Bible studies, contributions chiefly from papyri and ... - Predestination

285, 286] WHITE ROBES AND PALMS. 8()9
of the modern man readily and unconstrainedly accepts
the unaccustomed scenery, which yet has its proper place
only under the eternal blue of the eastern sky, or in the
serene halls of an ancient temple. The pious Christian of
the times of decadence did not depict things to come in the
forms of the pitiful present ; he saw them rather in the
crystal mirror of the authoritative past.
The exegetes of Eev. 7 ^ ^- have striven, in widely diver-
gent ways, to explain the peculiar colouring of this celestial
scenery. How does it come about that the adornment of
the blessed choir of the saints before the throne of God
should be portrayed exactly as it is ? The explanation of
the indwidiial elements provides no difficulty.^ The white
robes, of course, according to the bold symbolism of the text
itself, are connected with the cleansing power of the blood
of the Lamb (v. ^'') ; and, even without this special reference,
they have already a distinct and well-known sense (see
6 ^^). Again, the expression palms in their hands is familiar
to the reader of the Bible as a sign of festive joy. Attempts
have been made to supply a more definite background for
this latter feature, now from Jewish, now from Hellenic,
ideas. On the one hand, the palms have been looked upon
as suggesting a comparison of the heavenly glory with the
Feast of Tabernacles ; on the other, they have been taken
as an allusion to the palm-twigs bestowed upon the victor
in the Greek games.
We would not deny that such explanations, so far
as concerns the details of a picture which is not after
all so difficult to grasp, are quite adequate. But they
do not elucidate the scene in its entirety. How did the
writer come to bring together precisely these two features ?
And how comes it that both are assigned to the choir of
the blessed, which, in alternate song with the angels, raises
a hallelujah to the Most High ? If we knew of no historical
circumstance which might suggest an answer to these
questions, we might naturally enough infer that the writer
of the Apocalypse had himself composed his picture from
1 For what follows cf. F. Diisterdieck, Meyer, xvi. ^ (1887), p. 289.
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