And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them
Besides the throne of God the Father, and the throne of glory, on
which the Son of God sits, and the twelve thrones for the twelve
apostles of the Lamb; there will be thrones set, or pitched, for
all the saints, ( Daniel 7:9 ) who will
sit on them, in the character of kings, and as conquerors, and
shall sit quiet, and undisturbed, and be in perfect ease, and
peace, for they that sit on them are the same persons hereafter
described in this verse; for after the binding of Satan, an
account is given of the happiness and glory of the saints during
that time:
and judgment was given unto them;
that is, power, dominion, regal authority, possession of a
kingdom, answerable to their character as kings, and to their
position, sitting on thrones, ( Daniel 7:22 Daniel 7:27 ) unless it
should be rather understood of justice being done them, which
does not so manifestly take place in the present state of things,
and of which they sometimes complain; but now righteous judgment
will be given for them, and against their enemies; their persons
will be openly declared righteous; their characters will be
cleared of all false imputations fastened on them; and their
works and sufferings for Christ will be taken notice of in a way
of grace, and rewarded in a very glorious manner. And so it may
respect their being judged themselves, but not their judging of
others, the wicked, which is the sole work of Christ; nor will
the wicked now be upon the spot to be judged; nor is that notion
to be supported by (See Gill on Matthew
19:28), (See Gill on
1 Corinthians 6:2), (See Gill on
1 Corinthians 6:3). The Jews fancy that their chief men
shall judge the world in the time to come; for so they say
F23,
``in future time, (or in the world to come,) the holy blessed God will sit, and kings will place thrones for the great men of Israel, and they shall sit and judge the nations of the world with the holy blessed God:''but the persons here meant are not Jews, but sufferers for the sake of Jesus, as follows:
and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the
witness of
Jesus, and for the word of God:
these, with the persons described in the next clause, are they
who will sit on thrones, during the thousand years of Satan's
being bound, and will have judgment given them; even such who
have bore witness to the truth of Jesus being the Son of God, the
true Messiah, and the only Saviour of sinners, and to him as the
essential Word of God, or to the written word of God, the whole
Gospel, all the truths and doctrines of it; and who have been
beheaded for bearing such a testimony, as John the Baptist was,
the first of the witnesses of Jesus: and since this kind of
punishment was a Roman one, it seems particularly to point at
such persons who suffered under the Roman Pagan emperors, and to
design the same souls said to be under the altar, and to cry for
vengeance, ( Revelation
6:9 ) . This clause, in connection with the former, is
differently rendered; the Syriac version renders it thus, "and
judgment was given to them, and to the souls that were beheaded"
the Arabic version, "and to them was given the judgment the souls
killed" the Ethiopic version, "and then I saw a seat, and the son
of man sat upon it, and he rendered to them judgment for the
souls of them that were slain for the law of the Lord Jesus".
And which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image,
neither
had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their
hands,
see ( Revelation
13:1 Revelation
13:4 Revelation
13:14-16 ) . This describes such who shall have made no
profession of the Popish religion, nor have supported it in any
way; who shall not have joined in the idolatry of the Romish
antichrist, but shall have protested against it, and departed
from it, and shall have adhered to Christ, and to the true
worship of God; see ( Revelation
14:1 ) ( 15:2 ) .
And so this, with the preceding character, includes all the
saints that lived under Rome Pagan, and Rome Papal, to the
destruction of antichrist, and the setting up of Christ's
kingdom; not that these martyrs and confessors, or even all the
saints of their times, are the only persons that shall share in
the glory and happiness of the thousand years' reign of Christ,
and binding of Satan; for all the saints will come with Christ,
and all the dead in Christ will rise first, or be partakers of
the first resurrection; and all that are redeemed by his blood,
of whatsoever nation, or in whatsoever age of the world they have
lived, even from the beginning of it, shall be kings and priests,
and reign with him on earth, ( Zechariah
14:5 ) ( 1
Thessalonians 3:13 ) ( 1
Thessalonians 4:14 1
Thessalonians 4:16 ) ( Revelation
5:9 Revelation
5:10 ) though John only takes notice of these, because the
design of this book, and of the visions shown to him, was only to
give a prophetic history of the church, from his time, to the end
of the world; and these particularly are observed to encourage
the saints under sufferings for Christ:
and they lived;
meaning not spiritually, for so they did before, and while they
bore their testimony to Christ, and against antichrist, and
previous to their death; nor in their successors, for it would
not be just and reasonable that they should be beheaded for their
witness of Christ and his word, and others should live and reign
with Christ in their room and stead; nor is this to be understood
of their living in their souls, for so they live in their
separate state; the soul never dies; God is not the God of the
dead, but of the living: but the sense is, that they lived again,
as in ( Revelation
20:5 ) they lived corporeally; their souls lived in their
bodies, their bodies being raised again, and reunited to their
souls, their whole persons lived; or the souls of them that were
beheaded lived; that is, their bodies lived again, the soul being
sometimes put for the body, ( Psalms 16:10
) and this is called the first resurrection in the next verse:
and reigned with Christ a thousand years;
as all that suffer with him will, and as all that will live godly
must, and do, ( 2 Timothy
2:12 ) ( 2 Timothy
3:12 ) . Christ being descended from heaven, and having bound
Satan, and the dead saints being raised, and the living ones
changed, he will reign among them personally, visibly, and
gloriously, and in the fullest manner; all the antichristian
powers will be destroyed; Satan will be in close confinement;
death, with respect to Christ and his people, will be no more;
the heavens and the earth will be made new, and all things will
be subject to him; and all his saints will be with him, and they
shall reign with him; they shall be glorified together; they
shall sit on the throne with him, have a crown of righteousness
given them, and possess the kingdom appointed for them; they will
reign over all their enemies; Satan will be bruised under their
feet, being bound; the wicked will be shut up in hell, and
neither will be able to give them any disturbance; and sin and
death will be no more: this reign will not be in a sensual and
carnal way, or lie in possessing worldly riches and honours, in
eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage; the saints
will not be in a mortal, but in an immortal state; the children
of this resurrection will be like the angels; and this reign will
be on earth, ( Revelation
5:10 ) the present earth will be burnt up, and a new one
formed, in which these righteous persons will dwell, ( 2 Peter 3:13
) of which (See Gill on
Revelation 21:1) and it will last a thousand years; not
distinct from, but the same with the thousand years in which
Satan will be bound; for if they were distinct from them, and
should commence when they are ended, the reign of Christ with his
saints would be when Satan is loosed, which is utterly
inconsistent with it. The Syriac version very rightly renders it,
these thousand years, referring to those of Satan's binding. Nor
are these thousand years to be understood prophetically, for as
many years as there are days in a thousand years; for as this
would defer the judgment of the wicked, and the ultimate glory of
the saints, to a prodigious length of time, so it should be
observed, that prophetic time will now be no longer, according to
the angel's oath in ( Revelation
10:6 ) but these are to be understood literally and
definitely, as before, of just such an exact number and term of
years; see ( 2 Peter 3:8 ) this is a
perfect number, and is expressive of the perfection of this
state, and is a term of years that neither Adam, nor any of his
sons, arrived unto; but Christ the second Adam shall see his
seed, and shall prolong his days longer than any of them, (
Isaiah
53:10 ) . It is an observation of the Jewish Rabbins
F24, that the day in ( Genesis 2:17
) is the day of the holy blessed God (i.e. a thousand years), and
therefore the first Adam did not perfect, or fill up his day, for
there wanted seventy years of it: and it is a notion that
prevails with them, that the days of the Messiah will be a
thousand years F25; and so they will be at his second
coming, but not at his first, which they vainly expect, it being
past: and also they say F26, that in these thousand years God
will renew his world, and that then the righteous will be raised,
and no more return to dust; which agrees with John's new heaven
and new earth during this state, and with the first resurrection:
and so Jerom, who was conversant with the Rabbins, says
F1 that the Jews expect a thousand
years' reign.