Rev 1:18, 6:8, 20:13-14 | Clarke | e4.org | Verse 18. I am he that liveth, and was dead ] I am Jesus the Saviour, who, though the fountain of life, have died for mankind; and being raised from the dead I shall die no more, the great sacrifice being consummated. And have the keys of death and the grave , so that I can destroy the living and raise the dead. The key here signifies the power and authority over life, death, and the grave. This is also a rabbinical form of speech. In the Jerusalem Targum , on , are these words: "There are four KEYS in the hand of God which he never trusts to angel or seraph. 1. The key of the rain ; 2. The key of provision ; 3. The key of the grave ; and 4. The key of the barren womb ." In Sanhedrin , fol. 113, 1, it is said: "When the son of the woman of Sarepta died, Elijah requested that to him might be given the key of the resurrection of the dead . They said to him, there are three KEYS which are not given into the hand of the apostle, the key of life , the key of the rain , and the key of the resurrection of the dead ." From these examples it is evident that we should understand αδης, hades , here, not as hell , nor the place of separate spirits , but merely as the grave ; and the key we find to be merely the emblem of power and authority . Christ can both save and destroy , can kill and make alive . Death is still under his dominion, and he can recall the dead whensoever he pleases. He is the resurrection and the life.

‏ Revelation of John 1:18

Verse 18. I am he that liveth, and was dead] I am Jesus the Saviour, who, though the fountain of life, have died for mankind; and being raised from the dead I shall die no more, the great sacrifice being consummated. And have the keys of death and the grave, so that I can destroy the living and raise the dead. The key here signifies the power and authority over life, death, and the grave. This is also a rabbinical form of speech. In the Jerusalem Targum, on Ge 30:22, are these words: "There are four KEYS in the hand of God which he never trusts to angel or seraph. 1. The key of the rain; 2. The key of provision; 3. The key of the grave; and 4. The key of the barren womb."

In Sanhedrin, fol. 113, 1, it is said: "When the son of the woman of Sarepta died, Elijah requested that to him might be given the key of the resurrection of the dead. They said to him, there are three KEYS which are not given into the hand of the apostle, the key of life, the key of the rain, and the key of the resurrection of the dead." From these examples it is evident that we should understand αδης, hades, here, not as hell, nor the place of separate spirits, but merely as the grave; and the key we find to be merely the emblem of power and authority. Christ can both save and destroy, can kill and make alive. Death is still under his dominion, and he can recall the dead whensoever he pleases. He is the resurrection and the life.

‏ Revelation of John 6:8

Verse 8. A pale horse] The symbol of death. Pallida mors, pale death, was a very usual poetic epithet; of this symbol there can be no doubt, because it is immediately said, His name that sat on him was DEATH.

And hell followed with him] The grave, or state of the dead, received the slain. This is a very elegant prosopopaeia, or personification.

Over the fourth part of the earth] One fourth of mankind was to feel the desolating effects of this seal.

To kill with sword] WAR; with hunger-FAMINE; with death-PESTILENCE; and with the beasts of the earth-lions, tigers, hyaenas, &c., which would multiply in consequence of the devastations occasioned by war, famine, and pestilence.

‏ Revelation of John 20:13-14

Verse 13. The sea gave up the dead] Those who had been drowned in it, and those millions slain in naval contests, who had no other grave.

And death] All who died by any kind of disease. Death is here personified, and represented as a keeper of defunct human beings; probably no more than earth or the grave is meant, as properly belonging to the empire of death.

And hell] αιδης, Hades, the place of separate spirits. The sea and death have the bodies of all human beings; hades has their spirits. That they may be judged, and punished or rewarded according to their works, their bodies and souls must be reunited; hades, therefore, gives up the spirits; and the sea and the earth give up the bodies.

Verse 14. And death and hell were cast into the lake] Death himself is now abolished, and the place for separate spirits no longer needful. All dead bodies and separated souls being rejoined, and no more separation of bodies and souls by death to take place, consequently the existence of these things is no farther necessary.

This is the second death.] The first death consisted in the separation of the soul from the body for a season; the second death in the separation of body and soul from God for ever. The first death is that from which there may be a resurrection; the second death is that from which there can be no recovery. By the first the body is destroyed during time; by the second, body and soul are destroyed through eternity.