3 34
of an inferior character. See App. Crit. Ed. ii. on this passage. This sentence indeed, — And the ten horns which thou sawest , xa/, and [not M, upon , as in Engl. Vers.], the beast , these shall hate the whore, — is very plain, comprising, as it does, the horns and the beast by the word olroi, these ; and it is most accommodated to that most weighty sense , which it and it alone conveys, namely, that not only the ten horns, but even the beast himself (by which view Protestants are freed from the most invidious suspicion of sounding the trumpet against Rome), are about to hate the whore. It was provided by Divine government, that the Apocalypse should be published at Complutum, in the midst of Spain, before the Reformation, in a very genuine form, especially in the strictures, which attack Rome. And in this passage the Complutensian Edition both exhibits the reading, xa/ ro drjpiov, and marks it with a point, as a sign of approbation. And almost all the copies agree. The collation of so many MSS. would be useless, if the true reading even of such passages were in- definitely postponed, or at least left in doubt. By this one thing Wolf confirms my opinion in almost all the passages, in which he dissents from me. — rqv nopvviv, the whore) A question arises, whether the beast, ascending out of the bottomless pit, first carries on war against the two witnesses (comp. EM. Offenb. p. 546), or lays waste Babylon. He first, as it seems, destroys Babylon, when the king- dom has as yet scarcely been given to him by the ten horns ; then, having left that station, he pours out his whole fury upon the sacred city, and soon afterwards with his followers incurs final destruction. For both upon the ascent of the two witnesses into heaven, when the multitude repented after the earthquake [ch. xi. 13], the mystery of God is fulfilled : and the ten horns give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. — xa / uvrriv, and herself) This is emphatic, in antithesis to the flesh, and the resources of the whore.
17. T r\M yvuifjjYiv a vroZ, his will) namely, of the beast. The ex- pression, 0soD, occurs Ezr. vi. 14; but here John expresses,
rr\ v yvu/xriv too Oripiov, the will of the beast, against the whore. — xa/' 'roiriffoa fjsiav yvu)/j,7)v) See App. Crit. Ed. ii. on this passage.1 A twofold point of importance is recorded ; first, that the ten horns fulfil the will of the beast; and secondly, that they in concert with one another fulfil one will, namely, concerning the delivering up of their kingdom to the beast alone.2
1 A Vulg. omit this clause : so Lachm. B supports it: so Tisch. — E.
2 y iyfivaa.) having) This at that very time, in which desolation threatens the whore, is to be taken for the present time. — V. g.