Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Revelation 20:4

θρόνους, tribunal-seats for the assessors of the divine judge (as in Daniel 7:9-10; Daniel 7:22, of which this is a replica). The unnamed occupants (saints including martyrs? as in Daniel) are allowed to manage the judicial processes (so Daniel 7:22, where the Ancient of days to τὸ κρίμα ἔδωκεν ἁγίοις Ὑψίστου) which constituted a large part of Oriental government. But no stress is laid on this incidental remark, and the subjects of this sway are left undefined; they are evidently not angels (Jewish belief, shared by Paul). Such elements of vagueness suggest that John took over the trait as a detail of the traditional scenery. His real interest is in the martyrs, for whom he reserves (cf. Eus. H. E. vi. 42) the privilege assigned usually by primitive Christianity either to the apostles or to Christians in general. They are allotted the exclusive right of participating in the messianic interregnum. πεπελεκισμένων, beheaded by the lictor's axe, the ancient Roman method of executing criminals (cf. Introd. § 6). Under the empire citizens were usually beheaded by the sword. The archaic phrase lingered on, like our own “execution”. Here it is probably no more than a periphrasis for “put to death”. Even if καὶ οἵτινες meant a second division, it must, in the light of Revelation 11:7; Revelation 13:15, denote martyrs and confessors (who had suffered on the specific charge of refusing to worship the emperor). χίλια ἔτη, tenfold the normal period of human life (Plato, Rep. 615), but here = the cosmic sabbath which apocalyptic and rabbinic speculation (deriving from Genesis 2:2 and Psalms 90:4) placed at the close of creation (cf. Drummond's Jewish Messiah, 316 f.; Bacher's Agada d. Tann. 2 i. 133 f.; E. Bi. iii. 3095 3097; Encycl. of Religion and Ethics, i. 204 f., 209). John postpones the παλιγγενεσία till this period is over (contrast Matthew 19:28). He says nothing about those who were living when the millenium began, and only precarious inferences can be drawn. Does Revelation 20:6 contain the modest hope that he and other loyal Christians might participate in it? or does the second (καὶ οἵτινες) class represent (or include) the living loyalists (so, e.g., Simcox, Weiss, Bousset)? The latter interpretation involves an awkward ambiguity in the meaning of ἔζησαν (= came to life, and also continued to live), conflicts with οἱ λ. τ. νεκρῶν (5) and ψυχὰς (4), and is therefore to be set aside, as 5 6 plainly refer to both classes of 4. A third alternative would be to suppose that all Christians were ex hypothesi dead by the time that the period of Revelation 20:1 f. arrived, the stress of persecution (cf. on Revelation 13:8 f.) having proved so severe that no loyalist could survive (cf. below, on Revelation 20:11).

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Revelation 20:4

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