20:4-13

20:4. “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received [his] mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

 

                Commenting on Matt. 19:28, Lightfoot cites the referent for this verse in Daniel, chap. vii.9,10,…”thrones were cast down” should have been translated “thrones were set up ….because not only Christ shall judge, but the apostles, and perfect men, shall assist him in judgment, sitting upon thrones.’….

 

                “…those thrones set up in Daniel are not to be understood of the last judgment of Christ, but of his judgment in his entrance upon his evangelical government when he was made by his Father chief ruler, king, and judge of all things: Psalm ii.6, Matt. xxviii.18, John v. 27.  ….Those words, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand,’ that judiciary scene set up Rev. iv. and v., and those thrones Rev. xx.1 &c. do interpret Daniel to this sense.

 

                “…That the sitting of the apostles upon thrones with Christ is not to be understood of their persons, it is sufficiently proved; because Judas was now one of the number: but it is meant of their doctrine: as if he had said, ‘When I shall bring judgment upon this most unjust nation, then your doctrine, which you have preached in my name, shall judge and condemn them.’ See Rom.ii.16.

 

                Hence it appears that the gospel was preached to all the twelve tribes of Israel before the destruction of Jerusalem.”  [2:265-6]

 

                Commenting on 1 Cor. 6:2: “…But whence was this known, or to be known, that Christians should be magistrates, and judges of the world?  Most easily and plainly out of Dan.vii.18, 27: where when the four heathen monarchies which had so long ruled the world under their tyranny fell, at length the rule, and dominion, and empire under the whole heaven, was to be translated to the people of the saints of the Most High….” 

 

                “… That which is said by the Apocalyptic, chap. xx.4, agrees with the sense of this place: that when Christ had bound Satan, he should no more deceive the Gentiles as he had done before, by idols, oracles, &c.  Thrones are set up, and judgment is given unto them who sit upon them, that is, a power and authority of judging, and ruling, and exercising magistracy.

 

                “Ver.3: {1 Cor. 6} … Know ye not that we shall judge angels?]  He saith not, as he did before, the saints shall judge angels, but we shall judge them.  By angels, all confess devils to be understood.  But certainly all saints, (according to the latitude of that word in the verse foregoing,) that is, all that profess Christianity, shall not judge devils.  Nor is this judging of angels to be understood in the last day.  But the apostle speaks of the ministers of the gospel, himself, and others, who by the preaching of the gospel and the name of Christ should spoil the devils of their oracles and idols, should deprive them of their worships, should drive them out of their seats, and strip them of their dominion.  Thus would God subdue the whole world under Christian power; that Christian magistrates should judge men, and ministers of the gospel, devils: and do not you now judge among yourselves of some trivial differences?”  [4:199-200]

 

20:8-9. “…Gog and Magog…and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them…”

 

                Speaking of the Valley of Hinnom, (Tophet, or Kedron), Lightfoot quotes Kimchi: “…Those Gentiles…who come to worship from month to month, and from sabbath to sabbath, shall go out without Jerusalem into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and shall see the carcasses of Gog and Magog,’ &c. And a little after; ‘The just shall go out without Jerusalem into the valley of Hinnon, and shall see those that rebel,’ &c….”  (See Lightfoot, [1:86].  See also Revelation 16:16, “Armageddon”.)

 

                Ezekiel uses the term ‘Gog’ for the Grecian Empire that so persecuted the Jews in the times of the Maccabees, trying to destroy the people, their temple, and the true worship of God.  “The chief actor in those tragedies was Antiochus Epiphanes, the bloodiest enemy that the people and religion of the Jews ever had: who besides other horrid things he acted against their law and religion, profaned the Temple and the altar, and made the daily sacrifice to cease for ‘a thousand and three hundred days,’….The same things are told of Titus.  [1:372-3]

 

                “…the traditions of the scribes affrighted the nation with the report of Gog and Magog, immediately to go before the coming of the Messiah:–

 

                “‘R. Eliezer Ben Abina saith, When you see the kingdoms disturbing one another, … then expect the footsteps of the Messiah.  And know that this is true from hence, that so it was in the days of Abraham; for kingdoms disturbed one another, and then came redemption to Abraham.’  And elsewhere; ‘So they came against Abraham, and so they shall come with Gog and Magog’….”  [2:439]

 

                “…It is a tradition….What may a man do to be delivered from the sorrows of Messias?  Let him be conversant in the law and in the works of mercy.’  The Gloss is, ‘…that is, the terrors and the sorrows which shall be in his days.’  ‘He that feasts thrice on the sabbath day shall be delivered from three miseries…from the sorrows of Messiah, from the judgment of hell, and from the war of Gog and Magog.’  Where the Gloss is this, ”From the sorrows of Messias:’ for in that age, wherein the Son of David shall come, there will be…an accusation of the scholars of the wise men.  The word … [sorrows]…denotes such pains as women in childbirth endure.'”  [2:442]

 

                Gog and Magog are familiar characters in the traditions of the Jews.  “…’Gog and Magog will say…They were all fools that are gone before us.’  Hence that common phrase, … O thou most foolish thing in all the world.’  [3:121]

 

                “… In the last days.]… We have elsewhere observed that by the last days is to be understood the last days of Jerusalem and the Jewish economy, viz. when … the end of the Jewish world drew near.  And there would be the less doubt as to this matter if we would frame a right notion of ‘that great and terrible day of the Lord;’ that is, the day of his vengeance upon that place and nation.  Which terror the Jews, according to their custom and fashion, put far off from themselves, and devolve it upon Gog and Magog, who were to be cut off and destroyed.”  [4:30]

 

20:9. “…the camp of the saints….”

 

                “…’all cities that have walls bear a resemblance to the camp of Israel.'”  [2:365]

 

                “Now the camp of Israel, out of which the leper was to be excluded, {see Luke 17:12} they interpreted to be every city that had been walled from the days of Joshua: ‘For (say they) Joshua sanctified the walled cities with the holiness that was ascribed to the camp of Israel; but he did not so to the rest of the land, nor the cities that had no walls.'”  [3:180]

 

20:10, 14. “…the lake of fire….”

 

                “…The Jews do very usually express hell or the place of the damned, by the word …Gehinnom, which might be shown in infinite examples; the manner of speech being taken from the valley of Hinnon, a place infamous for foul idolatry committed there; for the howlings of infants roasted to Moloch; filth carried out thither; and for a fire that always was burning, and so most fit to represent the horror of hell.

 

                “‘There are three doors of Gehenna;….The third in Jerusalem, as it is written, Thus saith the Lord, whose fire is in Sion, and his furnace in Jerusalem,’ Isa.xxxi.9.  The tradition of the school of R. Ismael; ‘Whose fire is in Sion,’ this is the gate of Gehenna.’

 

“The Chaldee paraphrast upon Isaiah, chap.xxxiii.14,…Gehenna, eternal fire, &c…..the Gehenna of eternal fire.‘”  [2:109-110]  [See also 11:8 on the word ‘Sodom.’]

 

                The Sea of Sodom, or ‘the lake Asphaltitis’ is also known as ‘the Dead Sea.’  It seems there was a great deposit of bitumen, or asphalt there which, if ignited would cause a tremendous conflagration.  This Sea was spoken of by the Talmudists as the epitome of all that was worthless, vile and worthy of cursing.

 

20:11. “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.”

 

                Davies, [65] “… ‘And many nations shall be joined to the Lord on that day’ (Zech. 2.11).  R. Haninah b. Papa [ AD120-40] said:  ‘This refers to the day when God will judge all the nations in the time to come.  Then He will bring forward all the proselytes in this age and judge the nations in their presence and say to them, ‘Why have you left me to serve idols in which there is no reality.’ The nations will reply, ‘Sovereign of the universe, had we come to Thy door, Thou wouldst not have received us.’  God will say to them, ‘Let the proselytes from you come and testify against you.’ At once will God bring forward all the proselytes who will judge the nations and say to them, ‘Why did you abandon God and serve idols that are unreal?  Was not Jethro a priest of idols, and when he came to God’s door, did not God receive him?  And were we not idolaters, and when we came to God’s door, did not God receive us?’ At once all the wicked will be abashed at the answer of the proselytes.  {Quoting Pesikta R. 161a.}’

 

20:13: “And the sea gave up the dead in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead in them, ….”

 

                Davies, [300-1]  “… R. Ishmael (A.D.120-40) said:  All the bodies crumble into the dust of the earth until nothing remains of the body except a spoonful of earthy matter.  In the future life when the Holy One, blessed be He, calls to the earth to return all the bodies deposited with it, that which had become mixed with the dust of the earth, like the yeast which is mixed with dough, improves and increases and it raises up all the body.  When the Holy One, blessed be He, calls to the earth to return the bodies [301] deposited with it, that which has become mixed with the dust of the earth improves and increases and raises up all the body without water.’1 [Note 1:”Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer,  ¶xxxiv,p.258”]

               

                Davies, [307]  “… the life of the Age to Come, the resurrection life, was considered by some at least to be inexpressible in any terms of time and space.”

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