Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Revelation 14:15

ἄλλος ἄγγελος, as in Revelation 14:6. The alternatives are (a) to translate “another, an angel” (אחר מלאך) which might be the sense of the Greek (cf. Od. i. 132, Clem. Protrept. ix. 87. 3) but is harsh, or (b) to take the figure of Revelation 14:14 as an angel (Porter) and not as the messiah at all (which, in the face of Revelation 1:13, is difficult). The subordinate and colourless character of the messiah is certainly puzzling, and tells against the Christian authorship of the passage. Messiah is summoned to his task by an angel, and even his task is followed up by another angel's more decisive interference. He seems an angelic figure (cf. on Revelation 19:17), perhaps primus interpares among the angels (so En. xlvi. 1: “and I saw another being [i.e., the Son of Man] whose countenance had the appearance of a man, and his face was full of graciousness, like one of the holy angels”). The conception was inconsistent with John's high Christology, but he may have retained it, like so much else, for its poetic effect, or as part of a time-honoured apocalyptic tradition. That the messiah should receive divine instructions through one of his comrades (Hebrews 1:6; Hebrews 1:9; cf. Zechariah 2:3-4) was perhaps not stranger than that he should require an angel in order to communicate with men (Revelation 1:1). πέμψον κ. τ. λ. The double figure of judgment (harvest and vintage) is copied from the poetic parallelism of Joel 3:13; the independent rendering of שׁלח by πέμψον and ἔβαλεν, and the change of agent from messiah (Revelation 14:14-16) to an angel (Revelation 14:17-20, so Matthew 13:39 f.), show that the writer is using the Hebrew of that passage (where God does the reaping).

Continues after advertising

BibliaPlus

Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Revelation 14:15

Old Testament

New Testament