Revelation 8:3

The Angel with the Golden Censer, Revelation 8:3-6

3. another angel In Tobit, l.c. it is the seven Angels themselves who present the prayers of the Saints before God: but, though the detail varies, the passages agree in assigning a priestly work to Angels on behalf of God's people on earth.

at the altar More literally, on the altar, R. V. "over the altar." The golden altar of Incense in the Tabernacle was only a cubit square and two cubits high (Exodus 30:2), and we have no reason to suppose that the analogous one either in the first or the second Temple was larger: perhaps we may gather from 2 Chronicles 5:5, that the altar in the first Temple was identical with the one in the Tabernacle. But the altar of burnt-offering was rather a large platform than what we commonly imagine an altar (see 1Ma 1:59, where the small Greek "idol altar" stands onthe "altar of God" as its basement it cannot be substituted for it): in the Tabernacle it was 5 cubits square, in Solomon's Temple 20, in Zerubbabel's probably the same, and in Herod's 50 according to Josephus, 32 according to the Mishna. In the Temple at any rate, the height of the altar was such that the officiating priests had to come up upon a ledge surrounding it (and such an ascent is contemplated in Exodus 20:26). Probably here, though the Angel is offering incense not burnt offering, the Altar where he officiates is conceived as rather of the larger type: see on Revelation 6:9.

censer Plainly the sense here, though the Greek word properly means "incense."

offer it with Literally, give (i.e. add) it to the prayers; and if the literal translation requires a gloss, that of the A. V. can hardly be the right one. Apparently the image is, that the prayers of the Saints are already lying on the Altar, and the Angel, in modern liturgical phrase, "censes the holy things." Thus disappears the supposed theological necessity for identifying this Angel with the Lord Jesus: "the prayers of all saints" are presented by Him and by no one else, as is implied in Revelation 5:8-9; where the incense isthe prayers of the Saints, not something added to them. But here the Angels offer their own worship, as it is "given to them," in union, perhaps in subordination, to those of the redeemed. The prayers here spoken of are those of allsaints, not of the Martyrs exclusively: still, it is well to notice that the Altar where weoffer our prayers is apparently the same where theypoured out their lives, Revelation 6:9.