APOCALYPSE

APOCALYPSE, Apocalypsis, q.d. Revelation; the Name of the last Book in the Canon of Scripture.
See CANON and BIBLE.
The Apocalypse contains Discoveries, or Revelations relating to many important Mysteries of Christian Faith; made to the Apostle St. John, in the Isle of Patmos, during his Banishment there under the Persecution of Domitian.
See REVELATION.



The Word is formed of the Greek ἀποκαλύπτω, I reveal, I discover. This, of all the Books of the New Testament, is that, about which the ancient Fathers, and the Practice of the Church, were the most and the longest divided. St. Jerome relates, that the Greek Church doubted of its Authenticness even in his Days: St. Basil and Gregory Nazianzen absolutely reject it; and the Council of Laodicea never mentions it in their Canon of the Sacred Writings. Some attributed it to the Heretic Cerinthus; and others, to another John, Disciple of St. John.
Dionysius Alexandrinus censures it as written in bad Greek, and even finds Solecisms and Barbarisms in it, abundance: though he allows it to contain a mystic sense, which he says he admires even where he does not understand.
On the other hand, St. Justin, Irenaeus, and St. Augustine make no doubt of its being Canonical.

The third Council of Carthage, held in 397, placed it in the Canon of the New Testament; and the Churches both of the East and West have acknowledged it ever since.
Theologians are represented by Ecclesiastical Writers as great Declaimers against the Apocalypse, many of the Flights whereof they turned into Ridicule; particularly the Visions of the seven Trumpets; the four Angels bound on the River Euphrates, &c.

St. Epiphanius defends it against them: The Book, he observes, is not a mere History, but a Prophecy; so that it is no wonder the Author should express himself after the manner of the Prophets, whose Style is usually figurative. Of all their Objections against the Authority of this Book, that seems the best grounded which is drawn from those Words in Cap. ii. ver. 15. Write to the Angel of the Church of Thyatira: There was not, say they, any Christian Church at Thyatira at that time——St. Epiphanius, who grants them this Point, is forced to have recourse to the Prophetic Spirit; as if St. John had foreseen there would be a Church there in course of time.

Some late Authors have made a good amendment to St. Epiphanius’s Answer: 'Tis probable, in the time of that Father, the Catalogue of the Bishops, with other Acts, which show that there had been a Church established there from the time of the Apostles; might not be known. Grotius adds, that though there was not, indeed, any Church of Gentile Converts at Thyatira when St. John wrote; yet there was one of Jews, as there had been another at Thessalonica before St. Paul preached there.

Several Orthodox Writers have rejected the Apocalypse as a Book which countenanced the Reveries of Cerinthus touching the carnal Reign of Christ on Earth. See CERINTHIANS, and MILLENARIES. Though Dionysius Alexandrinus allowed the Apocalypse for an inspired Writing; yet he took it for the Work of another John, beside St. John the Evangelist; which he endeavours to make appear from the Diversity of Style. But we all know how precarious the Arguments are, which are drawn from the mere Consideration of Style——’Tis true, in most of the ancient Greek Copies, both printed and manuscript, we find the Name John the Divine at the Head thereof; but they who put this Title, meant no more thereby than to denote the Apostle St. John, whom the Greek Fathers call the Divine, by way of Eminence, to distinguish him from the other Evangelists. See EVANGELISTS.

There have been several other Works published under the Title of Apocalypses. Sozomen mentions a Book used in the Churches of Palestine, called the Apocalypse, or Revelation of St. Peter. He also mentions an Apocalypse of St. Paul; which the Copts retain to this day. Eusebius also speaks of both these Apocalypses——St. Epiphanius mentions an Apocalypse of Adam: Nicephorus, of an Apocalypse of Esdras: Gratian and Cedrenus, of an Apocalypse of Moses, another of St. Isaias, and another of St. Stephen.

Porphyry, in his Life of Plotinus, makes mention of the Apocalypses or Revelations of Zoroaster, Ostriani, Nicotheus, Allogenes, &c.

APOCHYLISMA, among Physicians, Inspissation; the boiling and thickening of any Juice with Sugar and Honey, into a kind of hard Consistence. See INSPISSATION.

APOCOPE, a Figure in Grammar, wherein the last Letter or Syllable of a Word is cut off. See FIGURE and WORD.

The Word is derived from the Greek ἀποκόπτω (apokopto), to cut off; which is formed from the Preposition ἀπό (apo), and the Verb κόπτω (kopto), to cut.

A like Retrenchment at the beginning of a Word is called Aphesis. See APHESIS.

APOCALYPSE