Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Revelation 1:7

This verse, as indeed may be said of the whole book, is founded chiefly on our Lord’s own prophecy recorded in St Matthew 24, and secondly on the Old Testament prophecies which He there refers to and sums up.

μετὰ τῶν νεφελῶν. “With the clouds of heaven.” The preposition here and in Mark 14:62, which also recalls Daniel 7:13, corresponds with the Version known as Theodotion’s, not with that known as the LXX. which reads ἐπί. It is generally agreed that Theodotion was later than Aquila, who was probably a contemporary of Akiba (†135). Little is known of the history of the Version that bore his name, or of the gradual growth of that ascribed to the LXX. There is some reason to think that the ‘LXX.’ paraphrased an older Version of Daniel which ‘Theodotion’ revised: and it is certain that ‘Baruch’ which imitates the Book of Daniel is nearer to ‘Theodotion’ than the ‘LXX.’ See ‘Theodotion,’ Smith’s Dictionary of Christian Biography; ‘Hermas and Theodotion,’ Salmon’s Introduction to N.T. 3rd ed., pp. 586–601.

καὶ οἵτινες αὐτὸν ἐξεκέντησαν. Zechariah 12:10; in his Gospel, John 19:37, St John translates that passage correctly, and here refers to the same translation, also found in Theodotion: that of the LXX. is wrong and almost meaningless. But while the words here are taken from Zechariah, the thought is rather that of Matthew 26:64 : “they which pierced Him “are thought of, not as looking to Him by faith, and mourning for Him in penitence, but as seeing Him Whom they had not believed in, and mourning in despair.

ἐπʼ αὐτόν. Literally, “at Him.” “At sight of Him,” “over Him,” the sense in Zechariah, is hardly applicable here.

ναί, ἀμήν. “Yea, Amen”: the two words, Greek and Hebrew, being similarly coupled in 2 Corinthians 1:20. The second, like the first, is an emphatic word of confirmation—so used e.g. repeatedly by our Lord Himself, St Matthew 5:18, &c., where it is translated “verily.” The popular tradition that “Amen” means “So be it” is only partially true: even in its liturgical use, we append it to creeds as well as prayers. It comes from the same Hebrew root as the words for “faith” and “truth”; the primary meaning being apparently “solidity.” See on Revelation 3:14.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Revelation 1:7

Old Testament

New Testament