εἰπάτω, Ἔρχου· καί. Primas[890] omits ἔρχου καί.

[890] Primasius, edited by Haussleiter.

17. THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE

17. καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ ἡ νύμφη. “The Bride” is, it is here implied, the Church on earth, imploring her absent Lord to come to her. But the Bride throughout this Book has been the perfect or heavenly Church; notice the identification of the Church in both states. Notice also the identity of St Paul’s doctrine, and in part of his imagery, Galatians 4:26; Ephesians 5:25 sqq. “The Spirit” is, as in Romans 8:26, the Spirit dwelling in or inspiring the faithful: the Spirit says “Come!” when He teaches the Bride to say it.

ἔρχου. The same word as in Revelation 6:1; Revelation 6:3; Revelation 6:5; Revelation 6:7.

ὁ�. He who hears the invocation (as all do who hear the words of this prophecy) is to join in it.

ὁ διψῶν. Isaiah 55:1.

ἐρχέσθω. Correlative to the “coming” of Christ to us is our “coming” to Him. The invocation “Come!” in the earlier clauses is certainly addressed to Him, so that this does not express the answer to it. But it is evident (even more evident in the Greek than in the English) that the thought is present of the one coming being correlative to the other. We come to Christ, that we may learn to “love His appearing,” and be able to cry to Him “Come,” instead of fearing it.

ὁ θέλων λαβέτω. This clause is rather explanatory of the preceding one than coordinate with it.

δωρεάν. i.e. “without money and without price.” Cf. Revelation 21:6.

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Old Testament