96 Iwan M. Whiteley although the exact reason for the varying of imagery differs from commentator to commentator.17 Mounce and Aune propose that the relationship between the sections is ascensive. They interpret the 144 000 as consisting of the last generation of believers, whereas the multitude is to be regarded as all believers.18 On face value, their proposal is appealing due to the numerical difference. Few commentators seek to explain the scenic shift from 7:17 to 8:1. Wall says that, “…John does not provide the reader with a cipher for this heavenly calm”19. Wall does appear to be right that 8:1 lacks explanation. It appears that John is either being deliberately ambiguous, or he has conveyed to the reader the significance of the seal via a source that has not yet been ascertained by scholarship. Beale intimates that what preceded 8:1 was an interlude because he argues that the seventh seal picks up again where the sixth seal left off.20 Ladd and Walvoord propose that the seventh seal is the only seal with no content and that the later seven trumpets are the content of the seventh seal.21 Ladd and Walvoord’s proposal is more problematic due to the lack of significant direction markers in the text. The seventh seal appears to be unclear; Beasley-Murray says that the context does not provide a reason for the silence.22 The lack of clarity leads to a wide range of interpretations of its significance. Mounce and Kistemaker say that silence is present as all wait for the coming judgments of the scroll after the unsealing of the final seal.23 Kiddle and Hailey suggest that there is the presence of suspense24 while Harrington 17 G. Krodel, Revelation (Minneapolis 1989) 180. Similarly R. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John’s Revelation (Minneapolis 1963) 254; Smalley, The Revelation, 189; J. Sweet, Revelation (London 1990) 151; I. Beckwith, The Apocalypse of John (New York 1919) 535- 39; H. Ulfgard, Feast and Future: Revelation 7:9-17 and the Feast of Tabernacles (Lund 1989) 70-79; P. Prigent, Commentary of the Apocalypse of St John (Tübingen 2001) 121- 123; C. Giblin, The Book of Revelation: The Open Book of Prophecy (Collegeville 1991) 91-92; H. Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John (London 1906) 97; R. Thomas, Revelation 1-7 an Exegetical Commentary (Chicago 1992) 483. 18 Mounce, The Book, 154, 161; D. Aune, Revelation II (WBC; Texas 1997) 443, 447; similarly A. Y. Collins, The Apocalypse (Wilmington 1979) 52-53. 19 Wall, Revelation, 122. 20 Beale, The Book, 445. 21 Ladd, A Commentary, 122; Walvoord, The Revelation, 150-51, similarly M. Wilcock, The Message of Revelation: I saw heaven opened (Leicester 1975) 84. 22 G. Beasley-Murray, The Book of Revelation (London 1974) 150. 23 Mounce, The Book, 170; S. Kistemaker, Exposition of the Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids 2001) 219. 24 M. Kiddle, The Revelation of St. John (London 1947) 144; H. Hailey, Revelation, an Introduction and Commentary (Grand Rapids 1979) 214.