Revelation 3:12

αὐτόν. א* reads αὐτῷ.

ἡ καταβαίνουσα. With א*ACP 1 …; Text. Rec[134] i.e. Beza and Elzevir, reads ἢ καταβαίνει with B2 And[135]; אc reads τῆς καταβαινούσης.

[134] Rec. Textus Receptus as printed by Scrivener.
[135] Andreas Archbishop of Caesarea.

12. ὁ νικῶν. Lit. “He that overcometh, I will make him,” as in Revelation 2:26.

στῦλον. Used of chief men in the Church in Galatians 2:9, and probably of the Church itself in 1 Timothy 3:15. All Christians are living stones in the Temple (Ephesians 2:20 sqq., 1 Peter 2:5), all necessary to its completeness, but some of course filling in it a more important position than others: and such important position is indicated by the image of the “pillars” ll. cc. But here the promise is not for Apostles or their successors only, but for all the faithful: the point is not “he shall be one of the great and beautiful stones on which the others rest,” but “he shall be so placed that he cannot be removed while the whole fabric stands.”

The reading αὐτῷ στῦλον would have to be explained by the analogy, not very close, of 2 Samuel 18:18; Isaiah 56:5.

γράψω ἐπʼ αὐτόν. We repeatedly have in this book the image of the divine Name written on the foreheads of God’s servants: see Revelation 7:3; Revelation 14:1; Revelation 22:4. Hence the inscribing the name is here equally appropriate to the figure and the thing signified: probably the metaphor of the pillar is not dropped, but writing the name on the pillar means the same as writing it on the man.

τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ θεοῦ μου καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τῆς πόλεως τοῦ θεοῦ μου. Cf. Isaiah 44:5; Jeremiah 23:6; Jeremiah 33:16; Ezekiel 48:35, for the junction of these two names. The three names joined here are in a manner those of the Trinity, the Church being representative of the Spirit. It is probable that passages like this did much to suggest the use of the sign of the Cross on the forehead, both at Baptism and on other occasions that seemed to call for a profession of faith: and the image of the “new name” (cf. Revelation 2:17) harmonises well with the much later usage of conferring a name in Baptism.

ἡ καταβαίνουσα, Revelation 21:2; Revelation 21:10. The nominative after τῆς καινῆς cannot be ascribed either to ignorance or to forgetfulness; see note on ἡ λέγουσα, Revelation 2:20.

τὸ ὄνομά μου τὸ καινόν. See on Revelation 2:17 and Revelation 19:1 there referred to.