22. revealeth--
(Job 12:22).
So spiritually
(Eph 1:17, 18).
knoweth what is in . . . darkness--
(Ps 139:11, 12;
Heb 4:13).
light . . . him--
(Jas 1:17;
1Jo 1:4).
Apocalypse (or "revelation") signifies a divine, prophecy
a human, activity. Compare
1Co 14:6,
where the two are distinguished. The prophet is connected with the
outer world, addressing to the congregation the words with which the
Spirit of God supplies him; he speaks in the Spirit, but the
apocalyptic seer is in the Spirit in his whole person
(Re 1:10; 4:2).
The form of the apocalyptic revelation (the very term meaning that the
veil that hides the invisible world is taken off) is
subjectively either the dream, or, higher, the vision.
The interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream was a preparatory
education to Daniel himself. By gradual steps, each revelation
preparing him for the succeeding one, God fitted him for disclosures
becoming more and more special. In the second and fourth chapters he is
but an interpreter of Nebuchadnezzar's dreams; then he has a dream
himself, but it is only a vision in a dream of the night
(Da 7:1, 2);
then follows a vision in a waking state
(Da 8:1-3);
lastly, in the two final revelations
(Da 9:20; 10:4, 5)
the ecstatic state is no longer needed. The progression in the
form answers to the progression in the contents of his
prophecy; at first general outlines, and these afterwards filled
up with minute chronological and historical details, such as are
not found in the Revelation of John, though, as became the New
Testament, the form of revelation is the highest, namely, clear waking
visions [AUBERLEN].
JFB.
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