Revelation 9:20,21

The impenitence of the surviving two-thirds of men, who persist in worshipping daemons and idols (Weinel, 3, 4). Hellenic superstition (Plut. de defectu orac. 14) attributed to malignant daemons these very plagues of pestilence, war, and famine. Plutarch is always protesting against the excessive deference paid to such powers, and on the other hand against the rationalists and Christians who abjured them entirely.

δαιμ., either the gods of paganism (LXX) or the evil spirits of contemporary superstition. In Enoch 19:1, the spirits of the fallen angels “assuming many forms defile men and shall lead them astray to offer sacrifices to demons as to gods”; cf. Enoch 46:7 (of the kings and rulers) “their power rests on their riches, and their faith is in the gods which they have made with their hands”. (See Clem. Strom, vi. ver 39, 4) ἀργυρᾶ, contracted form, as in 2 Timothy 2:20 (Helbing, pp. 34 f.). φαρμ., here in special sense of magic spells inciting to illicit lust (Artemid. ver 73), a prevalent Asiatic vice (cf. Greg. Naz. Orat. iv. 31). But in the imprecatory (c. 100 B.C.) inscription of Rheneia (Dittenberger, Syll. Inscript. Graec. pp. 676 f.), punishment is invoked from tov τὸν κύριον τῶν πνευμάτων (cf. Revelation 22:6) upon τοὺς δόλωι φονεύσαντας ἢ φαρμακεύσαντας the hapless girl. The three vices of the decalogue occur here (as in Matt.) in the Hebrew order, not in that of the LXX (Romans 13:9; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20). cf. on Revelation 21:8, and, for the connexion of polytheism and vice, Harnack's Mission and Exp. of Christianity, i. (1908), pp. 290 f. Repentance here (as in Revelation 16:9; Revelation 16:11) is primarily a change of religion, but the prophet has evidently little hope of the pagan world. There is no polemic against the Egyptian worship of animals, and, in spite of the Jewish outlook upon the dolores Messiae, the Apocalypse ignores family disturbances and false messiahs as harbingers of the end. Once more (cf. Revelation 7:1 f.) between the sixth (Revelation 9:13-21) and the seventh (Revelation 11:15-19) members of the series, a passage (this time of some length) is intercalated (Revelation 10:1 to Revelation 11:13), in which the personality of the seer now re-emerges (on earth, instead of in heaven). The object of Revelation 10:1-11 is to mark at once a change of literary method and a transition from one topic to another. The passage, which certainly comes from the prophet's own pen (so Sabatier, Schon, and others), looks backward and forward. Now that the preliminaries are over, all is ready for the introduction of the two protagonists (Revelation 9:11-13.) whose conflict forms the closing act of the world's history (Revelation 15:1 to Revelation 20:10). One of these is Jesus, the divine messiah, who has hitherto (Revelation 9:5-9.) been depicted as the medium of revelation. Since his rôle is now to be more active, the prophet expressly alters the literary setting of his visions. The subsequent oracles are not represented as the contents of the book of Doom (which is now open, with the breaking of its last seal). Dropping that figure (contrast Revelation 5:2 and Revelation 10:1) the writer describes himself absorbing another roll of prophecy received from an angel. Evidently he intends to mark a new departure, and to introduce what follows as a fresh start. This new procedure is accompanied by an explicit assurance intended to whet the reader's interest that the Apocalypse has now reached the verge of the final catastrophe; the prophet apparently makes this eagerness to reach the goal the reason for omitting a seven-thunders vision (or source) which otherwise he might have been expected to include either at this point or subsequently. It is quite in keeping with the wider outlook and rather more historical atmosphere of 11 f., that a freer and less numerical method pervades these oracles. In short, Revelation 10:1-11 is a digression only in form. It serves to introduce not simply the Jewish fragment (Revelation 11:1-13) whose strange contents probably required some express ratification but the rest of the oracles (13 f.), which are thus awkwardly but definitely connected with the foregoing design (through the closing trumpet-vision: Revelation 10:7 = Revelation 11:15 f.).