Thumbnail image

Last Updated on : Saturday, November 22, 2014

 


sp

DOWNLOAD EUREKA volumes in PDF: Eureka downloads page

Eureka vol. 1 TOC | Eureka vol. 2 TOC | Eureka vol 3 TOC

Previous section | Next section

 

Eureka

AN EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE
Sixth Edition, 1915
By Dr. John Thomas (first edition written 1861)

 

 

Chapter 6

Section 3 Subsection 4

The Voice


 
spacer

John says, that when he saw this vision of the third seal, he heard "a voice in the midst of the Four Living Ones." Voice is sometimes used in scripture in the sense of the signification, or the thing signified by a sign; as in Exod. iv. 8. Moses was to do certain signs before the people, to convince them that he was sent by Yahweh to deliver them. "If," said he, "they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, they will believe the voice of the latter sign." The voices, though not expressed in words, were, that he whose power turned his flesh leprous as snow, and restored it instantly; and changed the water of the Nile into blood, had sent Moses with power to deliver them. The sign was one thing, the voice of the sign another. Voice also is sometimes used for law, -- as "If thou shalt be obedient to his voice," i.e. to his law. It is also used for proclamation; as in Ezra i. 1, "Cyrus caused a voice to pass through all his kingdom;" that is, he made a proclamation through all his kingdom.

This voice that John heard was edicts, decrees, or laws, proclaimed by authority; and to be executed by the class of agents who exercised the power symbolized by the balance -- the praetors at Rome, and the governors of the provinces. John heard the voice "in the midst of the four living ones." These being emblematic of the brethren and their fellow-servants in all the Roman earth, an imperial decree, addressed to the agents symbolized by the rider holding the balance, would be, hieroglyphically speaking, "a voice in the midst of the four living ones."

The decrees of this voice caused to pass by authority throughout the Roman world were "a choinix of wheat a denarius; and three choinices of barley a denarius; but the oil and the wine thou mayest not act unjustly by." This was the voice in sign. It was the sign-voice. We are not to expect to find an imperial decree in these words, because the thing signified will be different from the sign. But when we come to understand the character of the sign, if it be an evil sign, we may expect to find the administration of the balance-holder evil; and productive of such results as would blacken the community over which he rules; or cause to it lamentation, mourning, and woe: but if the sign-voice were a good sign, it would have developed a different aspect. The horse would have been white; because the administration of the rider to whom the voice comes, would have been beneficent. The sign-voice implies an intensely oppressive administration of public affairs in all the third seal period, with a brief intermission only. This was indicated by the words, "the oil and the wine thou mayest not act unjustly by." This implies that the edict-making power, or voice of the seal, would not in all its career be devoid of equity. The words me adikesis in the English version are rendered hurt thou not; but, I prefer the above translation as more in accordance with the etymology; for it is a compound of a negative, and dike justice -- a denial of Justice, which is unjust. There was one of the riders, or ruling class, who was ordered not to act unjustly in relation to "the oil and the wine" -- "THOU mayest not act unjustly by the oil and the wine."

This injunction in regard to the oil and the wine, indicates that injustice would be done in the matter of the wheat and the barley. These were taxable articles from which a great revenue was derived for the use of the state. The decrees, or seal-voice of the senate, fixed the tariff, which the emperors and their subordinates carried into effect, justly or otherwise as it pleased them. The grain tax was levied in kind, or an equivalent was paid in money to the farmers of the revenue; who often sent the treasury at Rome what the law required, and retained for themselves the excess they had extorted from the taxpayers they oppressed. Thus, for example, if wheat were assessed by the senate at ten cents a bushel, they might extort thirty; send the treasury its due, and keep the twenty for their own use. According to this principle of robbery in Sicily, when the wheat-procurations were required from the islanders, the market price being not above one denarius the modius, Verres exacted three denarii from some of them as a money equivalent for each modius due. These extortionate proceedings of the farmers of the revenue were a cause of great public distress and irritation. They were appointed for an equitable administration of affairs, and the collection of revenue in kind and money according to the voice of the Senate. But, being pagans without enlightened conscience, they acted under the blind impulse of their natural organization, and plundered the people as far as they could do so with impunity. "Those," says Gibbon, -- "who had learning enough to read the orations of Cicero against Verres, might instruct themselves in all the various arts of oppression with regard to the weight, the price, the quality, and the carriage; and the avarice of an unlettered governor would supply the ignorance of precept or precedent." The emperor Alexander Severus used to style the revenue-collectors, "the robbers of the provinces;" it was with them as Hosea says of Ephraim, "the balance of deceit is in his hands, he loveth to oppress."

 

 


spacer
spacer
spacer

Eureka Diary -- reading plan for Eureka

spacer