Revelation 13:10

εἴ τις εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν, εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν ὕπαγει. אB2CP omit the second εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν. Primas[449] qui captivum duxerit et ipse capietur. Most MSS. of vulgate, and syr[450], support Text. Rec[451] εἴ τις αἰχμαλωσίαν συνάγει εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν ὑπάγει which is found in Areth[452] 1 stops short at εἴ τις αἰχμ. συνάγει.

[449] Primasius, edited by Haussleiter.
[450] Syriac.
[451] Rec. Textus Receptus as printed by Scrivener.
[452] Arethas, Archbishop of Caesarea.

ἀποκτενεῖ, δεῖ. A has ἀποκτανθῆναι alone. W. H[453] suggest ἀποκτείνειν or ἀποκτεῖναι; א reads ἀποκτείνει.

[453] H. Westcott aud Hort.

10. εἴ τις αἰχμαλωσίαν, εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν ὑπάγει. This is decidedly the best attested reading; and, there being no verb expressed in the first clause, it is a question what verb is to be supplied. This will depend on the sense given to the rest of the sentence, and this on the reading adopted there. If the received text be right (it is, more literally than in the A. V[464], “if any will kill with the sword, he must be killed with the sword”: cf. St Matthew 26:52), its reading in the earlier clause must be accepted as a correct gloss. But there is a reading—not so well attested, and which might have arisen accidentally—“if any to be killed by the sword, [he must]” (one important MS. omits this) “be killed by the sword.” Inferior as this reading is in external evidence, it is supported by the parallel with Jeremiah 15:2; Jeremiah 43:11. We have therefore the choice between the two versions, “If any man [be] for captivity, he goeth into captivity: if any [be] to be slain by the sword, he must be slain by the sword,” and that of the A. V[465] with the word “leadeth” put in italics: and we shall choose between them, according as we think that St John is likelier to have had in his mind the text in Jeremiah or our Lord’s saying. Perhaps the former suits the context best—“the patience and the faith of the saints “is to be shewn in submitting to death or captivity. But the other view, that their patience and faith is to be sustained by remembering the certainty of God’s vengeance on their oppressors, is supported by the parallel passage, Revelation 14:12.

[464] Authorised Version.
[465] Authorised Version.