Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Revelation 8:4

θυμιαμάτων ταῖς προσευχαῖς. Primas[288] reads supplicationum orationum.

[288] Primasius, edited by Haussleiter.

4. ἀνέβη … ταῖς προσευχαῖς. The dative here again is quite unlike any other in this Book. The only question therefore as to the sense is, whether we are to understand the words as the goal of the local motion of the smoke, “went up to the prayers,” or as the object of its intent, “went up for the prayers”: the latter seems better. “The smoke of the incense went up before God out of the Angel’s hand, for the prayers of the Saints,” i.e. to consecrate and ratify them, to unite all His spiritual creation in the same supplication, which when thus united must prevail.

ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ. As is well known, these words are immediately followed in C by ἡμέρας χιλίας διακοσίας ἑξήκοντα, the copyist having mismatched some leaves of his original and gone on to Revelation 11:3. Of course he did not invent the admirable system of punctuation and paragraphs which he reproduced. It is possible that he may have failed to notice that ἐν. τοῦ θεοῦ ended a paragraph, as we should expect, or at any rate was followed by a stop. It is also possible that he found the 1260 days in his original in both places if, as seems probable, the vision of the incense on the heavenly Altar was shewn to the Seer in preparation for the profanation of the earthly altar at Jerusalem which had long been foretold, Daniel 8:11; Daniel 11:31; Daniel 12:11, and was soon to be fulfilled more completely than in the days of the Maccabees.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Revelation 8:4

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