(1) Various prophecies are found in Christendom. Some prophesy by interpreting the Scriptures of the prophets, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 and other places. This is the most necessary, and must be had daily, as it teaches the Word of God, lays the foundation of Christianity, and defends the faith, and summa, governs, sustains, orders, and directs the ministry of preaching.
2. some prophesy of things to come, which are not written before; and these are threefold: the first prophesies with expressed words, without image and figures, as Moses, David, and the like prophets prophesy of Christ, and as Christ and the apostles prophesy of the end-Christ and false teachers etc.
The other one does it with pictures, but besides that, the interpretation also sets in with
expressed words, as Joseph interprets the dreams, and Daniel interprets both dreams and images.
4. the third, which does it without words or interpretation, with mere pictures and figures, like this book of Revelation, and many holy people's dreams, visions and pictures, which they have from the Holy Spirit, like Apost. 2, 17. 2, 17. Peter preaches from Joel: "Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your elders shall dream dreams." And as long as such prophecy remains uninterpreted, and does not receive a certain interpretation, it is a hidden, silent prophecy, and has not yet come to its use and fruit, which it is to give to Christianity.
5) As has been the case with this book so far. Many people have probably been
*) This preface is found in the Leipzig edition, vol. XII, p. 70 and in the Erlangen edition, vol. 63, p. 158.
132 Erl. 63, 159-161. prefaces to the German Bible translation. W. xiv, 152-154. 1ZZ
But up to the present day, they have not come up with anything certain, and some have brewed up a lot of clumsy things from their heads. For the sake of such uncertain interpretation and hidden understanding, we have also left it up to now, especially because it was also considered by some old fathers that it was not St. John the Apostle, as is written in libro 3. hist. eccl. cap. 25, in which doubt we leave it for us, so that no one should be prevented from taking it for St. John the Apostle, or as he wishes.
6. But because we would still like to have the interpretation or interpretation certain, we want to give the other and higher spirits causes to think about, and also give our thoughts to day, namely thus: Since it is to be a revelation of future history, and especially of future tribulations and accidents of Christianity, we consider that the next and most certain way to find the interpretation should be to take the past history and accidents that have occurred in Christianity so far from the histories, and hold them against these pictures, and thus compare them to the words. If then it would rhyme and coincide with each other, then one could rely on it as a certain or at least as an unobjectionable interpretation.
(7) Accordingly, as the text itself says, the first three chapters, which speak of the seven commoners and their angels in Asia, intend nothing else than to show plainly how they were at that time, and to exhort them to remain and increase, or to improve. We learn about this from the word "angels" in other images or stories, and understand bishops and teachers in Christendom, some good, as the holy fathers and bishops, some bad, as the heretics and false bishops, who are more in this book than the latter.
In the fourth and fifth chapters, the whole of Christendom is presented, which is to suffer such future tribulations and plagues. There are twenty-four elders crowned with faith before God (that is, all the bishops and teachers united), who have received Christ, the Lamb, the Lord and the Holy Spirit.
1) In the original: "Geschichten", in Walch: "Gesichten", which is perhaps the right thing to say.
To praise God with the harps, that is, to preach, and to serve with the touch, that is, to practice praying. All this is for the comfort of Christians, so that they may know that Christianity will still remain in the plagues to come.
In the sixth there are the future tribulations, and first of all the bodily tribulations, which are the persecution of the worldly authorities, which is the crowned horseman with the bow on the white horse. Item, war and blood, which is the rider with the sword on the red horse. Item, theure Zeit und Hunger, which is the rider with the scales 2) on the black horse. Item, pestilence and gland, which is the rider in the image of death on the pale horse. For these four plagues will certainly always follow the ungrateful and despisers of the word of God, among others, disturbance and change of the authorities, until the last day, as is shown at the end of the sixth chapter, v. 13, and the souls of the martyrs also do this with their cries.
The seventh and eighth chapters contain the revelation of spiritual tribulations, which are various heresies. And before that, a consolation picture is presented, where the angel draws the Christians and fends off the four evil angels, so that one can be sure that Christianity will have pious angels and the pure word even among the heretics. As also the angel with the censer, that is, with the prayer, shows. Such good angels are the holy fathers, as Spiridon, Athanasius, Hilarius, and the Concilium Nicenum, and the like.
The first evil angel is Taüanus with his Encratites, who forbade marriage, item, wanted to be pious by works, like the Jews. For the doctrine of works holiness had to be the first against the gospel, and probably remains the last; without it always getting new teachers and other names, as Pelagians etc.
The other is Marcion with his cataphrygians, Manichaeans, Montanis etc., who boast of their spirituality above all scripture, and drive like this burning mountain between heaven and earth, as with us the coiner and the enthusiasts.
2) In any case incorrect in the original edition: with the bow.
The third is Origen, who, through philosophia and reason, has embittered and corrupted the Scriptures, as the high schools have done in our country.
The fourth is Novatus with his Cathars, who refused to repent and wanted to be the purest before others. The Donatists were also of this kind afterwards. Our clergy, however, are almost all four kinds. The scholars, who know the histories, will know how to calculate this; for it would be too long to tell and prove everything.
(15) In the ninth [and] tenth the real sorrow arises, because up to now the bodily and spiritual afflictions have been almost a joke compared to these future plagues. As the angel himself indicates at the end of the eighth chapter, v. 13, three woes are to come; which woes are to be inflicted by the other three, that is, the fifth, the fiercest, the seventh angel, and thus an end to the world. Here both spiritual and bodily persecution come together; there shall be three of them. The first great, the other still greater, the third greatest of all.
16 The first woe, the fifth angel, is Arius, the great heretic, and his companions, who plagued Christianity so horribly throughout the world, that the text here says: the pious people would rather have died than have seen such things; and yet they had to see such things and not die. Yes, he says that the angel from hell, called the destroyer, is their king; as if they wanted to say that the devil himself was riding them. For they have persecuted the true Christians not only spiritually, but also bodily with their sword. Read the story of the Arians, and you will understand these figures and words.
17 The other woe is the sixth angel, the shameful Mahomet with his companions, the Saracens, who have created a great plague on Christendom with their teachings and sword. Alongside and with the same angel, so that this plague may be all the greater, comes the strong angel with the rainbow and the bitter book, that is, the holy papacy with its great spiritual glow, the masses, and seize the temple with their laws, push out the choir, and set up a larval church or outward holiness.
(18) In the eleventh [and] twelfth, two comforting images are placed between such evil travails and plagues: one of the two preachers, and one of the pregnant woman who gives birth to a baby without the dragon's thanks. So that it is indicated that nevertheless some pious teachers and Christians shall remain, both under the two previous woes and the third future woe. And now the last two woes run with each other, and at the same time attack Christianity to the last, and the devil thereby finally pushes the bottom out of the barrel.
So now in the thirteenth chapter comes the third woe: Chapter (on the trumpet of the last of the seven angels, who blows in the beginning of the twelfth chapter) of the same seventh angel's business, the third woe, namely the papal emperorship and imperial papacy. Here the papacy also gets the secular sword into its power, and now rules not only with the book in the other woe, but also with the sword in the third woe. How then they boast that the pope has both [the] spiritual and temporal sword in his power.
(20) Now here are the two beasts: one is the empire, the other, with the two horns, the papacy, which has now also become a temporal empire, but with the appearance of the name of Christ. For the pope has restored the fallen Roman Empire and brought it from the Greeks to the Germans; and yet it is more an image of the Roman Empire than of the body of the empire itself, as it was; yet he gives spirit and life to such an image that it nevertheless has its estates, rights, members and offices, and goes on to some extent in the swing. This is the image that has been sore and has been healed.
But what abominations, woes and damages such an imperial papacy has done is not to be told now. For first, through his book the world has become full of all idolatry, with monasteries, foundations, saints, pilgrimages, purgatory, indulgences, immorality, and countless more pieces of human doctrine and works etc. On the other hand, who can tell how much blood, murder, war and misery the popes have caused, both with wars themselves, and with charms the emperors, kings, princes among themselves?
22. here now goes and runs the devil's last wrath with each other in the swing: there
Towards the morning the other woe, Mahomet and the Saracens; here towards the evening, the papacy and empire with the third woe; to which, as an encore, the Turk, Gog and Magog also come, as will follow in the twentieth chapter, and thus Christendom in all the world and on all sides is plagued with false doctrines and wars, with book and sword in the most dreadful and miserable way. This is the basic soup and the final plague. This is now followed by almost vain consolations of the end of such all woes and abominations.
In the fourteenth chapter, Christ first sends the spirit of his mouth to kill (as St. Paul says in 2 Thess. 2, 8) his final Christ, and the angel comes with the gospel against the bitter book of the strong angel. And now again saints, also virgins, stand around the Lamb and preach rightly. What gospel is followed by the voice of another angel, that the city of Babylon shall fall, and the spiritual papacy perish.
It follows that the harvest will be kept, and those who persist in the gospel apart from the city of Christ will be thrown into the winepress of divine wrath. That is, through the gospel they are condemned to the wrath of God as separated from Christianity. Which is much, and the winepress yields much blood. Or perhaps there may still be a righteous punishment and judgment on our sins, which are out of measure and overripe.
(25) Then in the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters come the seven angels with the seven bowls; and the gospel is increased, and the priesthood is overthrown in all places by many learned and pious preachers, and the throne of the beast, the priest's power, is darkened, wicked, and despised. But they all become angry, and confidently defend themselves. For three frogs, three unclean spirits, come out of the mouth of the beast and provoke the kings and princes against the gospel. But it does not help; their quarrel happens at Armageddon. The frogs are the sophists, as Faber, Eck, Emser, etc., who offer many things against the gospel, and yet accomplish nothing, and remain frogs.
In the seventeenth century, the imperial papacy and the papal emperorship are captured in one image from beginning to end,
and immediately presented in a summa, how it is nothing (because the old Roman Empire is long gone), and yet is (because there are several countries, and in addition the city of Rome also still there). Such a picture is presented here, just as an evildoer is publicly put on trial to be condemned, so that one may know how this animal will soon be condemned, and as St. Paul says in 2 Thess. 2, 8, will be destroyed by the appearance of the future of our Lord. Which, as he says in the text, also the patrons of the papacy saw, who now protect it so that the clergy will sit almost naked.
In the eighteenth now such disturbance starts, and the glorious great splendor goes to the ground, and the robbers and thieves of foundations, the Cortisans, listen. 1) For Rome also had to be plundered and stormed by her own patron, for the beginning of the final disturbance.
28 They still do not let up, seek, comfort, prepare and resist; and, as he says here in the nineteenth chapter, now that they can no longer handle the Scriptures and books, and have attacked the frogs, they take hold of them in earnest, and want to carry it out by force; they gather kings and princes to the battle. But they run. For he on the white horse, who is called the word of God, wins, until both animal and prophet are seized and thrown into hell.
2l). While all this is going on, in the twentieth chapter the last potion, Gog and Magog, the Turk, the red Jews, whom Satan, who was imprisoned a thousand years ago and was released after a thousand years, brings. But they shall also soon enter the lake of fire with him. For we consider that this image, as a special one from the previous ones, was made for the sake of the Turks, and the thousand years are to be counted at the time when this book was written, and at the same time the devil was also bound. But the calculation must not be so exact every minute. The last judgment follows the Turks at the end of this chapter, as Dan. 7, 7. 8. also shows.
30. last on the twenty-first will be the
1) "Cortisans" (Curtisans) - courtiers.
The final consolation is that the holy city will be fully prepared and led as a bride to the eternal wedding, that Christ alone will be the Lord, and all the wicked will be damned and go to hell with the devil.
(31) According to this interpretation, we can use this book and make good use of it. First of all, for our consolation, that we know that no power nor lies, no wisdom nor holiness, no tribulation nor suffering will oppress Christianity, but it will finally retain and prevail.
32 Secondly, as a warning against the great, dangerous, and manifold troubles that are coming upon Christendom. For since such mighty power and appearances should fight against Christianity, and it should be hidden under so many tribulations, heresies and other afflictions, it is impossible for reason and nature to recognize Christianity, but it falls away and is annoyed by it, which is called the Christian church, which are the worst enemies of the Christian church, and again it is called damned heretics, which are the true Christian church; as has hitherto been done under the Pabbacy, Mahomet, indeed with all heretics, and thus lose this article: "I believe a holy Christian church."
(33) Just as some clever people do now, because they see heresy, discord, and various shortcomings, that there are many false, many loose Christians, they quickly and freely judge that there are no Christians. For they have heard that Christians are supposed to be a holy, peaceful, united, friendly, virtuous people; consequently they think that there should be no trouble, no heresy, no lack, but only peace and virtue.
These should read this book and learn to look at Christianity with different eyes than with reason. For this book (I mean) shows enough horrible monstrous beasts, hideous, hostile angels, desolate and terrible plagues. I want to tell you about the other great
1) "formed" - represented in the picture.
We see here clearly what cruel troubles and shortcomings have existed before our times, since it is thought that Christianity has been in the best of times, that our time has been a golden year. We can clearly see here what cruel annoyances and shortcomings existed before our times, since one thinks that Christianity was at its best, that our time would be a golden year compared to those. Do you not think that the pagans also took offense at this, and considered the Christians to be mischievous, loose, quarrelsome people?
35 This piece, "I believe in a holy Christian church," is as much an article of faith as the others. Therefore no reason, even if it puts on all the glasses, can recognize it. The devil can cover it up with aversions and mobs, so that you have to be annoyed by them. God can also hide her with infirmities and all kinds of shortcomings, so that you have to become a fool about it and make a wrong judgment about her. It is not to be seen, but to be believed; but faith is of that which is not seen, Heb. 11:1.
(36) And she also sings with her Lord the song, Blessed is he that is not offended in me. A Christian is also hidden from himself, that he does not see his holiness and virtue, but sees in himself all unholiness and unholiness. And you, coarse klügling, wanted to see Christianity with your blind reason and unclean eyes?'
Our holiness is in heaven, where Christ is, and not in the world, before our eyes, like a thing in the marketplace. Therefore, let the troubles, the mobs, the heresies, and the infirmities be and do what they may; if only the word of the gospel remains pure with us, and we love and value it, then we should not doubt that Christ is with us and with us, even if it goes to the worst, as we see here in this book, that Christ is nevertheless with and with his saints through and above all plagues, beasts, and evil angels, and is finally subject to them.