foot of it on the south side: and both the one and the other meeting together ran down through a conveyance under ground into the brook Kidron: … and was sold to the gardeners to dung their gardens with; which having bought they used for that purpose.’
“For the blood, having been once dedicated to sacred use, might not be put to any common use without trespass; so that the gardeners paid so much money for it as would purchase a trespass offering.” [3:413-4]
“A great part of the valley of Kedron was called also the ‘Valley of Hinnon.’….The mention of it in the New (Testament) is only mystical and metaphorical, and is transferred to denote the place of the damned….” (See also 19:20 Lake of Fire.)
Quoting the Talmud, “Hadrian besieged Bether three years and a half.–And when they took it, they slew the men, the women, and the children, so that their blood flowed into the great sea. You will say, perhaps, that it was near the sea; but it was a mile distant. The tradition is, that R. Eliezer the Great saith, That there were two rivers in the valley of Jadaim, of which one flowed this way, –the other, that. And the Rabbins computed that the third part of them was blood, and two parts water. It was delivered also, that the heathen gathered the vintages, for the space of seven years, without dunging the land, because the vineyards were made fruitful enough by the blood of the Israelites.” [1:108]
Note that the time of this siege was three and a half years, the period of the last half of the ‘great tribulation’. (See also comments at 21-16: “Four square”.)