Revelation 11:1

λέλων. א* reads λἐγει. Text. Rec[370] reads καὶ ὁ ἄγγελος εἱστήκει λέγων with 36; אcc* καὶ ἑστ. ὁ ἄγγ. λέγων, and B2 καὶ ἱστ. ὁ ἄγγ. λέγων.

[370] Rec. Textus Receptus as printed by Scrivener.

1. κάλαμος. Ezekiel 40:3; Zechariah 2:1 (σχοινίον γεωμετρικόν).

ὄμοιος ῥάβδῳ, i.e. a walking-staff: probably not so long as the one in Ezek., l.c., but perhaps of six feet:—so that it would naturally, when carried, be grasped near the upper end, like a pilgrim’s staff, or a modern alpenstock.

λέγων. Lit. “There was given unto me a reed … saying,” i.e. it was given me with these words. The gloss καὶ ὁ ἄγγελος εἱστήκει in the Textus Receptus (B.E.) probably goes back to the beginning of the fourth century. The speaker cannot be identified with the mighty angel of the preceding chapter: the language in itself is too vague to be pressed: and in Revelation 11:3 at any rate the speaker is either God (Isaiah 43:10; Isaiah 43:12; Isaiah 44:8) or Christ (Acts 1:8, &c.).

τὸν ναὸν τοῦ θεοῦ. The word used is not that for the whole “Temple-precinct,” but the “Temple” in the narrowest sense—what in the O.T. is called “the house” or “the palace.”

τὸ θυσιαστήριον. Being distinguished from the Temple, we should naturally think of the Altar of Burnt-offering which stood outside it: besides that this was, and the Altar of Incense was not, large enough to be measured by something longer than a foot-rule. But we saw on Revelation 6:9 that the Heavenly Temple apparently has no Altar of Burnt-offering distinct from the Altar of Incense: so the question only becomes important if we suppose the earthly Temple to be meant.

Is it then the heavenly or the earthly Temple that St John is bidden to measure? Probably the latter. Without pressing the argument from Revelation 10:9, that the Seer is now on earth, it is hardly likely that, whereas in Ezekiel, Zechariah, and inf. Revelation 21:15 the measurement, not of the Temple only but of the Holy City, is the work of angels, it should here be ascribed to a man. But what is more decisive is, that the whole of this chapter describes God’s rebukes and correcting judgements on the city, the fate of which is connected with that of the Temple here named. This proves that it is the earthly city of God that is meant—and therefore probably the literal Jerusalem: for the Christian Church, imperfectly as it realises its divine ideal, does not appear to be dissociated from it in Scriptural typology or prophecy: “Jerusalem which is above … is the Mother of us all,” even now, and even now “our citizenship is in Heaven.”

τοὺς προσκυνοῦντας ἐν αὐτῷ. Not ἐν αὐτοίς: probably therefore the mention of “the Altar” is parenthetical, for worship in it could scarcely be spoken of, though worship on it might. But the truth is, neither the Temple (in the narrower sense) nor the Altar was ordinarily a place of spiritual “worship,” but only of the ritual “service of God.” Therefore the meaning of the Temple and Altar must be to some extent spiritualised: even if the prophecy be concerned with God’s judgements on Jerusalem and the Jewish people, we are not to understand that the actual Temple was to be spared (for we know it was not): but, most probably, that the true Israelites would not be cut off from communion with God, even when their city and the earthly splendours of their Temple were destroyed. Ezekiel 11:16 will thus illustrate the sense of the passage, though there does not appear to be a conscious reference to it.