Revelation 20:12

ἑστῶτας … θρόνου. Augustin omits. Text. Rec[779] has θεοῦ for θρόνου, with 1, two Latin writers have throni domini, and throni dei.

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

τῆς ζωῆς. Aug. has vitae uniuscujusque.

12. τοὺς μεγάλους καὶ τοὺς μικρούς. The sense, as in Revelation 19:5, is probably to indicate the nothingness of human distinctions before God. Those who are “great in the Kingdom of Heaven” have been raised already, Revelation 20:4-5.

ἐνώπιον τοῦ θρόνου. “The throne” in this Book without addition is always the throne of God: so the gloss which has superseded the text in T. R. is correct. It may have arisen from the question discussed under τὸν καθήμενον sup.

βιβλία, simply books: see Daniel 7:13, where also the article (or equivalent form) is wanting. In the Testament of Abraham pp. 91, 93 there are two angels at the right and left of the judgement seat of Abel, one always writing down good deeds and the other evil. The book, six cubits thick and ten cubits broad, which lies on a table before the judge, seems to contain the history of every soul, for when it is opened for a certain woman who comes into judgement it is found a that her good deeds and her sins are equal. In another text, ib. 114, 115, Enoch the Scribe of Righteousness seems to make up the account of each soul from two books carried by cherubim (forgiven sins being blotted out of the book that Enoch keeps). This is doubtless implied in the curious Latin gloss (see crit. note) on τῆς ζωῆς. In the Coptic Apocalypse of Zephaniah there are two angels at heaven’s gate who write the good deeds of the righteous and they are carried up to the Lord that He may write their names in the Book of the Living. Probably the books opened here are records like those kept by the angels in the Apocryphal apocalypses, but they bear a different relation to the Book of Life, where it is plain from Revelation 17:8 and probable from Revelation 13:8, the elect are written before they have done good or evil. The record of their righteous acts proves that they have been enabled to walk worthy of their calling. In this sense Alford is right in calling the books in this clause ‘vouchers for the Book of Life.’

ὅ ἐστιν τῆς ζωῆς. See Revelation 3:5; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 21:27 : also note on Revelation 5:1. The image is used exactly in this sense in Daniel 12:1, though the phrase “Book of Life “is not used. We have a near approach to that in Psalms 69:28, but there and in Exodus 32:32-33 it is not equally certain that eternal life is meant. Words and meaning are exactly the same as in this book in Philippians 4:3.

ἐκρίθησαν. We see then that “the books “contained the record of “their works.” Thus this passage justifies, in some measure, the modern popular myth of “the recording Angel.”

κατὰ τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν. St Matthew 16:27; Romans 2:6.