Revelation 20:6

Blessed - That is, his condition is to be regarded as a happy or a favored one. This is designed apparently to support and encourage those who, in the time of John, suffered persecution, or who might suffer persecution afterward.

And holy - That is, no one will be thus honored who has not an established character for holiness. Holy principles will then reign, and none will be exalted to that honor who have not a character for eminent sanctity.

That hath part in the first resurrection - That participated in it; that is, who is associated with those who are thus raised up.

On such the second death hath no power - The “second death” is properly the death which the wicked will experience in the world of woe. See Rev 20:14. The meaning here is, that all who are here referred to as having part in the first resurrection will be secure against that. It will be one of the blessed privileges of heaven that there will be absolute security against death in any and every form; and when we think of what death is here, and still more when we think of “the bitter pains of the second death,” we may well call that state “blessed” in which there will be eternal exemption from either.

But they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him - notes at Rev 1:6; Rev 5:10.

Section b. - Condition of the world in the period referred to in Rev 20:4-6.

I. It is well known that this passage is the principal one which is relied on by those who advocate the doctrine of the literal reign of Christ on the earth for a thousand years, or who hold what are called the doctrines of the “second advent.” The points which are maintained by those who advocate these views are substantially:

(a)That at that period Christ will descend from heaven to reign personally upon the earth;

(b)That he will have a central place of power and authority, probably Jerusalem;

(c)That the righteous dead will then be raised, in such bodies as are to be immortal;

(d)That they will be his attendants, and will participate with him in the government of the world;

(e)That this will continue during the period of a thousand years;

(f)That the world will be subdued and converted during this period, not by moral means, but by “a new dispensation” - by the power of the Son of God; and,

(g)That at the close of this period all the remaining dead will be raised, the judgment will take place, and the affairs of the earth will be consummated.

The opinion here adverted to was held substantially by Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and others among the Christian fathers, and, it need not be said, is held by many modern expositors of the Bible, and by large numbers of Christian ministers of high standing, and other Christians. See the “Literalist, passim.” The opinion of the Christian fathers, with which the modern “literalists,” as they are called, substantially coincide, is thus stated by Mr. Elliott: “This resurrection is to be literally that of departed saints and martyrs, then at length resuscitated in the body from death and the grave; its time to synchronize with, or follow instantly after, the destruction of the beast antichrist, on Christ’s personal second advent; the “binding” of Satan to be an absolute restriction of the power of hell from tempting, deceiving, or injuring mankind, throughout a literal period of a thousand years, thence calculated; the “government of the earth” during its continuance to be administered by Christ and the risen saints - the latter being now ἰσάγγελοι isangeloi - in nature like angels; and under it, all false religion having been put down, the Jews and saved remnant of the Gentiles been converted to Christ, the earth renovated by the fire of antichrist’s destruction, and Jerusalem made the universal capital, there will be a realization on earth of the blessedness depicted in the Old Testament prophecies, as well as perhaps of that too which is associated with the New Jerusalem in the visions of the Apocalypse - until at length this millennium having ended, and Satan gone forth to deceive the nations, the final consummation will follow; the new-raised enemies of the saints, Gog and Magog, be destroyed by fire from heaven: and then the general resurrection and judgment take place, the devil and his servants be cast into the lake of fire, and the millennial reign of the saints extend itself into one of eternal duration” (Elliott on the Apocalypse, iv. 177, 178).

Mr. Elliott’s own opinion, representing, it is supposed, that of the great body of the “literalists,” is thus expressed: “It would seem, therefore, that in this state of things and of feeling in professing Christendom (a feeling of carnal security), all suddenly, and unexpectedly, and conspicuous over the world as the lightning that shineth from the east even unto the west, the second advent and appearing of Christ will take place; that at the accompanying voice of the archangel and trump of God, the departed saints of either dispensation will rise from their graves to meet him - alike patriarchs, and prophets, and apostles, and martyrs, and confessors - all at once and in the twinkling of an eye; and then instantly the saints living at the time will be also caught up to meet him in the air; these latter being separated out of the ungodly nations, as when a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats, and all, both dead and living saints, changed at the moment from corruption to incorruption, from dishonor to glory, though with very different degrees of glory; and so in a new angelic nature, to take part in the judging and ruling in this world.

Meanwhile, with a tremendous earthquake accompanying, of violence unknown since the revolutions of primeval chaos, an earthquake under which the Roman world at least is to rock to and fro like a drunken man, the solid crust of this earth shall be broken, and fountains burst forth from its inner deep, not as once of water, but of liquid fire; and that the flames shall consume the antichrist and his confederate kings, while the sword also does its work of slaughter; the risen saints being perhaps the attendants of the Lord’s glory in this destruction of antichrist, and assessors in his judgment on a guilty world. And then immediately the renovation of this our earth is to take place, its soil being purified by the very action of the fire, and the Spirit poured out from on high, to renew, in a yet better sense, the moral face of nature; the Shekinah, or personal glory of Christ amidst his saints, being manifested chiefly in the Holy Land and at Jerusalem, but the whole earth partaking of the blessedness; and thus the regeneration of all things, and the world’s redemption from the curse, having their accomplishment, according to the promise, at the manifestation of the sons of God,” 4:224-231.

To this account of the prevailing opinion of the “literalists” in interpreting the passage before us, there should be added that of Prof. Stuart, who, in general, is as far as possible from sympathizing with this class of writers. He says, in his explanation of the expression “they lived,” in Rev 20:4, “There would seem to remain, therefore, only one meaning which can be consistently given to ἔζησαν ezēsan (they lived); namely, that they (the martyrs who renounced the beast) are now “restored to life,” namely, such life as implies the vivification of the body. Not to a union of the soul with a gross material body indeed, but with such an one as the saints in general will have at the final resurrection - a spiritual body, 1Co 15:44. In no other way can this resurrection be ranked as “correlate” with the second resurrection named in the sequel,” vol. ii. p. 360. So again, Excursus vi. (vol. ii. p. 476), he says, “I do not see how we can, on the ground of exegesis, fairly avoid the conclusion that John has taught in the passage before us, that there will be a resurrection of the martyr-saints, at the commencement of the period after Satan shall have been shut up in the dungeon of the great abyss.” This opinion he defends at length, pp. 476-490. Prof. Stuart, indeed, maintains that the martyrs thus raised up will be taken to heaven and reign with Christ “there,” and opposes the whole doctrine of the literal reign on the earth, vol. ii. p. 480. The risen saints and martyrs are to be “enthroned with Christ; that is, they are to be where he dwells, and where he will continue to dwell, until he shall make his descent at the final judgment day.”

II. In regard to these views, as expressive of the meaning of the passage under consideration, I would make the following remarks:

(1) There is strong “presumptive” evidence against this interpretation, and especially against the main point in the doctrine, that there will be a literal “resurrection” of the bodies of the saints at the beginning of that millennial period, to live and reign with Christ on earth, from the following circumstances:

(a) It is admitted, on all hands, that this doctrine, if contained in the Scriptures at all, is found in this one passage only. It is not pretended that there is, in any other place, a direct affirmation that this will literally occur, nor would the advocates for that opinion undertake to show that it is fairly implied in any other part of the Bible. But it is strange, not to say improbable, that the doctrine of the literal resurrection of the righteous, a thousand years before the wicked, should be announced in one passage only. If it were so announced in plain and unambiguous language, I admit that the believer in the divine origin of the Scriptures would be bound to receive it; but this is so contrary to the usual method of the Scriptures on all great and important doctrines, that this circumstance should lead us at least to doubt whether the passage is correctly interpreted. The resurrection of the dead is a subject on which the Saviour often dwelt in his instructions; it is a subject which the apostles discussed very frequently and at great length in their preaching, and in their writings; it is presented by them in a great variety of forms, for the consolation of Christians in time of trouble, and with reference to the condition of the world at the winding up of human affairs; and it is strange that, in respect to so important a doctrine as this, if it be true, there is not elsewhere, in the New Testament, a hint, an intheation, an allusion, that would lead us to suppose that the righteous are to be raised in this manner.

(b) If this is a true doctrine, it would be reasonable to expect that a clear and unambiguous statement of it would be made. Certainly, if there is but one statement on the subject, that might be expected to be a perfectly clear one, it would be a statement about which there could be no diversity of opinion, concerning which those who embraced it might be expected to hold the same views. But it cannot be pretended that this is so in regard to this passage. It occurs in the book which, of all the books in the Bible, is most distinguished for figures and symbols; it cannot be maintained that it is “directly and clearly” affirmed; and it is not so taught that there is any uniformity of view among those who profess to hold it. In nothing has there been greater diversity among people than in the opinions of those who profess to hold the “literal” views respecting the personal reign of Christ on the earth. But this fact assuredly affords “presumptive” evidence that the doctrine of the literal resurrection of the saints a thousand years before the rest of the dead, is not intended to be taught.

(c) It is presumptive proof against this, that nothing is said of the employment of those who are raised up; of the reason why they are raised; of the new circumstances of their being; and of their condition when the thousand years shall have ended. In so important a matter as this, we can hardly suppose that the whole subject would be left to a single hint in a symbolical representation, depending on the doubtful meaning of a single word, and with nothing to enable us to determine, with absolute certainty, that this must be the meaning.

(d) If it be meant that this is a description of the resurrection of the “righteous” as such - embracing all the righteous - then it is wholly unlike all the other descriptions of the resurrection of the righteous that we have in the Bible. Here the account is confined to “those that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus,” and to “those who had not worshipped the beast.” If the righteous, as such, are here referred to, why are these particular classes specified? Why are not the usual general terms employed? Why is the account of the resurrection confined to these? Elsewhere in the Scriptures, the account of the resurrection is given in the most “general” terms (compare Mat 25:41; Joh 4:54; Joh 5:28-29; Rev 2:7; 1Co 15:23; Phi 3:20-21; 2Th 1:10; Heb 9:28; 1Jo 2:28-29; 1Jo 3:2); and if this had been the designed reference here, it is inconceivable why the statement should be limited to the martyrs, and to those who have evinced great fidelity in the midst of temptations and allurements to apostasy. These circumstances furnish strong “presumptive” proofs, at least, against the doctrine that there is to be a literal resurrection of all the saints at the beginning of the millennial period. Compare “Christ’s Second Coming,” by David Brown, p. 219ff.

(2) In reference to many of the views necessarily implied in the doctrine of the “second advent,” and avowed by those who hold that doctrine, it cannot be pretended that they receive any countenance or support from this passage. In the language of Prof. Stuart (Com. vol. ii. p. 479), there is “not a word of Christ’s descent to the earth at the beginning of the millennium. Nothing of the literal assembling of the Jews in Palestine; nothing of the Messiah’s temporal reign on earth; nothing of the overflowing abundance of worldly peace and plenty.” Indeed, in all this passage, there is not the remotest hint of the grandeur and magnificence of the reign of Christ as a literal king upon the earth; nothing of his having a splendid capital at Jerusalem, or anywhere else; nothing of a new dispensation of a miraculous kind; nothing of the renovation of the earth to fit it for the abode of the risen saints. All this is the mere work of fancy, and no man can pretend that it is to be found in this passage.

(3) Nor is there anything here of a literal resurrection of the “bodies” of the dead, as Prof. Stuart himself supposes. It is not a little remarkable that a scholar so accurate as Prof. Stuart is, and one, too, who has so little sympathy with the doctrines connected with a literal reign of Christ on the earth, should have lent the sanction of his name to perhaps the most objectionable of all the dogmas connected with that view - the opinion that the “bodies” of the saints will be raised up at the beginning of the millennial period. Of this there is not one word, one intimation, one hint, in the passage before us. John says expressly, “and as if to guard the point from all possible danger of this construction,” that he “saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus”; he saw them “living” and “reigning” with Christ - raised to the exalted honor during that period, as if they had been raised from the dead; but he nowhere mentions or intimates that they were raised up from their graves; that they were clothed with bodies; that they had their residence now literally on the earth; or that they were, in any way, otherwise than disembodied spirits. There is not even one word of their having “a spiritual body.”

(4) There are “positive” arguments, which are perfectly decisive, against the interpretation which supposes that the bodies of the saints will be raised up at the beginning of the millennial period, to reign with Christ on the earth for a thousand years. Among these are the following:

(a) If the “first resurrection” means rising from the grave in immortal and glorified bodies, we do not need the assurance Rev 20:6, that on such the second death hath no power”; that is, that they would not perish forever. That would be a matter of course, and there was no necessity for such a statement. But if it be supposed that the main idea is that the “principles” of the martyrs and of the most eminent saints would be revived and would live, as if the dead were raised up, and would be manifested by those who were in “mortal” bodies - people living on the earth - then there would be a propriety in saying that all such were exempt from the danger of the “second” death. “Once,” indeed, they would die; but the “second” death could not reach them. Compare Rev 2:10-11.

(b) In the whole passage there are but two classes of people referred to. There are those “who have part in the first resurrection”; that is, according to the supposition, all the saints; and there are those over whom “the second death” has power. Into which of these classes are we to put the myriads of people having flesh and blood who are to people the world during the millennium? They have no part in “the first resurrection,” if it be a bodily one. Are they then given over to the power of the “second death?” But if the “first resurrection” be regarded as figurative and spiritual, then the statement that those who are actuated by the spirit of the martyrs and of the eminent saints, shall not experience the “second death,” is seen to have meaning and pertinency.

(c) The mention of the “time” during which they are to reign, if it be literally understood, is contrary to the whole statement of the Bible in other places. They are to “live and reign with Christ” “a thousand years.” What, then? Are they to live no longer? Are they to reign no longer with him? This supposition is entirely contrary to the current statement in the Scriptures, which is, that they are to live and reign with him forever: 1Th 4:17, “And so shall we ever be with the Lord.” According to the views of the “literalists,” the declaration that they “should live and reign with Christ,” considered as the characteristic features of the millennial state, is to terminate with the thousand years - for this is the promise, according to that view, that they should thus live and reign. But it need not be said that this is wholly contrary to the current doctrine of the Bible, that they are to live and reign with him forever.

(d) A further objection to this view is, that the wicked part of the world - “the rest of the dead who lived not again until the thousand years were finished” - must of course be expected to “live again” in the same bodily sense wheat those thousand years were finished. But, so far from this, there is no mention of their living then. When the thousand years are finished, Satan is loosed for a season; then the nations are roused to opposition against God; then there is a conflict, and the hostile forces are overthrown; and then comes the final judgment. During all this time we read of no resurrection at all. The period after this is to be filled up with something besides the resurrection of the “rest of the dead.” There is no intheation, as the “literal” construction, as it is claimed, would demand, that immediately after the “thousand years arc finished” the “rest of the dead” - the wicked dead - would be raised up; nor is there any intimation of such a resurrection until all the dead are raised up for the final trial, Rev 20:12. But every consideration demands, if the interpretation of the “literalists” be correct, that the “rest of the dead” - the unconverted dead - should be raised up immediately after the close of the millennial period, and be raised up as a distinct and separate class.

(e) There is no intimation in the passage itself that the “righteous” will be raised up “as such” in this period, and the proper interpretation of the passage is contrary to that supposition. There are but two classes mentioned as having part in the first resurrection. They are those who were “beheaded for the witness of Jesus,” and those who “had not worshipped the beast” - that is, the martyrs, and those who had been eminent for their fidelity to the Saviour in times of great temptation and trial. There is no mention of the resurrection of the righteous as “such” - of the resurrection of the great body of the redeemed; and if it could be shown that this refers to a “literal” resurrection, it would be impossible to apply it, according to any just rules of interpretation, to anymore than the two classes that are specified. By what rules of interpretation is it made to to teach that “all” the righteous will be raised up on that occasion, and will live on the earth during that long period? In this view of the matter, the passage “does not” express the doctrine that the whole church ofi God will be raised bodily from the grave. And supposing it had been the design of the Spirit of God to teach this, is it credible, when there are so many clear expressions in regard to the resurrection of the dead, that so important a doctrine should have been reserved for one single passage so obscure, and where the great mass of the readers of the Bible in all ages have failed to perceive it? That is not the way in which, in the Scriptures, great and momentous doctrines are communicated to mankind.

(f) The fair statement in Rev 20:11-15 is, that all the dead will then be raised up and be judged. This is implied in the general expressions there used - “the dead, small and great”; the “book of life was opened” - as if not opened before; “the dead” - all the dead - “were judged out of those things which were written in the books”; “the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell (hades) delivered up the dead which were in them.” This is entirely inconsistent with the supposition that a large part of the race to wit, all the righteous - had been before raised up; had passed the solemn judgment; had been clothed with their immortal bodies, and had been admitted to a joint reign with the Saviour on his throne. In the last judgment what place are they to occupy? In what sense are they to be raised up and judged? Would such a representation have been made as is found in Rev 20:11-15, if it had been designed to teach that a large part of the race had been already raised up, and had received the approval of their judge?

(g) This representation is wholly inconsistent, not only with Rev 20:11-15, but with the uniform language of the Scriptures, “that all the righteous and the wicked will be judged together, and both at the coming of Christ.” On no point are the statements of the Bible more uniform and explicit than on this, and it would seem that the declarations had been of design so made that there should be no possibility of mistake. I refer for full proof on this point to the following passages of the New Testament: Mat 10:32-33, compared with Mat 7:21-23; Mat 13:30, Mat 13:38-43; Mat 16:24-27; Mat 25:10,31-46; Mar 8:38; Joh 5:28-29; Act 17:31; Rom 2:5-16; Rom 14:10, Rom 14:12; 1Co 3:12-15; 1Co 4:5; 2Co 5:9-11; 2Th 1:6-10; 1Ti 5:24-25; 2Pe 3:7, 2Pe 3:10, 2Pe 3:12; 1Jo 2:28; 1Jo 4:17; Rev 3:5; Rev 20:11-15; Rev 22:12-15. It is utterly “impossible” to explain these passages on any other supposition than that they are intended to teach that the righteous and the wicked will be judged together, and both at the coming of Christ. And if this is so, it is of course impossible to explain them consistently with the view that all the righteous will have been already raised up at the beginning of the millennium in their immortal and glorified bodies, and that they have been solemnly approved by the Saviour, and admitted to a participation in his glory. Nothing could be more irreconcilable than these two views; and it seems to me, therefore, that the objections to the literal resurrection of the saints at the beginning of the millennial period are insuperable.

III. The following points, then, according to the interpretation proposed, are implied in this statement respecting the “first resurrection,” and these will clearly comprise all that is stated on the subject:

(1) There will be a reviving, and a prevalence of the spirit which actuated the saints in the best days, and a restoration of their principles as the grand principles which will control and govern the church, as if the most eminent saints were raised again from the dead, and lived and acted upon the earth.

(2) Their memory will then be sacredly cherished, and they will be honored on the earth with the honor which is due to theft names, and which they should have received when in the land of the living. They will be no longer cast out and reproached; no longer held up to obloquy and scorn; no longer despised and forgotten; but there will be a reviving of sacred regard for their principles, as if they lived on the earth, and had the honor which was due to them.

(3) There will be a state of things upon the earth as if they thus lived and were thus honored. Religion will no longer be trampled under foot, but will triumph. In all parts of the earth it will have the ascendency, as if the most eminent saints of past ages lived and reigned with the Son of God in his kingdom. A spiritual kingdom will be set up with the Son of God at the head of it, which will be a kingdom of eminent holiness, as if the saints of the best days of the church should come back to the earth and dwell upon it. The ruling influence in the world will be the religion of the Son of God, and the principles which have governed the most holy of his people.

(4) It may be implied that the saints and martyrs of other times will be employed by the Saviour in embassies of mercy; in visitations of grace to our world to carry forward the great work of salvation on earth. Nothing forbids the idea that the saints in heaven may be thus employed, and in this long period of a thousand years, it may be that they will be occupied in such messages and agencies of mercy to our world as they have never been before - as if they were raised from the dead, and were employed by the Redeemer to carry forward his purposes of mercy to mankind.

(5) In connection with these things, and in consequence of these things, they may be, during that period, exalted to higher happiness and honor in heaven. The restoration of their principles to the earth; the Christian remembrance of their virtues; the prevalence of those truths to establish which they laid down their lives, would in itself exalt them, and would increase their joy in heaven. All this would be well represented, in vision, by a resurrection of the dead; and admitting that this was all that was intended, the representation of John here would be in the highest degree appropriate. What could better symbolize it - and we must remember that this is a symbol - than to say that at the commencement of this period there was, as it were, a solemn preparation for a judgment, and that the departed dead seemed to stand there, and that a sentence was pronounced in their favor, and that they became associated with the Son of God in the honors of his kingdom, and that their principles were now to reign and triumph in the earth, and that the kingdom which they labored to establish would be set up for a thousand years, and that, in high purposes of mercy and benevolence during that period, they would be employed in maintaining and extending the principles of religion in the world? Admitting that the Holy Spirit intended to represent these things, and these only, no more appropriate symbolical language could have been used; none that would more accord with the general style of the Book of Revelation.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

SPECIAL DOCTRINO-ETHICAL AND HOMILETICAL NOTES (ADDENDUM)

Section Eighteenth

Third or General End-Judgment. Judgment upon Satan and all his Associates. The Second Death. a. The Heavenly Prognosis. (Rev_20:6-8)

General.—As we must distinguish between the elect, who have part in the first resurrection, and the general throng of the blessed, we have also to distinguish between the blossom of the earth and of the nations, constituting the Millennial Kingdom, the eschatological οἰκουμένη, and the terrestrial orb in general and its masses of peoples. It is a prophecy corresponding with the most profound anthropology that the rudest constituents of humanity shall at last, at the instigation of Satan, instinctively band themselves together for an assault upon the City of God. The lineaments of this anticipation are distinctly expressed in the passages quoted from Ezekiel. From an ethical point of view, it is the fundamental idea of this anticipation that evil shall, after the annihilation of all its idealistic illusions, make one last attack upon the Kingdom of God, with the convulsive movement of pure brutality, savageness, hostility to, and rebellion against, the holy. From an ethnographical point of view, the remoter heathen Orient appears, in antithesis to the nearer theocratic Orient, as the natural lodgment of the elements for such a final struggle. Already the East has frequently threatened the civilized world of anterior Asia and Europe with its terrors, by its great military incursions. There fanaticism slumbers in millions,—in the diverse forms of Græco-Catholicism, Mohammedanism, and Paganism, the latter of which is further sub-divided into the opposite ground-forms of Brahmanism and Buddhism. Imagine a gigantic Oriental coalition, equipped with the most modern military instruments of the European world, its leaders inspired with the magic song of the three Apocalyptio frogs. In such a case, the ethically monstrous assault against the Church of God must have the aspect of a Titanic cosmical power;—the Divine cosmos, however, must also, infallibly, take upon itself an annihilating counter-agency.

Special.—[Rev_20:6.] Glory of the first resurrection. The summit of life is the first resurrection; the summit of death is the second death.—The true priestly domination in the Millennial Kingdom: 1. A domination of all the elect; 2. A domination with Christ.—[Rev_20:7.] Sublimity of God’s power in the final loosing of Satan.—Last form of evil on earth.

Rev_20:8. 1. The absolute majority in conflict against Christ; 2. Rude violence [might] in conflict against the consummate right of His Church; 3. The brutalized power of earth in an assault upon the spirit-kingdom of God from Heaven. Consummate irrationality in its hatred of the consummate Kingdom of light, love and life.—The serpent nature of evil in its last struggle.—The last struggle itself, the foretoken of its destruction.

Starke (Rev_20:8): Satan is the greatest rover; he goes to and fro, in order to seduce men and to do harm. (Job_1:7. In other words: Demonic evil ever and anon issues forth from its dark nothingness, without rule or system, but yet sympathetically, or rather in sympathetic antipathies, and consistently. Oneness in the Kingdom of God is based upon harmony in the Spirit; oneness in the kingdom of darkness is based upon a conspiracy for Antichristian purposes.)

Graeber (p. 357). [Rev_20:9.] And fire came down from Heaven. This figurative expression indicates that their ruin is brought about by a special event, sent by God, the saints themselves having no hand in the matter. This is described with more particularity, Eze_38:21-23.

[From M. Henry: Rev_20:6. None can be blessed but they that, are holy; and all that are holy shall be blessed.—From Bonar: Rev_20:6. The First Resurrection. 1. When is it to be? When the Lord comes the second time. (See 1Co_15:23; 1Th_4:16; 2Th_2:1). 2. Whom it is to consist of. This passage speaks only of the martyrs and the non-worshippers of the Beast; but other passages show that all His saints are to be partakers of this reward. Oneness with Christ now secures for us the glory of that day. 3. What it does for those who share it. It brings them (1) Blessedness. God only knows how much that word implies, as spoken by Him who cannot lie, who exaggerates nothing, and whose simplest words are His greatest. (2) Holiness. They are consecrated to God and purified, both outwardly and inwardly. (3) Preservation from, the second death. Their connection with death, in every sense, is done forever. (4) The possession of a heavenly priesthood. They are made priests unto God and Christ—both to the Father and the Son. Priestly nearness and access; priestly power and honor and service; priestly glory and dignity;—this is their recompense. (5) The possession of the kingdom.—Sinner, what is resurrection to bring to you?]

III. THIRD OR GENERAL END-JUDGMENT. JUDGMENT UPON SATAN AND ALL HIS COMPANY. THE SECOND DEATH

Rev_20:6-10

A.—HEAVENLY PROGNOSIS OF THE LAST GENERAL JUDGMENT

Rev_20:6-8

6Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on [over] such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and [ins. they] shall reign with him a [the]8 thousand years. 7And when the thousand years are expired [finished], Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, 8and shall go out to deceive [seduce or mislead (πλανῆσαι)] the nations which are in the four quarters [corners] of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to [the]9 battle [war]: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

SYNOPTICAL VIEW

The prophecies relative to the three judgments here taper, so to speak, to a point. The most detailed of these prophecies was that which concerned the Harlot; the prophecy concerning the Beast was couched in less ample terms; and this last prophecy of judgment is concentrated in a very little sketch, so that we can scarce perceive the articulations which separate one cycle from another, and divide the heavenly prognosis from the earth-picture. Nevertheless, the breaks in question are still to be found. The words of Rev_20:6 do indeed glance back to the thousand years; but this is, manifestly, in order to the introduction of the last Judgment, which brings with it the second death. Even within this diminutive judgment-picture, the antithesis is unmistakable. Rev_20:7-8 speak of the loosing of Satan and the seduction of Gog and Magog in the future tense. But with Rev_20:9 the Seer makes a historic presentation, in the prophetic preterite, of the fact which he has before predicted. The plan of the whole Book is, therefore, retained in this case also. The perspective brevity of this section testifies unmistakably to the canonical truth and chasteness of the description. For an apocalyptic fiction, the elaboration of this sombre picture of the last revolt of the heathen, the fiery judgment upon Satan, and the second death in the lake of fire, would have possessed the greatest charms. Our Prophet, however, gives only the few features that he has seen—gives them as he has seen them, darkly, in well-nigh figureless language. It cannot be said, however, that he is wearied, for soon after follows the picture of the perfected City of God, magnificently developed and vividly distinct.

With a beatitude relative to the sharers in the first resurrection, the perspective of the last judgment is opened. The participants in this resurrection are called blessed, as those whose lot is absolutely decided, who have passed their judgment and come forth from it as holy ones, forever consecrate to God. This retrospect is occasioned by the prospect of the second death as the doom of the third and last judgment. Over such the second death hath no authority. The second death (δεύτερος θάνατος) is damnation in the pool of fire, according to Rev_20:14 and Rev_21:8; not gradual dissolution and annihilation (Rothe). The term eternal death [Düsterdieck] is less explanatory of this mysterious judgment than the figurative expression, the pool of fire. It is a fellowship with all those who are in that condition of absolute irritation which is at the same time absolute stagnation, in endless ethical self-consumption and annihilation as a punishment for the persevering negation of God and the personal Kingdom of love. The opposite of this death-peril consists in the fact that the sharers in the first resurrection will be priests of God and of Christ. This priesthood, as absolute submission to God in blessedness in Him, stands contrasted with the unblest madness of the pool of fire; and, furthermore, it is perfect submission in reference to the economy of the Father as well as to the economy of redemption. They offer the whole creation, they offer the whole Church, with all the good things of them both, evermore to God and to Christ; and this is the condition whereby an eternal and ever-better possession of these good things is secured—a participation in the dominion of the Lord. Even in the Millennial Kingdom they shall reign with Christ.

Not in the vision form, but in prophetic discourse the Seer now announces the loosing of Satan after the thousand years. He shall be loosed out of his prison—not break out of it. In accordance with the determination of God, Satan, and with him all evil, must be thoroughly and completely judged. Hitherto judgment has been predominantly accomplished through instrumentalities. The historic judgment upon the Harlot was executed by the Beast, i. e., the preliminary hypocritical instance of evil has been judged by the perfect consistency of evil, in accordance with a very general historic law;—half-way-ness succumbs to consistency. Antichristian evil, as a spiritual power, has been judged by the spiritual effect of the personal appearance of Christ, by the terror of His σόξα and by the sword out of His mouth. In the end, however, Satan employs the means of resistance still afforded him by his creaturely strength, reviving in a convulsive struggle, in rebellion against God; and with the brutal opposition of consummate Satanity, corresponds the savage sense of strength of the heathen [nations] in the corners of the earth, who have withdrawn themselves from the sanctifying process of the eschatological economy (the new οἰκουμένη), aye, have hardened themselves under it, and have become, especially in their resentment against that heavenly order of things which oversways them, kindred in mind to Satan. It has been asked: whence come these countless heathen, since, according to Rev_19:21, Christ has slain the Antichristian host? But apart from the fact that He slew them with the breath of His mouth, i. e., morally annihilated them, which might not prevent a continuance of physical vegetation on their part, the terms employed, the heathen [nations] in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, afford sufficient explanation. Ezekiel prophesied that the people of God should, long after the more familiar anti-theocratic assaults, have to sustain an attack from the circle of the remotest barbaric Orient (Ezekiel 38, 39). This eagle-glance at the future, whose significance trains of Huns, Mongols, Tartars and Turks have already confirmed, could not be missing from our Apocalypse. The present prophecy is heralded in Rev_16:12. But whilst Ezekiel, in prophesying of Gog in the land of Magog, referred to distinct Asiatic peoples (see Düst., p. 552), John employs the terms as a universal symbol, in designation of all the barbarous peoples in the corners of the earth—so, however, that the distant Orient plays the principal part. The idea of these last heathen is precisely analogous to the churchly idea. In the earlier days of Christianity, the inhabitants of the villages (pagani) or of the heaths, far remote from the great centres of civilization, formed the remnants of the old world—remnants which were both unconverted and difficult of conversion. Thus the entire old world will leave its remnants in a moral, symbolical heathenism, which will surround the Kingdom of Christ not merely as a terrestrial, but also as a spiritual boundary. But the idea that Evil shall at last break out and incur judgment in such a final heathenish mutiny, in a brutal revolt, the stupidity of which is veiled by the innumerable force of the hosts therein concerned, is characteristic of the great Prophet, who sees far above and beyond the learning of the schools.

EXPLANATIONS IN DETAIL

Rev_20:6. Blessed and holy is he, etc.—As in the process of the formation of Christian character, the beatitudes of the righteousness of faith condition sanctification or the becoming holy, so in the condition of consummation, blessedness is still more decidedly the eternal source of the renewal of holiness. It is a remarkable fact that even Spinoza had a dim idea of this, that blessedness is itself a virtue and a condition of virtue. Even civic contentment has, in a limited degree, an ennobling influence. By holiness, eternal and complete consecratedness to God is here expressed.—Over such the second death, etc—They are beyond temptation, and cannot relapse into sin, and hence cannot fall under the fearful dominion of the second death.—The second death is, Rev_20:14, declared to be the judgment in the pool of fire: eternal agitation amidst the eternal frustration of plots and attempts: the specific demonic and Satanic suffering. “A dying and an inability to die,” ancient expositors were wont to say. The fact is here expressed that the Millennial Kingdom forms only a heavenly circle of culture of the new world within the old earth—in other words, that the heathen [nations], from whom the last rebellion proceeds, form an antithesis to God’s people of the first resurrection. The remains of the old humanity will occupy very much the same relation to the new humanity which the remains of the pre-Adamite creation occupy to the human world; although a general recognition of Christ, and, to this extent, the beginning of Christianity amongst all these peoples, is induced by Christ’s victory over Antichrist (Revelation 14). The general conversion of the heathen even precedes the Parousia of Christ. They shall be priests of God and of Christ.—Because they shall be priests, they shall also be co-regents with Christ, and being both throughout the thousand years, they appear unconditionally elevated above the perils of the last Satanic assault.

Rev_20:7. And when the thousand years are finished.—When the destination of the thousand years is fulfilled (ὅταν τελεσθῇ). Satan shall be loosed.—The obedience of the heathen [nations], their Christianity, their faithfulness, must finally undergo a fiery test, after they have long enough been spectators of the Heaven on earth, and enjoyed, in nature and grace, the blessings of the Parousia of Christ. For a similar purpose Satan was permitted to exercise his arts in the first Paradise, to tempt Job, Christ Himself, and His Apostles. Such is the Divine method for the testing and perfecting of the elect, the purification and sifting of the churches, the unveiling of the wicked in order to their judgment, and the inducement of the self-judgment of Satan, resulting in his dynamical destruction. Under this Divine economy, evil in abstracto is permitted fully to develop, as is also evil in concreto, in wicked individuals, in the fellowship of the wicked, in the father of liars.

Rev_20:8. And shall go out to seduce [or mislead] the nations [Lange: heathen].—“The difficulty occasioned by the statement that heathen peoples are here once more represented as going up to battle against the saints, after the destruction (Rev_19:21) of all peoples and kings that worshipped the Beast” (Düsterd.), is very simply solved by a distinction between the Antichristian host and the remaining world of peoples, particularly those under the Eastern kings—irrespective of the fact that it is doubtful whether the killing of the rest (Rev_19:21) should be taken literally. Vitringa calls attention to the fact “that the ἔθνη, Gog and Magog, dwell in the uttermost ends of the earth (Eze_38:15 and Rev_20:9).”10 Another difficulty, according to Düsterdieck, consists in the fact that foes belonging to this earthly life fight against the faithful who have part in the first resurrection. This will undoubtedly be a very foolish proceeding, but it will not on that account be improbable, as those who have passed through the resurrection dwell upon earth in bodily form. Dogs attack lions, beasts attack men, barbarians and savages attack civilized nations, the foes of Christ attack the Church of God;—all these are wars from motives of, sheer instinct, the rationality of which we have not to take upon ourselves to prove. In the antithesis of Cain and Abel, it was, in reality, the mortal who assaulted the immortal. Consider further “that these heathen peoples are seduced to battle against the saints by Satan himself directly.” Rev_16:13, it is affirmed, militates against this idea. That passage, however, rather gives an explanation of the manner in which we should conceive of the agitation of Satan. At first, as the red Dragon (Revelation 12), he had no such definite organs as at a later period (Revelation 13), and yet even then he could work by spiritual influences. And even though the Beast and the False Prophet are destroyed, the frogs which went forth from their mouths as well as from, the mouth of the Dragon, reminiscences of rancor, resentment and rage [Groll. Gram und Grimm], can be made effectual for the seduction of the heathen, primarily through their leaders. In the four corners of the earth.—Hengstenberg, in the interest of his exegesis, has very ingeniously taken the edge off of the four corners of the earth by striving to prove that the corners comprehend that which lies within them, and that hence the four corners of the earth denote the same ground as τὸ πλάτος τῆς γῆς (see his citations, vol. ii., 368 sq. [Eng. Trans.]). But allowing that the four corners might denote, by synecdoche, the complete totality of the land or the people, such a use of the term is entirely different from the present statement, that Satan shall go out to seduce the heathen in the four corners; and from the further statement that they went up upon the breadth of the earth. Gog and Magog.—The following questions arise here: 1. What ethnographical sense did the theocratic world attach to Gog and Magog? 2. How did Gog and Magog become, in the Old Testament, the symbol of the last foes of the theocratic Church of God? 3. How has the Apocalypse taken up this symbol and applied it in manifold forms? 4. How is the same idea reflected in Jewish tradition? [1.] In respect to Biblical ethnography, the name of Magog appears, by the side of Gomer, amongst the sons of Japhet, Gen_10:2; see Comm. on Genesis, p. 348 [Am. Ed.]. Josephus explains Magog as indicative of the Scythians. “Magog seems to be a collective name, denoting the sum of the peoples situate In Media and the Caucasian Mountains, concerning whom a vague report had reached the Hebrews, etc.” See Winer, Title Magog; Düsterdieck, Note on p. 552. Gog, according to Uhlemann, as there quoted, and others, means mountain; Magog the dwelling-place, or land of Gog. According to Ezekiel, eze38:2, the prince or the nation is called Gog, the land of the same being denominated Magog, which embraces Rosch,11 Meshech and Tubal (see the table of nations). [2.] In the Apocalypse of Ezekiel, the spirit of prophecy has, in accordance with a distinct ethical pre-supposition, arrived at the idea that the people of God shall, after all its conflicts with familiar anti-theocratic enemies, after its complete restoration, re-instatement and renewal, have to undergo one more last assault from the rude and brutal enmity of Eastern barbarian nations. These enemies are introduced by Ezekiel under the names of Gog and Magog. Hitzig [Commentar. zu Ezech., p. 288) thinks that the Prophet chose the name Gog, the Scythian, on account of its being the name of the most remote peoples; and adds that the Scythians had appeared in Palestine not so very long prior to the time of Ezekiel’s prophecy—two explanations which invalidate each other. On the question as to whether the Scythians had been in Palestine previous to the prophecy, comp. Winer, Title Scythians. We behold in the name the symbolic term for the rudest and most savage heathenism as contrasted with the perfected Theocracy. Jehovah will curb, subdue and destroy Gog like a wild beast. [3.] In harmony with the same eschatological idea, the Apocalypse took up the symbolical announcement, and to its representation of Gog and Magog as two collateral powers the inducement was given by Ezekiel, in his designation of Magog as a complex of different peoples. In the general judgment picture (Revelation 16) these enemies appear as the kings of the east, who come from the region of barbarism beyond the Euphrates. [4.] “In Jewish Theology, also, the two names, of which the first denotes in Ezekiel l. c., the king of the land and people of Magog, are found in conjunction as the names of nations: In fine extremitatis dierum Gog et Magog et exercitus eorum adscendent Hierosolyma et per manus regis Messiæ ipsi cadent, et VII. annos dierum ardebunt filii Israelis ex armis eorum (Targ. Hieros. in Num. xi. 27, etc.).” Duesterdieck. Comp. De Wette, p. 191. Ibid., singular interpretations of the names by Augustine, Jerome et al.; application to the Goths, Saracens, Turks, all enemies of the Church, Antichrist. “The sorriest interpretation is that of Bar Cochab (Wetst.).” Hengstenb. (2. p. 369 [Eng. Tr.]) seems to find a significancy in Brentano’s initial juxtaposition of Gog, Magog and Demagog. A witty reply to the perhaps only seeming desire to discover Gog and Magog in the demagogues of the 19th century, see in Ebrard, Note, p. 517. To the war.—That last great war, foretold for ages by Prophecy. The number of whom is as the sand of the sea.—According to Ezekiel even, Gog leads with him a mixture of eastern nations (as did, in reality, Attila, Genghis Khan and Timur). At the same time, the figure employed is expressive, on the one hand, of the multitude of sordid human natures, and on the other hand, of a blind trust in this multitude. The salvability of the Scythians, however, is expressly declared by the Apostle Paul, Col_3:11.

In the coalition of Satan with the mob of Gog and Magog, the combination of demon and beast, serpent and swine, formed by the dragon figure, is completely realized.

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

20:6 Blessed: This fifth blessing of Revelation (see also 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 22:7, 14) focuses on the promised reward of life. God’s faithful people (20:4) will reign with Christ as priests of God (see also 1:6; 5:10).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Rev 20:6. Μακάριος, blessed) The word μακάριος is with great propriety applied to him over whom the second death has no power: for it is derived from μὴ, κὴρ, so that it denotes one who is immortal.—ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει τῇ πρώτῃ, in the first resurrection) The Æthiopian Version, according to John de la Haye, has, on that day which precedes His coming.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A return unto the intended history, by resuming the words which are in the end of the fourth verse.

That whereby both body and soul, that is, the whole man is addicted and delivered unto eternal death. So Rev. 2:11.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Blessed--(Compare Rev 14:13; Rev 19:9).

on such the second death hath no power--even as it has none on Christ now that He is risen.

priests of God--Apostate Christendom being destroyed, and the believing Church translated at Christ's coming, there will remain Israel and the heathen world, constituting the majority of men then alive, which, from not having come into close contact with the Gospel, have not incurred the guilt of rejecting it. These will be the subjects of a general conversion (Rev 11:15). "The veil" shall be taken off Israel first, then from off "all people." The glorious events attending Christ's appearing, the destruction of Antichrist, the transfiguration of the Church, and the binding of Satan, will prepare the nations for embracing the Gospel. As individual regeneration goes on now, so there shall be a "regeneration" of nations then. Israel, as a nation, shall be "born at once--in one day." As the Church began at Christ's ascension, so the kingdom shall begin at His second advent. This is the humiliation of the modern civilized nations, that nations which they despise most, Jews and uncivilized barbarians, the negro descendants of Ham who from the curse of Noah have been so backward, Cush and Sheba, shall supplant and surpass them as centers of the world's history (compare Deu 32:21; Rom 10:19; Rom 11:20, &c.). The Jews are our teachers even in New Testament times. Since their rejection revelation has been silent. The whole Bible, even the New Testament, is written by Jews. If revelation is to recommence in the millennial kingdom, converted Israel must stand at the head of humanity. In a religious point of view, Jews and Gentiles stand on an equal footing as both alike needing mercy; but as regards God's instrumentalities for bringing about His kingdom on earth, Israel is His chosen people for executing His plans. The Israelite priest-kings on earth are what the transfigured priest-kings are in heaven. There shall be a blessed chain of giving and receiving--God, Christ, the transfigured Bride the Church, Israel, the world of nations. A new time of revelation will begin by the outpouring of the fulness of the Spirit. Ezekiel (the fortieth through forty-eighth chapters), himself son of a priest, sets forth the priestly character of Israel; Daniel the statesman, its kingly character; Jeremiah (Jer 33:17-21), both its priestly and kingly character. In the Old Testament the whole Jewish national life was religious only in an external legal manner. The New Testament Church insists on inward renewal, but leaves its outward manifestations free. But in the millennial kingdom, all spheres of life shall be truly Christianized from within outwardly. The Mosaic ceremonial law corresponds to Israel's priestly office; the civil law to its kingly office: the Gentile Church adopts the moral law, and exercises the prophetic office by the word working inwardly. But when the royal and the priestly office shall be revived, then--the principles of the Epistle to the Hebrews remaining the same--also the ceremonial and civil law of Moses will develop its spiritual depths in the divine worship (compare Mat 5:17-19). At present is the time of preaching; but then the time of the Liturgy of converted souls forming "the great congregation" shall come. Then shall our present defective governments give place to perfect governments in both Church and State. Whereas under the Old Testament the Jews exclusively, and in the New Testament the Gentiles exclusively, enjoy the revelation of salvation (in both cases humanity being divided and separated), in the millennium both Jews and Gentiles are united, and the whole organism of mankind under the first-born brother, Israel, walks in the light of God, and the full life of humanity is at last realized. Scripture does not view the human race as an aggregate of individuals and nationalities, but as an organic whole, laid down once for all in the first pages of revelation. (Gen 9:25-27; Gen 10:1, Gen 10:5, Gen 10:18, Gen 10:25, Gen 10:32; Deu 32:8 recognizes the fact that from the first the division of the nations was made with a relation to Israel). Hence arises the importance of the Old Testament to the Church now as ever. Three grand groups of nations, Hamites, Japhetites, and Shemites, correspond respectively to the three fundamental elements in man--body, soul, and spirit. The flower of Shem, the representative of spiritual life, is Israel, even as the flower of Israel is He in whom all mankind is summed up, the second Adam (Gen 12:1-3). Thus Israel is the mediator of divine revelations for all times. Even nature and the animal world will share in the millennial blessedness. As sin loses its power, decay and death will decrease [AUBERLEN]. Earthly and heavenly glories shall be united in the twofold election. Elect Israel in the flesh shall stand at the head of the earthly, the elect spiritual Church, the Bride, in the heavenly. These twofold elections are not merely for the good of the elect themselves, but for the good of those to whom they minister. The heavenly Church is elected not merely to salvation, but to rule in love, and minister blessings over the whole earth, as king-priests. The glory of the transfigured saints shall be felt by men in the flesh with the same consciousness of blessing as on the Mount of Transfiguration the three disciples experienced in witnessing the glory of Jesus, and of Moses and Elias, when Peter exclaimed, "It is good for us to be here"; in Pe2 1:16-18, the Transfiguration is regarded as the earnest of Christ's coming in glory. The privilege of "our high calling in Christ" is limited to the present time of Satan's reign; when he is bound, there will be no scope for suffering for, and so afterwards reigning with, Him (Rev 3:21; compare Note, see on Co1 6:2). Moreover, none can be saved in the present age and in the pale of the Christian Church who does not also reign with Christ hereafter, the necessary preliminary to which is suffering with Christ now. If we fail to lay hold of the crown, we lose all, "the gift of grace as well as the reward of service" [DE BURGH].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 6. Blessed] μακαριος Happy. And holy; he was holy, and therefore he suffered for the testimony of Jesus in the time when nothing but holiness was called to such a trial.

The first resurrection] Supposed to be that of the martyrs, mentioned above.

The second death] Punishment in the eternal world; such is the acceptation of the phrase among the ancient Jews.

Hath no power] ουκ εχει εξουσιαν Hath no authority-no dominion over him. This is also a rabbinical mode of speech. In Erubin, fol. 19, 1; Chagiga, fol. 27, 1: "Res Lakish said, The fire of hell hath no power over an Israelite who sins. Rab. Elieser says; The fire of hell hath no power over the disciples of the wise men."

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(6) Blessed and holy is he that hath. . . .—This is one of the benedictions of the Apocalypse. The blessing on those who have part or share in the first resurrection has this definite feature. On these the second death has not power (or authority). The second death stands in contrast with the first resurrection. The second death is not the mere physical dying; it is rather that more awful death which lies outside the region of the things seen and temporal. Whatever it means, and whatever the conditions which surround it, it is spiritual rather than physical. It is not the life of the body which protects the life of the spirit; it is the living and believing in God which protects from the second death; according to Christ’s word of such, “they shall never die” (Joh_11:26; comp. Joh_10:27-28). Blessed, too, are such in being priests and kings (they shall reign). Theirs is the priesthood of life who have offered themselves a living sacrifice to God (Rom_12:1). The kingship of life is theirs, who have overcome the world-powers in the word of God and in the blood of the Lamb; these truly reign. (Comp. Note on Rev_5:10.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. Blessed and holy &c.] He is sure of eternal blessedness, absolutely and indefeasibly consecrated to God. “Holy” refers to the relation to God into which this brings him, not to the foregoing faithfulness that is implied in his being admitted into it.

the second death] See Rev_2:11, and Rev_20:14. Cf. Rom_6:9-10.

they shall be priests] Cf. Rev_1:6, Rev_5:10.

of God and of Christ] The strongest proof, perhaps, in the book of the doctrine of Christ’s coequal Deity. If we read these words in the light of St John’s Gospel, or of the Nicene Creed, they suggest no difficulty, but without the doctrine there taught, they make salvation to consist in the deadly sin which the Moslems call “association”—the worshipping the creature by the side of the Creator. Notice, however, that the word “God” in this book always means the Father; and so throughout the N. T., with few exceptions.

thousand years] We should probably read, “the thousand years.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection,.... This may be considered either as descriptive of the persons that shall partake of this privilege; as that they are only such who are blessed with spiritual blessings, with a justifying righteousness, with pardon of sin, and regenerating grace, and who are sanctified by the Spirit of God; these, and these only, will be first raised, and will be called to inherit the kingdom prepared for them, Mat 25:34 or else as expressive of their happiness and holiness when raised; they shall be perfectly blessed in soul and body, and perfectly holy in both: they shall be "blessed", for

on such the second death hath no power; which is the lake of fire, Rev 20:14 the sense is, they shall escape everlasting burnings, the fire of hell, the torment and misery of the wicked; they shall be delivered from wrath to come; and as their bodies will die no more, their souls will not be subject to any sense of wrath, or to any sort of punishment: and they will be "holy"; they will have no sin in them:

but they will be priests of God and of Christ; of God the Father, and of his Son Jesus Christ, being made so to the former by the latter, Rev 1:6 or of God, even of Christ, that is, of God, who is Christ, since it follows:

and shall reign with him; they will be wholly devoted to and employed in the service of God and of Christ, and will be continually offering up the sacrifices of praise, or singing the song of the Lamb, adoring the grace and goodness of God and Christ unto them, shown them both in providence and in grace:

and shall reign with him a thousand years; this is mentioned again, partly to assert the certainty of it, and partly to point at the blessedness of the risen saints.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Ver. 6. Blessed and happy is he] The holy only have part in this resurrection, and are therefore happy, or out of harm’s way, as the word μακαριοι signifies.

The second death hath no power] For they are brought from the jaws of death to the joys of eternal life, where is mirth without mourning, riches without rust, &c.

But they shall be priests] {See Trapp on "Rev 1:6"}

They shall reign] The righteous are kings, Mat 13:17; cf. Luk 10:24; "Many righteous" is the same with "many kings." {See Trapp on "Rev 20:4"}

A thousand years] These thousand years begin (saith Mr Brightman) where the former ended, that is, in the year 1300, whereby continuance thereof is promised for a thousand years forward, among some of the Gentiles; and how long it shall reign afterwards among the Jews, He only knows that knows all. The most interpreters by a thousand years here understand not any definite time, as Rev 20:2; of this chapter, but an indefinite time, that is, for ever, as Psa 84:10. This thousand years they take for eternity, and a further degree of glory for such as are called forth to suffer. See Eze 37:1-14 Isa 26:19.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That is, they only are holy ones that shall be thus restored to share in the church’s happiness, and such as shall not perish eternally; but they shall be as priests to God and Christ, glorifying him with the spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise, and shall enjoy a quiet and honourable station with Christ upon the earth for a long time.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. Our seer now specifies the nature of the life of this first resurrection. Over that high and unique vitality the second death hath no power. By the first resurrection we are raised from beneath the power of the second death to above the power of the second death. This is initiated at our earthly regeneration, but it is not completed until the glorification of our spirits. Our souls pass through as true and literal a resurrection as our bodies; and it is by that resurrection of our souls that they become a fitting unity with our resurrection bodies. We might, perhaps, more truly say that it is by the resurrection and glorification of the body that it becomes fit for unification with the resurrect soul. Or, stronger still, it is by its own first resurrection that the blessed soul brings the raised body to a fitting unity with itself. It is the soul that glorifies the body. And thus soul and body both pass through each its literal resurrection to the final glorious unification. The first resurrection is, therefore, a resurrection of souls; the second, of bodies.

A thousand years—As we are here still in the land of symbol, there is ample reason for applying the symbolic interpretation to this number. We have the number of universality, ten, raised to a cube, and producing, on the year-day principle, 360,000 years. The 1260 years of antichristic rule dwindle thereby to an insignificant extent in comparison with the earthly reign of Christ. Glasgow well says, “Against the hypothesis of the contracted millennium there lies this startling objection: that it assigns to antichrist a more extended reign than to Christ. But, if the reign of Jesus be 360,000 years, and the end of antichrist or heathenism be speedily approaching, their duration is of no moment, being, at most, about 7,000 out of 360,000, or one-five-hundredth part.” We are then only in the morning dawn of human history. Progress is the law, not only in nature and in history but in the Messianic kingdom. It is not only the few that are finally saved. Entirely correct is the inference drawn from the doctrine of the millennium by Dr. Bellamy, that the number of the lost in comparison to the saved may finally be as the number of malefactors now hung to the rest of society. See our work on The Will, p. 359.

Alford, on the passage, in insisting that this resurrection of souls is a bodily resurrection, makes two points. 1. If the first resurrection is “spiritual,” so must be the second. To which we answer, If the first is not a “spiritual” resurrection, it certainly is a soul-resurrection: and a soul-resurrection is not a body-resurrection. It does not follow that if a soul-resurrection is spiritual, therefore a body-resurrection must, also, be spiritual. Professed “literalists” must render souls literally, and not figuratively, as bodies. 2. “Those who lived next to the apostles,” says Alford, “and the whole Church for 300 years understood them in the plain, literal sense;” that is, forsooth, understood souls to mean bodies! And that is a very queer “literal sense!” This argument, based on the authority of the post-apostolic Church, comes with a bad grace from Alford, who persistently maintains, in his Commentary, that the apostles themselves, even in their inspired writings, made the sad mistake of expecting the second advent to take place in their own day. And we call the attention of our readers to this special point: That this very mistake of expecting the advent in their own day is identical with the mistake of placing the advent before the millenium. Many of “those who lived next the apostles” did make this mistake. Bringing the advent into their own day, they, of course, thereby cut off the millennium, and placed it beyond the advent, and hence arose the errors of ancient Chiliasm, or pre-millennialism. This error was not held by “the whole Church for 300 years;” but, probably, by a decided majority of the post-apostolic Church. See the whole question of ancient Chiliasm discussed in our article on “Millennial Traditions,” in the Methodist Quarterly Review for July, 1843.

In his commentary on the Apocalypse, Mr. Glasgow has some ingenious methods of disproving the danger of millennial over-population. The fear of some is, that in 360,000 years of peace and prosperity the earth would be over-stocked with inhabitants. Glasgow first quotes many beautiful texts to prove the future increased fertility of the earth. “The wilderness shall be a fruitful field.” “I will plant in the wilderness the shittah-tree, and the myrtle, and the oil-tree.” “He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her deserts like the garden of the Lord.” “Break forth into joy, ye waste places.” “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.”

The mountains, deserts, and morasses, may be, he thinks, rendered a fertile plain, and the earth become a garden by geological changes, by a better distribution of waters, and a diffusion, truly possible, of warmth over the Arctic regions. Nay, there are supposable methods by which the orb of the earth may be enlarged and furnish a larger area of life. In all which, he professedly and carefully states what may, and, for aught science can show can, be; not what certainly will be. The latest conclusion of science seems to be that the area of land is continually gaining upon the ocean.

But the most valid solution of this difficulty lies in what are now the known laws of population. In the animal creation it is found, largely, that low life is enormously prolific, and high life chary of over-population. The fishes spawn and the insects breed in trillions while the lion and elephant are generating a score. So also among mankind the poor, ignorant, and miserable are prolific, while the higher classes, the rich, the aristocratic, and the intellectually and morally cultured classes tend to sterility. The nobility of England would die out were it not replenished from the commons. People who have few resources for enjoyment fall back upon the animal and domestic gratifications within their reach. As the higher faculties find full play in a variety of directions, these enjoyments are often deserted. As the passions of mankind become regulated, fecundity becomes moderate, and a perfectly balanced race would never over-populate the earth.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years; over these the second death hath no authority. The first words describe the state of those who have part in the spiritual resurrection with Christ (see on ver. 5). The second clause gives to the oppressed Christian the culminating reason for patience and perseverance. The "second death" is the spiritual death of the lake of fire (ver. 14). Priests of God, etc. (cf. Rev_1:6 Rev_5:10) A thousand years; in complete and everlasting security (see on ver. 2, et seq. ). We may in this place briefly indicate some of the other interpretations which have been given to this reign of the saints for a thousand years, or, as it is generally styled, the millennium.

(1) The literal interpretation of a future reign on earth of Christ with his saints for a thousand years. According to this view, there is to be a first resurrection of the dead (either of the holy dead or of all the dead), then the period of a thousand years, during which Satan will be bound, and the saints will reign; then finally the ultimate punishment of Satan the casting into the lake of fire. Some limit the locality of this reign to a particular spot on the earth (e.g. Jerusalem), beyond which live the ungodly. The objections to this theory are:

(a) Amongst its advocates almost every detail is a matter of dispute. Some place the millennium in the future, others in the past. Of these latter some specify the first thousand years of the Christian age, others the thousand years from the time of Constantine. "The length of the period, the number and class of the believers who shall be partakers of its glory, the condition in which they are to live, the work in which they are to be engaged, the relation in which the exalted Redeemer is to stand to them," are all subjects for disagreement.

(b) The carnal nature of such a resurrection is at variance with the general teaching of the Bible, and unlike the spiritual nature which our Lord himself assumed after his resurrection.

(c) If the saints receive a glorified body for that period, it is impossible to conceive of them as living in the world in its present state, and a large part of which is inhabited by the ungodly.

(d) It is impossible satisfactorily to conceive what relations could exist between the saints in such a case and the ungodly. If Satan is bound during this period so that he can deceive the nations no more, whence comes the evil which exists among the ungodly portion of the world?

(e) There is no other example of a literal use of numbers in the whole of the Apocalypse.

(f) The teaching of the Bible elsewhere not only negatively fails to support this view, but is in positive opposition to it, in such points as a continuance of evil after Christ"s second coming; the existence of an interval between his coming and the judgment instead of a sudden coming to judgment. (comp. Joh_6:40, "I will raise him up at the last day

(2) The spiritual.interpretation, which makes the thousand years expressive of the whole Christian age. This seems to a certain extent true, since what the thousand years signifies does have its effect during this time in the reign of the saints. But it seems inexact, since it makes the thousand years symbolical of a length of time, instead of a quality attached to an action. What is meant is not that Christ bound Satan during the period of the Christian age (though, as we have seen, there is a sense in which he is so bound as regards believers), for, on the contrary, he goes about like a roaring lion; but that he bound and overthrew him completely for all Christians by his redeeming work.

HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY. Ver. 6. "The first resurrection.

"Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection." It is a common remark that we are to learn much concerning the Divine administration in the kingdom of heaven by observing the laws of his administration amongst men now, in this present life. And there can be no question that God deals with men here by a system of special rewards. He holds before us, as we enter life, prizes of greater or less value, that we may be stimulated to diligence in the road along which these prizes lie. But it has been too commonly thought that in the kingdom of heaven there is nothing of this kind. That there one reward awaits all alike, and one penalty all to whom penalty is appointed. And the effect has been to make imperfect, unspiritual, and self-indulgent Christians all too content with themselves and their condition before God. They have what they are pleased to call faith, which in them is only a lazy reliance upon what the Lord Jesus Christ has done; and as they believe, certainly, in justification by faith, they deem themselves justified, and on the way to be glorified; and what can any one need more? But the subject which our text brings before us, and the whole teaching of God"s Word, is utterly subversive of this popular and plausible but pernicious belief. It teaches that there is a "prize" of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus; a being, if faithful, first in the kingdom of heaven, or, if unfaithful, last; a being greatest or least; a crown of life; a recompense of ten cities as well as of five; and much also of the same kind. Especially is this doctrine of special reward to the faithful confirmed by this truth of the first resurrection. Let us inquire

I WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Surely that which it seems to say that the faithful servants of Christ, of whom those who had been beheaded for his sake are named as representing all the rest, shall rise from the dead, and live and reign with Christ for a vast period, here called a thousand years, whilst all the rest of the dead shall have no resurrection until this period be past. Therefore there is a first resurrection for the saints of God, and another, inferior and later one, for all the rest of the dead. So this Scripture seems to teach. But many have affirmed that, however much it may seem to teach this, in reality it does not. For, it is affirmed:

1. That there is nothing else like it in all the rest of Scripture. It stands all alone. But if it be really taught here, our failing to find it elsewhere will not excuse us from accepting it. We accept other doctrines even if declared but once. Take 1Co 15. Where but there shall we find not a few of the truths it teaches? And there are other instances beside. But we do not admit that it stands alone, not by any means (cf. infra).

2. That it is all metaphor, like the rest of the book. But all is not metaphor, and what is and what is not can be readily distinguished. The resurrection is not a metaphor.

3. That it means baptism. We read that Christians have "risen with Christ in baptism". (Rom_6:4 Col_2:12) Here, then, it is said, is the first resurrection. But St. John, in our text and its context, is speaking of men who have died, have been beheaded for Christ; the death is a literal one, so therefore must the resurrection be. If it were a spiritual death that were told of, then the resurrection might be spiritual also. And the living with Christ comes after death. How, then, can it be baptism?

4. Others, many, say that it tells of the thousand years or more which stretch from the fourth century to the fourteenth. At the beginning of the fourth, persecution by heathen Rome ceased, Rome herself adopting the Christian faith. For a thousand years after, her ministers and Churches, it might be said, lived and reigned. But then came the capture of Constantinople, and the establishment of the Turkish empire, and the dominance over so large a portion of the once Christian world of the Mohammedan imposture. Well, if Satan was "bound" during all that period whenever so one would ask was there a time when he seemed more free? If that thousand years were the millennium, or like it, then may we be delivered from such another one!

5. The entire present dispensation. Reference is made to our Lord"s word as to the "fall" of Satan "from heaven;" as to his being "judged" and "cast out;" and it is said that this is Satan"s condition now fallen, judged, cast out, bound, shut up in the abyss, reserved for condemnation and has been so ever since our Lord was here on earth; and that during all this period the faithful have lived and reigned with Christ. Again, we say, such interpretation makes a mockery of the millennium, and empties St. John"s words of well nigh all their meaning. Therefore, on the sound principle of interpretation that, when a literal meaning will stand in any Scripture, the meaning furthest from that is generally the worst, we accept that literal meaning, and the more so that the question

II WHERE IS THE PROOF OF IT? is one that can be satisfactorily answered.

1. In the Old Testament there were many Scriptures which had led the Jews to the belief that for faithful Israel there was to be a special resurrection. Such texts were Isa_25:8 Isa_26:1 Eze 37 Da 12. And this belief of their resurrection when Messiah came was what St. Paul called "the hope of Israel." And this general belief our Lord never contradicted, which he who said, "If it were not so I would have told you," would assuredly have done. But:

2. The New Testament must, of course, furnish the larger proof. Our Lord perpetually speaks of the resurrection of the good and of the evil as of separate things. He tells (Joh_5:29) of "the resurrection of life" and of "the resurrection of judgment;" and in ver. 24 he has said that believers "shall not come into judgment." Here, then, is a resurrection with which believers can have nothing to do, and another which is specially theirs. Then cf. Joh_6:39, Joh_6:40, "I will raise him up at the last day." This is several times repeated. But why, if every one is to be raised up at the last day if that be the general resurrection, why is there this mark of distinction for "him" if there be none? We conclude there is a distinction. Another and a more glorious resurrection awaits "him" than awaits others. Then (Luk_14:14) the Lord speaks of "the resurrection of the just." Why does he not speak of the general resurrection if there be nothing special for "the just"? He teaches us that there is. Again, (Luk_20:35) he speaks of a resurrection for the children of God, who shall be equal to the angels, which is a resurrection "from among the dead" (ek), and for which they who shared in it needed to be "counted worthy." But this is not the case with the general resurrection; therefore we gather that this is a special one. Then 1Co_15:22-24, where the order of the resurrection is given man in his own order: Christ... afterward they that are Christ"s at his coming;" and then, after the great work of subjugating all things is accomplished cometh the end." But with this we know is associated that resurrection of "the rest of the dead" of which we read in this chapter (ver. 12). See, too, in Mat_24:31. The gathering together of the elect is told of, and then afterwards we know not how long the judgment of the heathen, the nations, of which we are told at the close of Mt 25. See, too, Php_3:14. Now, "the resurrection from the dead" which St. Paul there speaks of as "the prize of his high calling," and after which he strove, if "by any means he might attain unto it for as yet he had not attained to it, and therefore he still pressed, as an eager racer, towards the goal this resurrection could not be the general one, for he knew that he would rise again; nor either does it mean simply being saved, for he knew that he was saved already. It must mean, therefore, a special resurrection this of which our text tells; a prize the prize, indeed. And we read of "a better resurrection" after which the saints of old strove. And Christians are called "firstfruits," and "the Church of the Firstborn expressions which denote priority and privilege such as the first resurrection declares. We hold it, therefore, to be no vain and unauthorized imagination which believes that in these remarkable verses St. John does teach what his words so evidently seem to affirm.

III WHAT IS THE INFLUENCE IT SHOULD HAVE UPON US? St. John"s purpose, or rather the Holy Spirit"s purpose through him, was by this glorious revelation to do in an especial manner that which was the great design of the whole book to comfort, strengthen, and inspire with holy courage the persecuted Church. And we can hardly imagine that it failed to do this. The imagery is taken from facts within their own experience the constitution of the empire, in which the varied kings who ruled over the provinces each contributed to the power and glory of the whole; and the priestly service in the temple with which they had long been familiar. The book is full of Jewish imagery throughout. The vision, therefore, assured to them that the lot of their faithful brethren the martyrs, and all of like mind with them, should speedily and wondrously be changed. Poor, persecuted, down trodden, the off scouring of all things now, they should be as kings; their dungeons they should exchange for thrones; their dreadful death for life life eternal, life with Christ. Vast capacity for ministering to the glory of the reign of Christ should be theirs, for they should be kings under him, their Lord. Constant access to his presence and the ministry of intercession for their brethren these, too, should be theirs, for they were also to be his priests. "Twas worth living for, worth suffering for, worth dying for, let the death come in what dreadful form it might. So would they feel and speak and act, and this was what was intended. "Strong consolation" they needed, and "strong consolation they had," as God"s people ever have had and will have when placed in like circumstances. And for ourselves for the vision is for all Christ"s faithful ones as well as for the martyrs what should be the influence of this doctrine of the first resurrection upon us? Surely we should "have respect unto the recompense of the reward." If Christ have put this reward before us, we should have respect to it. Is it fitting, some may ask, that Christ"s servants should serve him with their eyes on the reward? Was it fitting that any reward which Christ promised to bestow should be without appreciation? Think what this promise is. It is not merely blessedness it could not but be that but it means kingship and priesthood. That is to say, dropping the metaphors, it means infinitely increased capacity for serving Christ and furthering his glory; it means, as his priest, constant access to his presence, and the duty and privilege of intercession for his people. Yes, the faithful now with Christ are serving him as they never could before. It is no indolent case in which they abide, but one of service as well as honour, in forms which as yet we cannot know. The kingdom of Christ is the better for what they do. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister?" Nor can we doubt that the great functions which are involved in the idea of priesthood are theirs also to draw near to God and to intercede for the people. They who on earth were so fervent in prayer are they all at once stricken dumb there? No; they arc priests of Christ, and by virtue of that office they are intercessors. Is this a recompense of reward for which we need have no respect? Should it not rouse our energies and call forth our most strenuous endeavours? Holiness, conformity to the mind and will of God, is the condition of this blessedness. The rewards of Christ are not mere external things, but inward and spiritual possessions. Therefore to say that we shall be content with the lowest place in heaven, as many do say, may sound like humility and Christian meekness; but it means being content with less of likeness to Christ, less of his spirit, less of his love. Priority and privilege in heaven, the share in this first resurrection, are according to these things; and how can we be content with but little of them? It is not humility, it is not self denial, it is wrong to Christ himself, to be indifferent to this reward. Whilst low in the dust as regards yourself, have a lofty ambition in regard to this. Oh, then, seek, strive, pray, for this holiness of heart and life, that you may be of those blessed ones who have part in the first resurrection! S.C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They shall be priests of God and of Christ - Therefore Christ is God. And shall reign with him - With Christ, a thousand years.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. In this great moral and spiritual resurrection that brings in the Millennium. On such the second death hath no power. The second death is the sad doom of eternal death. See verse 14.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

An interpolated explanation of the preceding vision. Ἅγιος , if a continuation of μακ ., must almost be taken in its archaic sense of ‘belonging to God”. The ordinary meaning reduces the phrase to a hysteron proteron, unless the idea is that the bliss consists in holiness (so Vendidad xix. 22, “happy, happy the man who is holy with perfect holiness”). “Blessed and holy,” however, was a conventional Jewish term of praise and congratulation ( cf. Jub. ii. 23). ὁ δεύτ . θάνατος κ . τ . λ . According to the Hellenic faith recorded in Plutarch (in his essay on “the face in the moon’s orb”), the second death, which gently severs the mind from the soul, is a boon, not a punishment. But John’s view reflects the tradition underlying the Iranian belief (Brandt, 586 f., 592) that the righteous were exempt from the second death (defined as in Rev 21:8 ). The clause ἀλλʼ … Χριστοῦ refers to the permanent standing (Rev 1:6 , Rev 5:10 a ) of these risen martyrs not only during but after the millennium; otherwise it would be meaningless, since the danger of the second death (as the penalty inflicted on all who are condemned at the final assizes) does not emerge until the millennium is over. The subsequent clause καὶ βασιλεύσουσι κ . τ . λ . is independent, referring back to the special and temporary privilege of the first resurrection and the millennium. For this reason it is precarious to infer from ἔσονται ἱερεῖς τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ (elsewhere τῷ θεῷ ) that the occupation of these saints is the mediation of divine knowledge to the ἔθνη whom Satan is temporarily prevented from beguiling. The likelihood is that the phrase simply denotes as elsewhere the bliss of undisturbed access to God and of intimate fellowship. John ignores the current belief that the loyal survivors on earth would be rewarded ( cf. Dan 12:12 ; Ps. Sol. 17:50, etc.), which is voiced in Asc. Isa. iv. 14 16, but he reproduces independently the cognate view (Asc. Isa. iv. 16 f.) that “the saints will come with the Lord with their garments which are (now) stored up on high in the seventh heaven [ cf. Rev 6:11 ] … they will descend and be present in this world” (after which the Beloved executes judgment at the resurrection). He, retains, however, not only the general resurrection (12) but the variant and earlier idea ( cf. 4 Ezr 7:26 f.) of a resurrection ( ἔζησαν , 4) confined to the saints. He calls this the first resurrection not because the martyrs and confessors who enjoyed it had to undergo a second in the process of their final redemption but because it preceded the only kind of resurrection with which sinners and even ordinary Christians had anything to do (Titius, 37 40; Baldensperger, 74, 79 f.). καὶ βασιλεύσουσι , apparently on earth. This would be put beyond doubt were we to take the view of the risen martyrs’ occupation which has been set aside above. But, even apart from this, in the light of all relevant tradition and of the context, the earth must be the sphere of the millennium; Christ might of course be conceived to execute his sovereignty from heaven, but, though Rev 20:9 denotes a different cycle of tradition from 4 6, it is put on the same plane, and the vision of 4 (cf. Rev 20:1 ) is evidently this world. ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς would be more in keeping with this context than with that of Rev 20:10 , where again the refrain of Rev 22:5 ( κ . β . εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων ) would be more appropriate. χίλια ἔτη . This enigmatic and isolated prediction has led to more unhappy fantasies of speculation and conduct than almost any other passage of the N.T. It stands severely apart from the sensuous expectations of current chiliasm (fertility of soil, longevity, a religious carnival, etc.), but even its earliest interpreters, Papias and Justin, failed to appreciate its reticence, its special object, and its semi-transcendent atmosphere. For its relevance, or rather irrelevance, to the normal Christian outlook, see Denney’s Studies in Theology , pp. 231 f., and A. Robertson’s Regnum Dei , pp. 113 f. When the millennium or messianic reign was thus abbreviated into a temporary phase of providence in the latter days, the resurrection had to be shifted from its original position prior to the messianic reign; it now became, as here, the sequel to that period.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. τοῦ θεοῦ. א has καὶ τοῦ θεοῦ.

6. μακάριος καὶ ἅγιος. He is sure of eternal blessedness, absolutely and indefeasibly consecrated to God. “Holy” refers to the relation to God into which this brings him, not to the foregoing faithfulness that is implied in his being admitted into it.

ὁ δεύτερος θάνατος. See Rev 2:11 and Rev 20:14 (the article is doubled in both). Cf. Rom 6:9-10.

οὐκ ἔχει ἐξουσίαν. The coupling of the second death, which cannot be taken literally as implying annihilation (see Rev 20:10), with the first resurrection in some degree lessens the difficulty of taking the latter figuratively, though as the body which is raised even to dishonour is spiritual, we cannot say that the first resurrection is spiritual and the general resurrection natural.

ἔσονται ἱερεῖς. Cf. Rev 1:6, Rev 5:10.

τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ. The strongest proof, perhaps, in the Book of the doctrine of Christ’s coequal Deity. If we read these words in the light of St John’s Gospel, or of the Nicene Creed, they suggest no difficulty; but without the doctrine there taught, they make salvation to consist in the deadly sin which the Moslems call “association”—the worshipping the creature by the side of the Creator. Notice, however, that the word “God” in this book always means the Father; and so throughout the N.T., with few exceptions.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hath part [εχων μερος] . A phrase peculiar to John as referring to a person. Compare Joh 13:8.

Second death. See on ch. Rev 2:11.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.