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which the Father had spoken concerning Himself, ch. xxi. 6, and those things which He Himself had spoken concerning Himself, ch. i. 17. Is it then one and the same sentiment which is expressed in a threefold form % Nay, something more is contained in it. The clause A and fl is as it were the basis of those titles, which w^e have just noticed, of God and Christ ; and it has a kind of general and as it were hieroglyphic force, to be determined by the other titles which follow. This is first spoken by the Father, ch. i. 8 ; and the second answers to it, in which Christ calls Himself the First and the Last , ch. i. 17. Artemonius, who is excellently refuted by Wolf, trans- lates it, most excellent and most abject. He Himself by Isaiah ex- plains it, as Him , before whom and after whom there is no other God, the Author of salvation. This is at the commencement of the book. At the close, He who sits upon the throne says, I am A and ft: and He Himself explains it, the Beginning and the End , ch. xxi. 6. Then the Lord Jesus says, I A and n : and He also adds the explanation, but a twofold one : for He both repeats that saying of His, the First and the Last , and now, when the throne of God and of the Lamb is in the new Jerusalem, speaking of Himself, He adds that, which the Father had spoken, the Beginning and the End. It is put without the article, npurog xai icya and that too in the primary copies; but with the article, f) apyf xa/ ro r'iXog, just as ro A %ai ro n, which is a remarkable sign of a kind of gradation.
14. A vtovj of Him) of Him, who is coming: ver. 12. He Himself speaks concerning Himself. There is a very similar phrase, ch. v. 10 : them , that is, us. — ha iara) ha explains the blessedness here mentioned, as ch. xiv. 13 ; and itsrai for p makes the discourse ex- ceedingly emphatic. — ro %v\ov rrjg the tree of life) of which they who eat, live for ever : Gen. iii. 22,
*15. <&i\obv A good mind loves the truth, a bad one loves false-
hood. That saying of Aristotle may in a certain sense be accommo- dated to this passage : tout sffr/v q xar aXijfls/av eupufa, ro dvvaadai xaXojg sXstr^a/ r aXrideg xai pvysTv ro •^sD5o$* bmp oi mpvxoreg su, buvavrai rronh eu* oi yap piXovvrsg nal /xiaovvrsg ro ‘Trpoffp'epojaevov su, xpivovdi rb (3sXriffrov : lib. viii. Topic, cap. 14. Let this be transferred to spiritual things. It is the part of a good disposition to love the truth, and to hate false- hood : of a bad disposition, to hate the truth, and to love falsehood . Such indeed we all are by nature ; but one receives the truth, an other continues to imitate the deaf adder : Ps. lviii. 4, 5. Hence
1 rolg rrv'haiuv, through the gates ) namely, as those who are invested with legitimate power. — Y. g.
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