Revelation 11:8

τὸ πτῶμα. Text. Rec[375] reads τὰ πτώματα with אP 1.

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

ὁ κύριος αὐτῶν. א* omits αὐτῶν, 1 and Text. Rec[376] substitute ἡμῶν.

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

8. ἐπὶ τῆς πλατείας. For the sing. cf. Revelation 21:21; Revelation 22:2. The word in fact means a broad street, such as the principal street of a city would be. The modern Italian piazza is the same word; but Revelation 22:2 seems to shew that it is a street rather than a square—perhaps most accurately a “boulevard” in the modern sense, only running through the city, not round it.

τῆς πόλεως τῆς μεγάλης. Many commentators suppose this to be the Babylon of Revelation 14:8 and chaps. 17. sqq.—i.e. Rome, whether literally or in an extended sense. But this seems hardly natural. If it were, why is it not called Babylon here, just as in the last verse the beast was called the beast? Besides, here the great majority of the inhabitants repent at God’s judgement: contrast Revelation 16:9. The only other possible view is, that this great city is Jerusalem: and with this everything that is said about it seems to agree.

ἥτις καλεῖται. Here probably we have a comment of the Seer on the words of the Voice, which goes down to the end of the verse.

Σόδομα. Jerusalem is so called in Isaiah 1:10, and is likened to Sodom in Ezekiel 16:46. For the licentiousness of the generation before the fall of Jerusalem, see comm. on Hosea 4:14 : Jos. B. J. IV. ix. 10 suggests a closer likeness.

Αἴγυπτος. Jerusalem, it must be admitted, is never so called in the O.T. Possibly it was called so in the language of New Testament prophecy; certainly New Testament facts made the name appropriate: comparing Acts 2:47; Acts 5:12, &c. with the Epistle to the Galatians, we see how Jerusalem was at first the refuge of the people of God, from which nevertheless they had at last to escape as from a house of bondage.

ὁ κύριος αὐτῶν. This clause seems almost certainly to identify “the great city” as Jerusalem: perhaps St John uses the title, as implying that its old one, “the Holy City,” is forfeited. At the same time, if we do suppose the City meant to be Rome, which might be supported by chap. Revelation 18:24, itself a parallel to Matthew 23:35, these words can be explained, either by the responsibility of Pilate for the Lord’s death, or on the principle of the beautiful legend, Domine, quo vadis?—that the Lord suffered in His Servants.