the eleventh, little Benjamin. The story is recorded in Genesis 43. The exact statement of fulfillment is to be found in verse 26, when they “ bowed themselves to him to the earth.” In Genesis 40 the dreams of Pharaoh’s butler and baker follow the same pattern. The three branches of the vine of the butler’s dream were interpreted by Joseph as three days in which the butler was to be restored to the service of his master. The three white baskets of the baker’s dream became by interpretation also three days, but the outcome of the events for him was not good; the eating of the bakery goods out of the basket by the birds turned out to symbolize the lifting up of his head and the eating of his flesh by the fowls of the air. Again in Pharaoh’s dream of the seven fat and the seven lean kine (Gen. 41), the seven kine in each case become by interpretation seven years, and the prediction based upon this interpretation was that there should be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. The fulfillment is common knowledge to readers of the Bible. In Daniel we find a more truly parallel kind of litera ture to that of the Apocalypse, and in it we could develop a number of the same patterns. The image of Daniel 2 contained four parts, which were interpreted as four kingdoms, and Nebuchadnezzar himself was identified as the head of gold. The prediction specified three kingdoms to follow, which most interpreters recognize as having been fulfilled. Likewise the four beasts or creatures of chapter 7 are interpreted as four kings, and the ten horns are also seen to represent kings or kingdoms. The seven times that were to pass over the head of Nebuchadnezzar were seven times in the interpretation as well as the vision, and while these are usually understood as mean ing years, the significant thing, and the point that we want to observe for the purpose of the argument to emerge later, is that the number seven carries through from the vision to the interpretation, and right on through the prediction to the fulfillment. While the number seven is not repeated in the Statement of the fulfillment, the expression “ at the end of the days” could mean nothing but that the period prophesied had elapsed. Yet one more parallel of a somewhat different kind, in that we do not have a true vision, but an event in his tory through which the divine idea is conveyed, is that of the story of Jonah’s three-day experience in the belly of the fish, which Jesus Himself used as the symbolic basis of a prediction which He based upon His own inspired interpretation of it. “ For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, according to the Hebrew conception of such a period of time, whether within the three days or covering it. These examples are sufficient, we believe, to show a fair sampling of the Scriptural analogy to the kind of language we have in Revelation 20. A hypothesis develops from the study of these passages which may be stated as follows: apparently nowhere in the Scriptures do we .find a prophetic situation involving the use of some means of divine communication such as a dream or vision, and in which a number appears, where the number does not carry through unchanged from the vision into the inter pretation and the prediction based upon it; and where the fulfillment has, or had, already taken place in the Scrip ture record, the same number carries over into the fulfill ment also. We have noted that the identity of the thing seen in the vision, which is the true symbol, does change usually, between the vision and the interpretation, but the identity of the thing symbolized, once it is interpreted, carries on also without change from the interpretation through the prediction and into the fulfillment.
The Pattern of Prophecy (cont.) and style. This is the larger context of Scripture as a whole. Another term that has represented a valid and useful method of hermeneutics is grammatico-historical. This refers to the application to the Bible of the laws of syntax and literary criticism that are used of any kind of literature coupled with the consideration of its histori cal background. We go a step further in the analysis to follow. We shall examine the passage in the light of its literary style and rhetorical character. One could call this the rhetorico-historical method. It will involve a diligent application of the principle of the analogy of Scripture. Verses l-5a of Revelation 20 are definitely in the cate gory of vision, as is indicated by the “ I saw” of verses 1 and 4. The content of verses 2 and 3 and the first half of verse 5 merely continues the narrative of what the writer was seeing. With the middle of verse 5, however, there is a definite break. The vision ceases. The writer then renders the meaning, or at least one aspect of the meaning, of what he has been seeing. No other construc tion can be placed on such a statement as “ this is the first resurrection.” Verse 6 is not so easy to analyze, but the first clause might be called a benediction, “ Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.” The second clause is merely a further observation on the persons under discussion, or both parts might be consid ered either as subdivisions of the interpretation, or infer ential predictions belonging with what follows. The re maining part of verse 6 and continuing through verse 8 are plainly prediction, the verbs being in the futuristic tenses. With verse 9 the writer takes up the vision again, which he suspended in the middle of verse 5 in order to interject his interpretation and prediction. The literary style and rhetoric of this passage can then be outlined as follows: 1. Vision, verses l-5a It will be seen that no matter what we do with the questionable clauses 6a, b, we have here a literary struc ture of three elements all falling within the context of an apocalyptic work of prophecy. It would seem that there should be no real problem of interpretation, once one has correctly analyzed the passage. But to fulfill the requirements of the analogy of Scripture, it is necessary to compare this passage with other similar passages in other parts of the Bible. And just to be sure that we do not lay ourselves open to any criticism for not making such comparison with passages truly similar, we select those that exhibit the same liter ary pattern as this one does. One is reminded immediately of such a situation as is found in the case of the dreams of Joseph, in which a prophecy emerges on the basis of an interpretation of a vision, which in this instance came by way of a dream. In reality there were two dreams which resulted in the same interpretation and the same prediction, both the interpretation and the prediction being inferred and not uttered as such. In the case of the sheaves (Gen. 37:5-8) and the eleven stars (Gen. 37:9-11), the interpretation was that they represented or symbolized the brothers, and their obeisance was predicted. It is very interesting to read of the fulfillment of these predictions, which give us the fourth element in what we have called the pattern of prophecy. It began to look as though in the fulfillment there would be only ten of the brothers that would bow down to Joseph when he had been elevated to the position of prime minister of Egypt. But, as we all know, events turned out that Joseph would not accept the approach of his ten brethren and sent for 2. Interpretation, verse 5b (or 5b-6b) 3. Prediction, verses 6 (or 6c) through 8
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THE K IN G 'S BU SINESS
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