Revelation 2:28

To “grant the morningstar” (a characteristically loose usage of δίδωμι) means, not to invest him with its glory, nor to give him possession of Christ himself, but (so Bleek, after Victor.) to make the dawn of salvation or of life eternal shine on him after his dark afflictions. The victor shares in the divine life (with its punitive government) and honour above, or rather in the new messianic era of Jesus himself (see note on Revelation 22:16, where by a further application the metaphor is directly connected with Jesus). Staunch adherence to the truth on the part of leaders and confessors is similarly rewarded in Daniel 12:3, En. xiv. 2. Semitic folklore found some mystic connexion between the countless brilliant stars in heaven and the departed faithful, who became immortal (4 Ezra 7 :[97]), and the sense here might be that the loyal Christian was sure of shining like a star in immortality; cf. Ign. ad Romans 2:2, καλὸν τὸ δῦναι ἀπὸ κόσμου πρὸς Θεὸν, ἵνα εἰς αὐτὸν ἀνατείλω (and passage cited on Revelation 1:10). But Revelation 22:16 (cf. Job 3:9) tells against this, as does Ign. ibid. vi. 2 (speaking of his martyrdom) ἄφετέ με καθαρὸν φῶς λαβεῖν · ἐκεῖ παραγενόμενος ἄνθρωπος ἔσομαι. The collocation of the morning star and the judicial authority over the nations may have been suggested to the prophet's mind (cf. Revelation 2:14; Revelation 2:20) by the prophecy, read in a messianic sense, of Numbers 24:17. The sequence and the Christian spirit of the whole promise are certainly improved if we omit 27 a with Selwyn (194) and Jacoby (Neutest. Ethik, 1899, p. 446) and Wellhausen (with Revelation 2:23-28 a), since the doubled promise and the later use of the metaphor do not justify any suspicion of 28 as a gloss (so Könnecke, p. 34). But it is as likely that the author himself (cf. Revelation 17:14) added this co-operation with the vindictive messiah (cf. Revelation 12:5.Revelation 19:15; Revelation 19:15), as that an early copyist was responsible for the insertion.