409 



APOCALYPSE. 



APOCRYPHA. 



410 



tion of Bern, agreed with Luther and his followers in their estimate of 

 the Apocalypse. 



The reformers of Geneva, Calvin aud Beza, seem to be more 

 favourable to the Apocalypse. They quote it often without mentioning 

 the Lutheran classification of canonical and apocryphal books of the 

 New Testament. Calvin uses, in his ' Institutio Relig. Christiana;,' 

 the Apocalypse as canonical and apostolical, but does not interpret it 

 in his ' Commentarii,' and thus obtained the often-echoed praise of 

 Scaliger ; " Calvin was wise not to write on the Apocalypse." Beza 

 defends, in his ' Prolegomena to the New Testament," its authenticity 

 against Erasmus, but adds, that if it were not of St. John, he would 

 ascribe it to St. Mark, on account of the similarity of style. On the 

 authority of these reformers the Apocalypse was sanctioned as genuine 

 in the ' Confessio Helvetica Posterior,' the Thirty-nine Articles of the 

 Church of England, the ' Confessio Gallica,' and ' Conf. Belgica,' and 

 zealously expounded by Theodori Bibliandri (' Explicatio Apocalypseos,' 

 p. 8, Basel, 1549,) and by Artopceus (Francfurt, 1549), and Heinrieh 

 Bullinger, who defends it against Erasmus and Luther (' Cent Sermons 

 sur 1'Apocalypse,' Geneve, 1565). Hyperius (in his ' Methodus Theo- 

 logiic,' p. 48, Basel, 1574), did not conceal that its authenticity had 

 been doubted by gome, but he declares it to be canonical on the 

 authority of the most ancient fathers. So the theory and practice of 

 the so-called reformed (Calvinistic) church were in the sixteenth 

 century, decidedly opposed to those of the Lutheran. 



The Socinians leaned more towards the reformed than to the Luthe- 

 ran view. Faustua Socinus (' De Auctoritate Scripture: Sacra;,' opp. i. 

 268) declares the Apocalypse to be genuine. 



Towards the middle of the eighteenth century, the doubts about the 

 authenticity of the Apocalypse were revived first in England by a 

 Deist, namely, the unknown translator of ' The New Testament, in 

 Greek and English, containing the Original Text,' &c., dedicated to the 

 Lord Chancellor, Peter King, London, 1729 ; and with more penetration 

 by the anonymous author of the ' Discourse, Historical and Critical, on 

 the Revelation ascribed to St. John.' It is now known that this Dis- 

 course was written by Firmin Abauzit, the famous librarian at 

 Geneva, a friend of Bayle and Newton, at the request of W. Burnet. 

 It was originally written in French, under the title 'Discours sur 

 1' Apocalypse.' The original was printed, contrary to the wish of 

 Abauzit (who died in 1767), in the edition of his ' CEuvres Diverses,' 

 London, 1770. Abauzit's essay gave a new impulse to these critical 

 investigations; and it induced Dr. Leonhard Twells to write his 

 defence of the Apocalypse in the third part of his ' Critical Examina- 

 tion of the late Text and Version of the New Testament in Greek and 

 English,' 1732 ; which contains the first essay of a solid defence of the 

 Apocalypse by internal and external arguments. T. C. Wolf inserted 

 an abridged translation of this work in his ' Curae Phil, et Grit." vol. v., 

 p. 387. The excellent work of T wells, which silenced the adversaries 

 of the Apocalypse in England; became known in Germany, where, after 

 thirty years, the combat was renewed. 



There was a time when the philologists of Germany generally did 

 not recognise the tcsthetical value of the Apocalypse, being influenced 

 l>y the opinions of Oeder, Semler, and his followers. Herder and 

 Eichhom, equally learned, without any predilection for orthodoxy, 

 but with more tact than Semler and his school, showed that the 

 despisera of the Apocalypse had only manifested their own want of 

 taste, when they denied the testhetical value of the Apocalypse ; and 

 thus, without being orthodox, Eichhom facilitated a decision favour- 

 able to orthodoxy. Herder observed, that every Christian poet who 

 had a spark of real poesy, enjoyed the Apocalypse ; that the best hymns 

 of the middle ages, on Jesus, Mary, the church, and the kingdom of 

 God, are crowned with apocalyptical flowers; that Dante, Petrarch, 

 and Milton were imitators of the Apocalypse. 



There u in the Apocalypse neither the plastic beauty of the antique, 

 nor the picturesque beauty of our western modern poesy ; the oriental 

 poetry loves immensity. The apocalyptical imagination opens heaven 

 and hell, and, rising high above human aud terrestrial forms, breaks 

 through the limits of humanity and temporal existence. It calls down 

 the heavenly Jerusalem, dimly shadowed forth by the things temporal. 

 The poetry of the Apocalypse is that of infinity, of destruction, and 

 of endless power. 



Bretschrieider, Bleek, De Wette, Ewald, Scholt, Lucke, have written 

 gainst the authenticity of the Apocalypse. Their works contain fur- 

 ther developments of the old arguments of Dionysius. 



Hiinlein, Schmidt, Kleuker, Hug, Eichhom, Feilmoser, Lange, 

 Bertholdt, Ciiierike, OUhausen, are modern defenders of the authenticity 

 of the Apocalypse; to whom we may add among the English, Lardner, 

 and hi* epitomisera, Dean Woodhouse, the Rev. Hartwell Home, and 

 others. 



The most recent German opponent fairly grant, that the external 

 testimonies are decidedly in favour of the authenticity, but they assert 

 that these testimonies are overcome by the internal philological 

 character of the work. 



The Apocalypse has been attacked and defended with greater zeal 

 than any part of the New Testament, because its contents excite a 

 very strong interest either in favour or against this conclusion of the 

 whole Bible. The fundamental idea of the Apocalypse, which Lnther 

 and other opposers of the Revelations did not understand, is the 

 following : As Plato, in his books npl IfoAiTcfou, considers the state to 



be an exact transcript of individual man, so St. John, taking yet a 

 higher step, tells us in the Apocalypse that similar events, which 

 happen in the life of individuals, shall also take place in the infinity of 

 the whole universe. Professor Stuart of Andover, in the United 

 States, in his Commentary on the Apocalypse, has very ably contro- 

 verted the arguments of the opposers of its authenticity, and has 

 successfully proved its right to admission among the canonical books, 

 though his theory of the right interpretation of the book is more 

 doubtful. 



As the redemption of Christ saves the whole man, spirit, soul, and 

 body, so Jesus Christ saves also the universe from sin and consequent 

 perdition. The Apocalypse teaches by a sublime imagery, what the 

 other apostolical writings more obscurely indicate ; namely, that there 

 shall be a period in which the spirit of the Lord shall not only operate 

 in secret by governing the hearts of believers, but a period in which 

 it shall entirely conquer, prevailing against all opposition, and shall 

 finally establish a kingdom of universal peace and justice here on 

 earth. 



The leading idea, then, of the Apocalypse consists in the complete 

 victory of what is good, and of Paradise regained, or re-established 

 on earth. 



APO'CALYPTIC KNIGHTS (Cavalieri dell' Apocalisse) were a 

 secret society, formed A.D. 1693, professedly for the defence of 

 the Roman Catholic church against Antichrist. The founder of the 

 Apocalyptic order was Agostino Gabrino, the son of a merchant 

 at Brescia. When, on Palm Sunday, 1693, in the church of St. Peter 

 at Rome, the antiphony of Ps. xxiv. was sung : ' Quis est iste rex 

 gloria; ? ' ' Who is that king of glory ? ' Agostino Gabrino stepped for- 

 ward with a drawn sword among the ecclesiastics, crying out, ' Ego 

 sum rex glorite,' ' I am king of glory." In a similar manner he disturbed 

 public worship in the church of St. Salvator, and was, therefore, 

 confined in a madhouse. A woodcutter belonging to the Apocalyptic 

 knights laid information before the Inquisition against his order ; by 

 this tribunal the order was suppressed in 1694, and the knights con- 

 fined in prison. About eighty knights, most of whom were tradesmen 

 and labourers, wore constantly a sword at their side, even during 

 menial occupations, and a star upon their breast. This star had seven 

 corners, and a tail, and was surrounded by a golden thread, which 

 circle represented the terraqueous gktbe. The tail of the star repre- 

 sented the sword seen by St. John in the Apocalypse. This order has 

 been accused of an intended rebellion against the papal government 

 and the higher ranks. Agostino Gabrino, called monarch of the Holy 

 Trinity, intended to introduce polygamy, and his knights were to 

 marry pure virgins only. The history even of such a set of madmen is 

 not without its uses : ignorance and fanaticism will, in all ages, pro- 

 duce the same fruits. (Tenzel, ' Monatliche Unterredungen ' for the 

 year 1694, pp. 672-677, and of 1697, p. 883, &c. ; Ersch and Gmber's 

 ' Ency.') 



APOCRENIC ACID. [CKENIC ACID.] 



APO'CRYPHA (oir<Jnpw))oi ftl$\ot) are such books as contain secrets 

 and are kept in secret, from caroKp{nrrfiv, to conceal ; consequently the 

 term referred to those writings of the Gnostics and other sects which 

 contained the knowledge of those mysteries which were communicated 

 to their partisans only. These books are now known under the name 

 of pseudepigraphi, (that is, ' books with false titles,') as the books of 

 Adam, Enoch, the three patriarchs, &c. These volumes formed a kind 

 of heretical canon in opposition to the orthodox canon, and hence 

 arose the signification of the name Apocrypha, which now means not 

 canonical, or not belonging to those writings which form the canon of 

 the Holy Scriptures. 



The name Apocrypha is especially given to those additions which 

 were introduced into the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, 

 from whence they were transferred into the Vulgate and many subse- 

 quent translations. They are undoubtedly of early date, and are sup- 

 posed to have been rejected by the first council of Nice in A.D. 325, or 

 rather that the other books then received the sanction of the church, 

 but no list of the books decided upon as authentic is given in the canons 

 then issued. The reformers separated the Apocrypha from the Old 

 Testament, and Luther placed them between the Old and the New 

 Covenants, under the title of Apocrypha, or books which are not to be 

 esteemed equal to the Holy Scriptures, but are still profitable to the 

 reader. In opposition to the reformers, the Apocrypha were declared 

 to be canonical by the council of Trent. Hence all translations which 

 follow the Vulgate have the Apocrypha interspersed with the other 

 writings which are admitted by all Christians to be canonical. The 

 Bibles published by Protestants on the continent place separately the 

 additions to Esdras ; the book of Tobit; Judith; rest of Esther; 

 Wisdom of Solomon ; Ecclesiasticus ; Baruch, with the epistle of 

 Jeremiah : the song of the Three Children ; Susanna ; Bel and the 

 Dragon ; the Prayer of Manasseh ; the books of the Maccabees. About 

 the year 1821, a debate arose in the British and Foreign Bible Society 

 about the propriety of printing the Apocrypha together with the Holy 

 Scriptures. About 1826, it was decided that the Apocrypha should 

 not be circulated by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Never- 

 theless the disputes of the two opposite parties were continued for 

 several succeeding years, and many pamphlets were published by both 

 parties, until the apocryphalists were finally defeated by the anti- 

 apocryphalists. Besides the Apocrypha, which form a kind of appendix 



