Revelation 6:11

ἐδόθη αὐτοῖς ἑκάστῳ στολὴ λευκή. Hipp[246] reads ἐδόθησαν αὐτοῖς στολαὶ λευκαὶ, and so Vg[247]; Primas[248] datae sunt eis singulis stolae albae (omitting the rest of the verse which Cyp[249] recognises); B2 omits ἑκάστῳ.

[246] St Hippolytus. The readings not given by Tischendorf are from the newly published 4th book of his commentary on Daniel.
[247] Vulgate.
[248] Primasius, edited by Haussleiter.
[249] St Cyprian as quoted by Haussleiter.

ἀναπαύσωνται. Hipp[250] reads περιμείνωσιν.

[250] St Hippolytus. The readings not given by Tischendorf are from the newly published 4th book of his commentary on Daniel.

πληρώσωσιν. Hipp[251] adds τὴν μαρτ. αὐτῶν; AC read πληρωθῶσιν.

[251] St Hippolytus. The readings not given by Tischendorf are from the newly published 4th book of his commentary on Daniel.

καὶ οἱ�. Hipp[252] omits these words.

[252] St Hippolytus. The readings not given by Tischendorf are from the newly published 4th book of his commentary on Daniel.

11. ἐδόθη αὐτοῖς ἑκάστῳ στολὴ λευκή. The singular στολὴ and the emphatic though irregular apposition αὐτοῖς ἑκάστῳ bring out more fully than the old text, that the white robe is an individual, not a common blessing. It serves to mark them both as innocent and as conquerors: what it is is better felt than said. We see that the “souls” appeared in some visible form, like enough to bodies to wear garments: one of the considerations against regarding them as abstractions, not personal beings. There can hardly be any doubt that this verse (cf. Revelation 3:4-5) represents a portion of the reward given by God to His Saints, and if so, evidently such a portion of their reward as they receive in the interval before the Judgement. In Ascensio Isaiae ix. 7–18 there is a close and curious parallel. Isaiah in the seventh heaven sees all the righteous from the days of Adam, holy Abel and all the righteous, Enoch and all his company already stripped of the garment of flesh and arrayed in the garment of heaven (plainly the spiritual body). These see their thrones but do not sit on them, and their crowns but do not wear them. The angel tells Isaiah they have to wait for the Incarnation and Ascension, when the Lord will bring many other righteous with Him who have not received their garments yet; then these too shall receive garments, crowns, and thrones. But whether all the elect are in the same position as the Martyrs, or whether we have here described a special privilege granted to them only, is more doubtful; the prevalent belief of Christendom has been, that Martyrs and the like more excellent Saints have, in this intermediate state, a privilege above all the other justified ones.

ἐρρέθη αὐτοῖς. From the nature of the case, their cry and the answer to it had to be heard by St John successively. But doubtless in fact they are contemporaneous: the Saints at once share God’s desire for the triumph of righteousness over sin, and rest in God’s assurance that it is for good reason that triumph is delayed.

ἵνα�. Almost as if they were bidden to “turn again to their rest” Psalms 116:7. They were at rest already when God’s judgements came abroad; then they cry out to Him to finish His work and cut it short in righteousness. This rest, if like the rest of the dead who die in the Lord Revelation 14:13, is more than the mere rest of the grave (Job 3:17-19) and certainly does not imply that they are to be unconscious or as it were asleep.

ἔτι χρόνον μικρόν. Yet to Stephen and his companions it is not less than 1850 years: and though the Old Testament Martyrs be not exclusively meant, they are no doubt included. But notice that it is contemplated that there will be an interval between the Martyrs of the Primitive Church and those of the last days.

πληρώσωσιν. If the reading be right, we must supply after “should have fulfilled” ‘their course’ (Acts 13:25), or ‘their work,’ or ‘their number,’ as St Hippolytus quotes this passage in the fourth book of his commentary on Daniel.

καὶ οἱ σύνδουλοι αὐτῶν καὶ οἱ�. It would be possible to construe the words “both their fellowservants and their brethren,” as though two classes were spoken of. In Revelation 19:10; Revelation 22:9, where we get the same words coupled, though in another construction, it may be thought that St John is called a brother of Martyrs and Prophets in a special sense. It would therefore be possible to distinguish the two classes, “their fellowservants (viz. all their true fellow-believers), and their brethren which should be killed as they were.” But it is much simpler to translate as the A. V[266], making both nouns antecedents to the clause that follows.

[266] Authorised Version.

ὡς καὶ αὐτοί is a shade more emphatic than ὡς αὐτοί would have been. Both terms in the comparison are to correspond exactly. The Martyrs of the last days are to be like those of the first, Martyrs in the strictest sense—Christians slain because they hold the Christian faith, and will not renounce it. Such Martyrs there have been, no doubt, in the interval between the great ages of persecution under the Roman emperors and under Antichrist, e.g. in the Mohammedan conquests, in the age of the conversion of central Europe, in Japan in the seventeenth century, and in Madagascar, China, New Zealand, and Zululand in our own time. It is likely enough also that martyrs to charity—men like St Telemachus and St Philip of Moscow, Abp Affré and Bp Patteson—have their portion with the perfect martyrs to faith: in some cases, as in the last, it is hard to draw a line between the two: any way, those who suffer for righteousness sake suffer for Christ, as St Anselm said when Lanfranc wished to deny the honours of a martyr to St Alphege. But to suffer for conscience sake, however noble, is not necessarily quite the same thing: and it is hardly right to claim the name of martyr for the victims—certainly not for the victims on one side only—in the fratricidal contests of Christians. “The Lord knoweth them that are His”; He knows whether Becket or Huss, More or Latimer, Charles I. or Margaret Wilson, had most of the Martyr’s spirit: we had better not anticipate His judgement whether any or all of them are worthy of the Martyr’s white robe.