Revelation 14:1

1. I looked, and lo The words signalize the change of sight-direction, and the opening of a new scene of symbols. Great is the contrast between the sea of the beast and the mount of the one hundred forty and four thousand. The phrase, And I saw, or looked, opens a second movement of the panorama at Revelation 14:6, and a third at Revelation 14:14.

A Lamb Rather, the Lamb; known from former mention. The glorious leader is here the Lamb, since it is in his atoning character that this glorious host expects to conquer. The mount Zion was of course easily seen by John from Moriah. The throne might seem to be in the most holy place, yet allowing all visional freedom. The Jerusalem they are in is not the material Jerusalem, but the mystic Christian capital, in antithesis with the mystic antichristic capital, Babylon.

And with him Who are this hundred forty and four thousand? Dusterdieck denies them to be the same as those of chapter vii, and affirms them to be a choice body of eminently pure saints. For, 1. The article is omitted before the number, so that they are not the, but a hundred forty and four thousand, the number being merely a churchly designation; and, 2. They are the Jewish symbol, because the enemies they oppose are pagan, that is, Gentile. But Alford maintains the full identity with the glorious company of the former chapter. We think the truth lies between the two commentators. The two glorious companies are the same, but not in equal amount. Chapter vii purposes to symbolize the entire Church of glorified spirits; this simply represents a part of the same, including only the earlier Church the Church of both the pagan and papal martyrdoms, hence they are called first-fruits. The hundred forty and four thousand are still from Israel, and the harpers are still the Gentiles. In fact, the whole are the souls under the altar of chapter vi, multiplied in number, and giving their own holy character to the whole Church of their period; they have risen from beneath the altar, have scaled mount Zion, and fill the very heaven above the mystic Jerusalem, pouring down their strains of song upon the ear of St. John.