proper place. I think it necessary to give this admonition once for all, lest my edition of the text should too frequently appear to be unsupported by other editions. See App. Ed. ii. We shall see a similar variety of readings below, ch. v. 10 ; but whether \ QaciXiTg or (3uffiXs/uv be the genuine reading in that passage, 3 oksiXsioiv is un- doubtedly the true reading here.1 For in that passage four animals speak, and twenty-four elders, wearing crowns, whose dignity is conspicuous : in this, the address is made in the name of all the faithful: these Christ makes priests to God and His Father; and the whole body of these priests forms a kingdom, which rejoices in the King Himself. BuaiXsiov ispars-jj^a. is used, Ex. xix. 6 ; 1 Pet. ii. 9, where hpdrsv/na, as erpur evpa, an army , is a collective noun [a noun of multitude]. The Apposition, a kingdom , priests , has the same force : although, among the citizens of the kingdom, the priests have the privilege of a pre-eminently near admission to the presence of the King. The priests of David were his sons : 2 Sam. viii. 18.
27. "E^gra/) namely, 6 ip^6/xsvog. He who is to come, cometh. His glorious advent at the last day is meant. — l£sxemj<ray, pierced) The Saviour and Judge both exhibited Himself, and will exhibit Himself, with most evident marks of the nails and spear in His raised and glorified body. Then the disdain and reproaches of His enemies, especially of the Jews, which He for so long has borne and still bears with wonderful long-suffering, will be for ever refuted. — xoypovra/, shall wail) without doubt through fear, as of an enemy, or even through a feeling of penitence in the case of some.
8. To dX(p a xai r'o c i) We ought not here to read and pronounce fl as w /jj'tyu ; for w fityu is opposed to o /j,ixp&. n, as the last letter of the Greek alphabet, is here opposed to the alpha. John wrote in Greek. This passage is one of great solemnity : in which a few, with ApringiuSy add dpyf %at rtXoc ,3 for the sake of explanation, as is thought, in the Notes assigned to Vatablus, namely, from the parallel passages. But let us look to the parallel passages. They are four (not reckoning the 11th verse, on which we shall speak below).
I.) To aXcpa hoc) to ft, Alpha and 0 : ch. i. 8.
II.) *0 rrpcbrog xecl b sV^aros, The First and the Last : ch. i. 17, ii. 8.
1 So AC Vulg. “ Nos in regnum et,” h. Rec. Text has fictotteis xoil, without good authority. — E.
2 ctvra, to Himself) that is, to Jesus Christ. — V. g.
3 ABC omit these words. Rec. Text adds them, with Vulg. and Mempli.