The river is suggested partly by Ezekiel's representation of the healing stream which was to issue from the new temple and flow through the dreary Ghor of the Jordan valley (Ezekiel 47:1-12), partly by the reference (in a later apocalypse, Zechariah 14:8) to perennial waters issuing from Jerusalem a... [ Continue Reading ]
πλατείας (“street,” or “boulevard”) collective and generic (_cf._ James 5:6) like ξύλον. Take ἐν … αὐτῆς with what precedes, and begin a fresh sentence with καὶ τοῦ ποταμοῦ (W. H.), ξύλον being governed by ἔδειξεν (from Revelation 22:1). The river, which is the all-pervading feature, is lined with t... [ Continue Reading ]
κατάθεμα, a corrupt and rare form of κατανάθεμα = anything accursed (lit. a curse itself, Did. Revelation 16:8). _i.e._, abstract for concrete, here = “a cursed person,” so Ps. Sol. 17:20 f. λατρεύσουσι, unfettered and unspoiled devotion. The interruption of the daily service and sacrifice in Jerusa... [ Continue Reading ]
The ancient ideal of intimate confidence is also to be realised (_cf._ on Matthew 5:8 and Iren. _Adv._ _Har._ Revelation 22:7). With this phrase and that of Revelation 21:22 compare Browning's lines: “Why, where's the need of temple when the walls | O' the world are that … This one Face, far from va... [ Continue Reading ]
Philo (_de Joshua 24_) had already described heaven as ἡμέραν αἰώνιον, νυκτὸς καὶ πάσης σκιᾶς ἀμέτοχον. _Cf._ En. vi. 6. Such teaching on heaven, though in a less religious form, seems to have been current among the Asiatic πρεσβύτεροι. Irenæus (5:36, 1 2) quotes them as holding (_cf._ above on Reve... [ Continue Reading ]
As in En. cviii. 6 (only mention of prophets in Enoch), “what God announces through the mouth of the prophets” relates to the future. πνευμ. the plurality of spirits is an archaic detail (_cf._ Revelation 1:4) adapted also from the Enochic formula (Enoch 37:2, etc.), “God of the spirits”.... [ Continue Reading ]
Here as elsewhere it is irrelevant to ask, who is the speaker? Angels are the envoys and mouthpieces of God here as in the O.T., and therefore entitled to speak in his name or in that of Christ. “The Oriental mind hardly distinguishes between an ancient personage and one who appears in his power and... [ Continue Reading ]
There is no trace of any reluctance on the prophet's part to return to earth, as in Asc. Isa. (Gk.), 2:33 35.... [ Continue Reading ]
The warning against any Christian θρησκεία τῶν ἀγγέλων is not, as in the parallel passage, an indirect exaltation of the prophetic order as equivalent to the angelic in religious function, but an assertion that even ordinary Christians who accept the Apocalypse are equal to the hierophant angel. Unl... [ Continue Reading ]
The book of Daniel, the great classic of apocalyptic literature, is represented (_cf._ Slav. En. xxxiii. 9 11, xxxv. 3; En. xciii. 10, civ. 12, etc.) as having been providentially kept secret at the time of its composition, since it referred to a future period (Daniel 8:26; Daniel 12:4; Daniel 12:9)... [ Continue Reading ]
κύνες, an archaic metaphor, coloured by the nomad's hatred of hounds; _cf._ _Arabia Deserta_, i. 337, 339 (“only the dog has no citizenship in the nomad life”. “It is the only life mishandled by the gentle Arab, who with spurns and blows cast out these profane creatures from the tent.”) Here κύνες a... [ Continue Reading ]
Jesus in person now speaks in the colloquy (Revelation 22:16; Revelation 22:13; Revelation 22:12) to ratify what has just been said. This apocalypse is not an individual fantasy (2 Peter 1:21). For the contemporary need of such accrediting, _cf._ Herm. _Sim._ ix. 22 and Ascension. Isa. 3:30, 31 (whe... [ Continue Reading ]
The promise of 12 _a_ is caught up and answered by a deep “come” from the prophets in ecstasy (πνεῦμα personified, _cf._ Revelation 2:7, etc.) and the Christian congregation. νύμφη. Hitherto (Revelation 21:2, etc.) this term has been reserved for the church triumphant in the world to come. Now, with... [ Continue Reading ]
Luther strongly objected to the extravagant threat of this editorial note. The curse is certainly not only an anti-climax like the editorial postscript in John 21:24-25 (both indicating that either when published or when admitted to the canon, these two scriptures needed special authentication) but... [ Continue Reading ]
A benediction at the close of the reading (Revelation 1:3; Revelation 22:7) before the congregation, rather than an epistolary epilogue to the Apocalypse. The epistolary form in which apocalypses, like historical and homiletical writings of the age, were occasionally cast, was connected with their u... [ Continue Reading ]