Reviewed by:

• Biblia Americana, vol. 10: Hebrews–Revelation by Cotton Mather
• Christopher Trigg (bio)

"I will also ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you;—The Bodies of the Raised, shall they be furnished with Teeth, or no?"—Cotton Mather poses this rhetorical question at almost the very end of his massive Biblia Americana manuscript, in a "Coronis" or coda to the last of thirteen thematic essays appended to its complete Bible commentary (963). Although the dentition of resurrected saints was exactly the kind of technical eschatological detail that absorbed Mather, his inquiry here reflects his exasperation at those who maintained that the apocalyptic scriptures were mired in "Obscurity and Ambiguity" (963). He conceded [End Page 231] that there were still many mysteries about the eschaton that were yet to be resolved. But after laboring on the Biblia for over half his life, he was convinced that it contained more than enough proof of the reality and imminence of Christ's millennial kingdom on earth.

The volume under review is the sixth to be published in the Biblia Americana series, under the direction of Reiner Smolinski and Jan Stievermann (also the editor of this volume). Although it also contains his commentaries on Hebrews, James, 1–2 Peter, 1–3 John, and Jude, Mather's commentary on Revelation is its centerpiece, running to 354 pages, including a "Postscript" and its own "Coronis." As Stievermann's impeccable introduction demonstrates, Mather's literalist interpretation of some of Revelation's key prophecies was the cornerstone of the entire Biblia project because it defined his understanding of the history of exegesis. Early Christians, Mather insisted, shared his belief that the "First Resurrection" mentioned in Revelation 20:5–6 described the return to corporeal life of all the elect dead at the beginning of the millennium, ahead of their rule over the sanctified New Earth (718–19). Catholicism then "condemned [the doctrine] for Hæresy"—an indication that the Roman church was the Antichrist (718). Following the Reformation, the "Truth began to Revive" (765). However, there were still those Protestants (including his own grandfather John Cotton) who, "with a wonderful Absurdity," read the First Resurrection metaphorically, as "a Work of Sanctification upon the Soul" (717), or else (with Hugo Grotius and Richard Baxter) held that the millennial prophecies had been fulfilled spiritually in the earlier years of the church. Mather's (unfulfilled) hope was that the Biblia's summation of the best patristic and Protestant commentaries on the millennium would convince his contemporaries that the resurrected saints would indeed return to govern the world in person.

Stievermann's edition of Mather's commentaries on Isaiah and Jeremiah (in volume 5 of this series) and his monograph Prophecy, Piety, and the Problem of Historicity (Mohr Siebeck, 2016) have shown how Mather sought to reconcile his intensely chiliastic understanding of the Old Testament prophecies with the rise of historical-contextual biblical criticism. Here again, readers will find Mather balancing his supernaturalist eschatology and soteriology against new Enlightenment thinking. His discussion of 2 Peter 3, for instance, draws on then-recent developments in geology to explain how the epistle's prediction that the earth would be destroyed by fire at Christ's Second Coming would be realized. In essays on Zoroastrianism, the Sibylline Oracles, and Noah's religious precepts he [End Page 232] engages with Enlightenment theories of the history of religion. Together with some Deist authors, Mather acknowledged that there were similarities between Christianity, Judaism, and "pagan" creeds. But where they assumed that these confluences undermined Christianity as a revealed faith, he maintained that many apparently pagan beliefs were corruptions of a proto-Christian monotheism that had been practiced by Noah and Adam.

Stievermann's deeply learned exposition of the sources of Mather's millenarianism serves as an excellent introduction to the major controversies in seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century eschatology. This alone should commend it to students of American Puritanism. But his meticulous introduction and notes also provide a fully rounded picture of Mather as an intellectual living on the cusp of...

审阅者：

• 美国圣经，卷。 10：希伯来书——科顿·马瑟的启示录
• 克里斯托弗·特里格（个人简介）

“我还要问你一件事，如果你告诉我，我同样会告诉你：——复活者的身体，他们是否有牙齿？ ”——科顿·马瑟几乎在他的巨著《美国圣经》手稿的最后部分，是附在其完整圣经注释（963）之后的十三篇专题文章的最后一篇的“Coronis”或尾声。尽管复活圣人的牙列正是马瑟所关注的那种技术末世细节，但他在这里的探究反映了他对那些坚持认为世界末日经文陷入“晦涩和模糊”（963）的人的愤怒。他承认[完第231页]关于末世仍有许多未解之谜。但在花费了大半辈子的时间研究《圣经》之后，他确信它包含了足够的证据来证明基督在地上的千禧年国度的现实性和迫在眉睫。

本次审查的卷是《美国圣经》系列中出版的第六卷，由雷纳·斯莫林斯基和简·斯蒂弗曼（也是本卷的编辑）指导。虽然它也包含他对希伯来书、雅各书、彼得前书 1-2 书、约翰福音 1-3 和犹大书的注释，但马瑟对启示录的注释是其核心内容，长达 354 页，包括“后记”和自己的“Coronis”。正如斯蒂弗曼无可挑剔的介绍所表明的那样，马瑟对《启示录》中一些关键预言的字面主义解释是整个《圣经》项目的基石，因为它定义了他对释经历史的理解。马瑟坚持认为，早期基督徒和他一样相信《启示录》20:5-6 中提到的“第一次复活”描述了所有死者在千禧年之初，在他们统治神圣的新地球之前，回归肉体生活。 （718–19）。天主教随后“谴责[该教义]为Hæresy ”——这表明罗马教会是敌基督者（718）。宗教改革之后，“真理开始复兴”（765）。然而，仍然有一些新教徒（包括他自己的祖父约翰·科顿）“带着一种奇妙的荒谬”，将第一次复活比喻为“灵魂的成圣工作”（717），或者（与雨果·格劳秀斯一起）和理查德·巴克斯特（Richard Baxter）认为，千禧年的预言在教会早期已经在精神上应验了。马瑟（未实现）的希望是，圣经对千禧年最好的教父和新教评论的总结将使他的同时代人相信复活的圣徒确实会亲自回来统治世界。

斯蒂弗曼版马瑟对以赛亚和耶利米的评论（本系列第 5 卷）和他的专着《预言、虔诚和历史性问题》（Mohr Siebeck，2016）展示了马瑟如何寻求调和他对《旧约》的强烈的千禧年理解。预言随着历史背景圣经批评的兴起。在这里，读者再次会发现马瑟在他的超自然末世论和救世论与新启蒙思想之间取得了平衡。例如，他对《彼得后书》第 3 章的讨论利用了当时地质学的最新发展来解释这封书信中关于基督第二次降临时地球将被火毁灭的预言将如何实现。在有关琐罗亚斯德教、西比拉神谕和诺亚宗教戒律的文章中，他[完第 232 页]涉及宗教史的启蒙理论。马瑟与一些自然神论作者一起承认基督教、犹太教和“异教”信条之间存在相似之处。但是，当他们认为这些融合破坏了基督教作为天启信仰的地位时，他坚持认为，许多明显的异教信仰是诺亚和亚当所实践的原始基督教一神论的腐败。

斯蒂弗曼对马瑟千禧年主义的根源进行了深入的阐述，为十七世纪和十八世纪早期末世论的主要争议提供了极好的介绍。仅此一点就值得美国清教主义的学生称赞。但他细致的介绍和笔记也提供了马瑟作为一个生活在……风口浪尖的知识分子的全面画面。