Christ to, teach and govern His Church. In a similar sense our Lord calls St. John the Baptist an "angel." [1] In other cases the meaning is evident from the context. The "Lamb standing as it were slain [2] can be none other than Christ triumphant at the right hand of God the Father. Hence the words "as it were slain" must refer to Christ mystically slain in the Holy Eucharist.
It has been customary to divide the Apocalypse into seven visions with a prologue and an epilogue, as follows:
Prologue I, 1-8
1st Vision.—Letters to the seven churches. 1, 9—iii, 22.
2nd Vision.—The seven seals, iv, 1—viii, 1.
3rd Vision.—The seven trumpets, viii, 2—xi, 18.
4th Vision.—(a) The woman and the dragon.
- (b) The beast of the sea.
- (c) The beast of the earth.
- (d) The harvest and the vintage, xi. 19—xiv, 8.
5th Vision.—The seven angels with seven plagues, xv, 1—xix, 21.
6th Vision.—The binding and loosing of Satan, xx, 1-15.
7th Vision.—The resurrection, general judgment, and the heavenly Jerusalem, xxi, 1—xxii, 5.
Epilogue XXII, 6-21
