Revelation 14:13

γράψον. See on Revelation 10:4.

μακάριοι οἱ νεκποί. Two questions arise as to this verse, though its touching associations make us unwilling to raise questions about it. What is its relevance here? and why are the holy dead blessed “from henceforth”?—i.e. probably, from the time foreshadowed by the last part of the Vision. One answer to both probably is suggested by the reference to Isaiah 57:1-2, that in those days a holy death will be the only escape from persecution and temptation, which “if it were possible should seduce even the Elect.” Not only “for the Elect’s sake the days shall be shortened,” but even before they end, one and another of the Elect will be delivered from them. Even now it is a matter of thanksgiving when a Christian is delivered by death “from the miseries of this wretched world, from the body of death, and from all temptation,” and much more then, when temptation is so much sorer that no Saint can dare wish to abide in the flesh. This seems better than supposing that the special blessedness of the dead of those days consists only in the interval being shorter before their “perfect consummation and bliss.” At the same time it is probably intended that the faithful dead are “henceforth” more perfectly blessed than those who fell asleep before the Advocate had been taken up and the Accuser cast down.

ναί· λέγει τὸ πνεῦμα. The Spirit in the Church and in the Seer bears witness to the Voice from Heaven.

ἵνα�. They die in order to their rest. For the ellipse, cf. St John 1:8; John 13:18; 1 John 2:19. The future expresses that their rest is the sure result as well as the providential end of their dying.

ἐκ τῶν κόπων αὐτῶν. They rest from their labours, not from their works; for these are their treasure in heaven. The distinction between κόποι and ἔργα is almost in the manner of the Fourth Gospel, cf. Intr. p. xxxviii. On the whole verse cf. Matthew 11:28, Δεῦτε πρός με πάντες οἱ κοπιῶντες … κἀγὼ�.

τὰ γὰρ ἔργα αὐτῶν�ʼ αὐτῶν. For their works follow with them: there is therefore hardly any resemblance to 1 Timothy 5:24-25. The meaning of the passage is much the same as 1 Thessalonians 4:15—we are not to think of the holy dead as if they missed (and as if the dead of the last days only just missed) the glories of the Lord’s coming: for they and their good works are kept by Him safe against that day, ready to share in its glories.