The superscription. Ἀπ. Ἰωάννου is the ecclesiastical title (distinguishing it from the apocalypse of Peter, or of Paul, etc.) of what professes in reality to be an ἀπ. Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (subjective genitive), _i.e._, a disclosure of the divine μυστήρια (Daniel 2:19; Daniel 2:22; Daniel 2:28, Theod.) in... [ Continue Reading ]
δούλοις, in specific sense of Revelation 10:7; Revelation 11:18, after Daniel 9:6; Daniel 9:10; Zechariah 1:6, and Amos 3:7 (ἀποκαλύψῃ παιδείαν πρὸς τοὺς δούλους αὐτοῦ τοὺς προφήτας). _Jesus Christ_ is used only in Revelation 1:1-5 (Revelation 22:21 ?), _Lord Jesus_ only in... [ Continue Reading ]
ἐμαρτ. (epistol. aor., _cf._ Philemon 1:19, _cf._ further Thuc. i. 1 ξυνέγραψε). λόγ. τ. θ., like דבר יהוה (LXX λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ, _e.g._, Jeremiah 1:2), a collective term for God's disclosures to men (τοὺς λόγους, 3), or as here for some specific revelation more exactly defined in ὅσα εἶδεν, all that... [ Continue Reading ]
The first of the seven beatitudes in the Apocalypse (Revelation 14:13; Revelation 16:15; Revelation 19:9; Revelation 20:6; Revelation 22:7; Revelation 22:14), endorsing the book as a whole. In the worship of the Christian communities one member read aloud, originally from the O.T. as in the synagogu... [ Continue Reading ]
ταῖς ἑπτὰ ἐκκλ., seven being the sacred and complete number in apocalyptic symbolism (_E. Bi._ 343 6). The ταῖς must refer proleptically to to Revelation 1:11; for other churches existed and flourished in proconsular Asia at this time, _e.g._, at Troas, Magnesia, Hierapolis and Colossae, with which... [ Continue Reading ]
The prologue.... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀπὸ, κ. τ. λ., another grammatical anomaly; as usual the writer puts the second of two nouns in apposition, in the nominative. ὁ μ. ὁ π. Jesus not merely the reliable witness to God but the loyal martyr: an aspect of his career which naturally came to the front in “the killing times”. ὁ πρωτότοκος ... [ Continue Reading ]
A reminiscence and adaptation of Daniel 7:13 (Theod.) and Zechariah 12:10-14. The substitution of ἐξεκέντησαν (so John 19:37, Justin's _Apol._ i. 52, _Dial_, xxxii., _cf._ 61., 118., adding εἰς) for κατωρχήσαντο (70 mistranslation in this passage, though not elsewhere, of דקרו) shows that the origin... [ Continue Reading ]
Only here and in Revelation 21:5 f. is God introduced as the speaker, in the Apocalypse. The advent of the Christ, which marks the end of the age, is brought about by God, who overrules (παντοκράτωρ always of God in Apocalypse, otherwise the first part of the title might have suggested Christ) even... [ Continue Reading ]
The personality of the seer is made prominent in apocalyptic literature, to locate or guarantee any visions which are to follow. Here the authority with which this prophet is to speak is conditioned by his kinship of Christian experience with the churches and his special revelation from God. ἀδελφός... [ Continue Reading ]
Ecstasy or spiritual rapture, the supreme characteristic of prophets in Did. xi. 7 (where the unpardonable sin is to criticise a prophet λαλοῦντα ἐν πνεύματι), was not an uncommon experience in early Christianity, which was profoundly conscious of living in the long-looked for messianic age (Acts 2:... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 1:11, γράψον (_cf._ Herm. _Vis._ II. iv. 3); this emphasis put upon the commission to compose and circulate what he sees in the vision, is due to the author's claim of canonical authority and reflects a time when a literary work of this nature still required some guarantee, although at an... [ Continue Reading ]
The seven golden lamp-stands are cressets representing the seven churches (20), the sevenfold lamp-stand of the Jewish temple (_cf._ _S. C._ 295 99) having been for long used as a symbol (Zechariah 4:2; Zechariah 4:10). The function of the churches is to embody and express the light of the divine pr... [ Continue Reading ]
The churches are inseparable from their head and centre Jesus, who moves among the cressets of his temple with the dignity and authority of a high priest. The anarthrous ὑ. ἀ. is the human appearance of the celestial messiah, as in En. xlvi. 1 6 (where the Son of man accompanies God, who, as the Hea... [ Continue Reading ]
ὡς χ.; another conventional simile for celestial beings. ἡ κ. κ. αἱ τ., a pleonastic expression; either = “his head, _i.e._ his hair,” or “his forehead and his hair”; scarcely a hendiadys for “the hair of the head” (Bengel). Jewish tradition rationalised the white hairs into a proof of God's activit... [ Continue Reading ]
The care and control exercised by Christ over the churches only come forward after the suggestions of majesty and authority (13 15) which followed the initial idea of Christ's central position (ἐν μέσῳ) among the churches. _Cf._ Revelation 5:6 (ἐν μέσῳ) for another reference to Christ's central auth... [ Continue Reading ]
ἔπεσα κ. τ. λ., the stereotyped behaviour (_cf._ Numbers 24:4) in such apocalyptic trances (Weinel, 129, 182, _R. J._ 375 f.; for the terror of spiritual experience _cf._ Schiller's lines: “Schrecklich ist es Deiner Wahrheit | Sterbliches Gefäss zu seyn”); Jesus, however, does here what Michael (En.... [ Continue Reading ]
Not “it is I, the first and the last” (which would require ἐγώ εἰμι before μὴ φοβοῦ), but “I am, etc.” The eternal life of the exalted Christ is a comfort both in method and result; ἐγενόμην νεκρός (not ὡς; really dead), his experience assuring men of sympathy and understanding; καὶ ἰδοὺ, κ. τ. λ.,... [ Continue Reading ]
οὖν, at the command of him who has authority over the other world and the future (resuming Revelation 1:11. now that the paralysing fear of Revelation 1:17 has been removed). Like the author of 4th Esdras, this prophet is far more interested in history than in the chronological speculations which en... [ Continue Reading ]
μυστ. (as in Daniel 2:27, LXX; see below on Revelation 10:7) = “the secret symbol”. These two symbols, drawn from the lore of contemporary apocalyptic, are chosen for explanation, partly as an obscure and important element in the foregoing vision which had to be set in a new light, partly because th... [ Continue Reading ]