Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Revelation 3:18

ἐγχρῖσαι. Text. Rec[139] reads ἔγχρισον with P 1. Latt. ungue, inunge.

[139] Rec. Textus Receptus as printed by Scrivener.

18. συμβουλεύω σοι. “There is deep irony in this word One who has need of nothing, yet needs counsel on the vital points of self-preservation.” Alford.

ἀγοράσαι. Cf. Isaiah 55:1 ὅσοι μὴ ἔχετε�, βαδίσαντες�, καὶ φάγετε ἄνευ�: the counsel to a poor beggar to buy is of course meaningless, unless he can buy “without money and without price,” or, as the Hebrew of that passage more literally means, “for (what is) not money and for (what is) not a price.” Thus the word is not a mere synonym for “receive”: the sense is, “Thou hast nothing to give, but thou must give all that thou hast” (Matthew 13:44; Matthew 13:46). The nothingness of human merit is a reason against exalting self, but not a reason for sparing self: the Lord does not bid us say, “We are unprofitable servants: we cannot and need not do what it is our duty to do.” (Luke 17:10)

χρυσίον πεπυρωμένον ἐκ πυρός. Vg[142] aurum ignitum probatum. The fire would not remove the dross from the gold, but either detect it or prove that the gold was already pure. A. V[143] is right in sense, though “fresh burnt from the fire” would be perhaps more literal: cf. Revelation 1:15, where the same participle is used as here. The meaning of the “gold” is defined in the next words: it stands for spiritual “riches” of any sort.

[142] Vulgate.
[143] Authorised Version.

ἱμάτια λενκά. As in Revelation 3:4-5.

καὶ μὴ φανερωθῇ. Cf. Revelation 16:15.

καὶ κολλύριον ἐγχρῖσαι τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς σου. “And eyesalve to anoint thine eyes.” κολλύριον (the name comes from a bread poultice) was the common dressing for weak eyes, and could be applied by a barber (see Horace Sat. I. vii. 3), but perhaps hardly by the patient himself.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Revelation 3:18

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