Revelation 4:11

O Lord [κ υ ρ ι ε]. Read oJ kuriov kai oJ Qeov hJmwn our Lord and our God. So Rev. See on Matthew 21:3.

To receive [λ α β ε ι ν]. Or perhaps, better, to take, since the glory, honor, and power are the absolute possession of the Almighty. See on John 3:32. Power. Instead of the thanks in the ascription of the living creatures. In the excess of gratitude, self is forgotten. Their thanksgiving is a tribute to the creative power which called them into being. Note the articles, "the glory," etc. (so Rev.), expressing the absoluteness and universality of these attributes. See on chapter Revelation 1:6.

All things [τ α π α ν τ α]. With the article signifying the universe. For thy pleasure [δ ι α τ ο θ ε λ η μ α σ ο υ]. Lit., because of thy will. So Rev. Alford justly remarks : "For thy pleasure of the A. V. introduces An element entirely strange to the context, and, however true in fact, most inappropriate here, where the oti for renders a reason for the worthiness to take honor and glory and power."

They are [ε ι σ ι ν]. Read hsan they were. One of the great MSS., B, reads oujk hsan they were not; i e., they were created out of nothing. The were is not came into being, but simply they existed. See on John 1:3; John 7:34; John 8:58. Some explain, they existed in contrast with their previous non - existence; in which case it would seem that the order of the two clauses should have been reversed; besides which it is not John's habit to apply this verb to temporary and passing objects. Professor Milligan refers it to the eternal type existing in the divine mind before anything was created, and in conformity with which it was made when the moment of creation arrived. Compare Hebrews 8:5. "Was the heaven then or the world, whether called by this or any other more acceptable name - assuming the name, I am asking a question which has to be asked at the beginning of every inquiry - was the world, I say, always in existence and without beginning, or created and having a beginning? Created, I reply, being visible and tangible and having a body, and therefore sensible; and all sensible things which are apprehended by opinion and sense are in a process of creation and created. Now that which is created must of necessity be created by a cause. But how can we find out the father and maker of all this universe? And when we have found him, to speak of his nature to all men is impossible. Yet one more question has to be asked about him, which of the patterns had the artificer in view when he made the world ? - the pattern which is unchangeable, or that which is created ? If the world be indeed fair and the artificer good, then, as is plain, he must have looked to that which is eternal. But if what cannot be said without blasphemy is true, then he looked to the created pattern. Every one will see that he must have looked to the eternal, for the world is the fairest of creations and he is the best of causes" (Plato, "Timaeus," 28, 29).