Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Revelation 14:4,5

Revelation 14:4-5. These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. The description is in three clauses each beginning with the word ‘These.'

(1) ‘They are virgins' not all of them literally so for the 144,000 represent the whole multitude of the redeemed. Nor on the other hand, only in the sense that they had kept themselves pure from idolatry, for the temptation to actual idolatry belongs only to particular ages of the Church. They were ‘virgins' in the sense in which St. Paul speaks of the whole Church at Corinth (2 Corinthians 11:2). Even those who had entered into marriage, the closest of earthly ties, had learned to keep it in subordination to the will of Christ; ‘those that had wives were as though they had none' (1 Corinthians 7:29).

(2) These are they which follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth. As the first clause contained the negative, the second contains the positive, aspect of their life. The word for ‘goeth' is important. It is not simply ‘whithersoever he moveth about;' and still less can it be referred to the following of the Lamb to favoured localities in the heavenly mansions. The 144,000 are still on earth. The verb used is that by which Jesus in the Fourth Gospel so often denotes His ‘going' to the Father, including both His death and His glorification. The 144,000 follow Him to the cross, the resurrection, and the ascension (comp. John 21:22). This is their character. The tense of the verb ‘follow' is not that of present time merely, it is descriptive of a state.

(3) These were purchased from among men, a first-fruits unto God and unto the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no lie: they are without blemish. The third characteristic of the 144,000 describes the glory of their position. For the force of the words ‘from among men,' see on Revelation 14:3. The term ‘first-fruits' may seem to imply that the persons spoken of are a selection from the great body of the redeemed. Were it so, the term would be inappropriately used; for in the view of those who introduce the idea of selection we are dealing with Christians at the end, not at the beginning, of the Church's history. Besides which, the term seems to correspond with that of ‘the elect' in Matthew 24:31, where all the elect must be meant. In James 1:18, too, we meet the word in a similar sense. The 144,000 are a ‘first-fruits' in relation not to the remaining portion of believers but to all the creatures of God. The ‘lie' spoken of is not simply the opposite of veracity, but of truth of character and life as a whole (comp. Psalms 116:11; John 8:44; 1 John 2:21; Revelation 21:27). That they are ‘without blemish' reminds us of Jesus Himself (1 Peter 1:19). They are a faultless and acceptable sacrifice to God, because they are offered up in Him who ‘did no sin,' and in whom the Father was always ‘well pleased.'

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Revelation 14:4,5

Old Testament

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