The general subject of the first six seals is the decline and fall, after a previous prosperous era, of the Empire of Pagan Rome. Elliott, the first seal, as revealed to John by the angel, was to signify what was to happen soon after John seeing the visions in Patmos. However, Contemporary-historicists view all of Revelation as it relates to John's own time (with the allowance of making some guesses as to the future). Some have even viewed the opening of the Seals right into the early modern period. Scholars such as Campegius Vitringa, Alexander Keith, and Christopher Wordsworth did not limit the timeframe to the 4th century.

Traditionally, the historicist view of the Seven Seals in The Apocalypse spanned the time period from John of Patmos to Early Christendom.

Isaac Williams (19th century) associated the first six Seals with the discourse on the Mount of Olives and stated that, “The seventh Seal contains the Seven Trumpets within it… the judgments and sufferings of the Church.” Historicist views įurther information: Historicist interpretations of the Book of Revelation The “Sealed Book” is the book of divorcement sent to the Jewish nation from God. He assumed that the first part of the Book was in respect to Judea and the Jews, and the second part about the Roman Empire. Johann Jakob Wettstein (18th century) places the date of the Apocalypse as written before A. Robert Witham, an 18th-century Catholic commentator, offers a preterist view for the period that spans the length of the opening of the seals it being the period from Christ to the establishment of the Church under Constantine in 325. The preterist usually views that John was given an accurate vision of a course of events that would occur over the next several centuries to fulfill the prophetic seals. Idealism was also a fairly major view that became realized since the time of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (AD 345–430). įrom the Reformation to the middle of the 19th century, the seals in Revelation have been interpreted through various methods, such as the historicist view that most Protestants adopted and the views of preterism and futurism that post-Reformation Catholic circles promoted. This type of 'seal' is frequently used in a figurative sense, in the book of Revelation, and only the Lamb is worthy to break off these seals. Wax seals were typically placed across the opening of a scroll, so that only the proper person, in the presence of witnesses, could open the document. For example, important documents were sent written on a papyrus scroll sealed with several wax seals. Certain words and phrases used in The Revelation had a clearer meaning to ancient readers familiar with objects of their time.

The seventh scroll