The interval, therefore, is long, 1513 years elapsing between the end of the sealing scene, and the manifestation of the “great multitude” as palm-bearers.
Israel were commanded to keep their annual feasts: first, the Feast of Unleavened Bread; second, the Feast of Harvest: and third, the Feast of Ingathering, at the end of the year.
The eighth verse of ch. 7 concludes the section which treats of the sealing; and the ninth verse begins a new section of the prophecy, yet not unconnected with the former, with the words meta tauta, which in the Common Version are inaccurately rendered "after this." The correct translation is "after these things/1 It is the same phrase with which the chapter opens; and there it is properly rendered; but why it is not similarly given in v.
Acts 2:22-39
“We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible:— and in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, that is, of the substance of the Father; God of God, and Light of Light; true God of true God; begotten, not made, consubstantial (homoousion) with the Father: by whom all things were made, both which are in heaven and on earth: who for the sake of us men, and on account of our salvation, descended, became inca
The materials for a complete history of the community sealed during the interval from A.D. 325 to A.D. 3%, are very scanty. All that can be done is to glean a few scattered hints, principally to be found in the writings of their catholic adversaries, who maligned them as heretics and schismatics.
Apocalypse
The apocalyptic 144,000, 144 furlongs, and 144 cubits, are the Breastplate of Judgment; that is, the thing signified in that splendid decoration worn on the breast of Aaron in the holy place, is fulfilled in
those who are the units of the Holy Square.
John says: “I heard the number of them who had been sealed;” and then informs us that the number amounted to 144,000. As we are expounding a revelation hieroglyphically communicated, we must not suppose that this is the literal number of the sealed. Like all other numbers in the apocalypse, it is symbolical or representative; and subject to the like rule for its interpretation. They do not represent less numbers than themselves, but more.
John says, that the servants of the Deity were sealed from among, or out, of every tribe of Israel’s sons — ek pasesfules huion Israel. This, of course, is metaphorical — a simile comprised in a phrase not according to the primitive meaning of the words.