341
~ 3 “a 3 , > ~ , ~ καὶ βασιλείᾳ καὶ ' ὑπομονῇ ἐν ᾿Ιησοῦ, ἐγενόμην ἐν TH νήσῳ τῇ f Keynote
καλουµένῃ Πάτμω "Sd τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὴν µαρτυρίαν
19, Clem. Rom. ΧΧΧΥ., είο. practically (cf. Eus., Η. Ε., iii 18, 1-3).
561 f.), besides those in Greece and Syria and Egypt, were eagerly frequented, it was of moment to lay stress on what had superseded all such media for the faithful. Cf. Minuc. Felix, Oct. 7, “‘pleni et mixti deo uates futura praecerpunt, dant caute- lam periculis, morbis medelam, spem afflictis, operam miseris, solacium calami- tatibus, laboribus leaamentum”.
i. 9-20, introductory vision.
Ver. g. The personality of the seer is made prominent in apocalyptic literature, to locate or guarantee any visions which are to follow. Here the authority with which this prophet is to speak is condi- tioned by his kinship of Christian exper- ience with the churches and his special revelation from God. ἀδελφός (cf. vi. 11, xli, 10): for its pagan use as=fellow- member of the same (religious) society, of. C. B. P. i. 96 f., and Dittenberger’s Sylloge Inscr. Graec. 474, 10 (ἀδελφοὶ ols κοινὰ τὰ πατρῷα). θλίψει, put first as the absorbing fact of their εχρετῖ- ence, and as a link of sympathy between writer and readers; καὶ βασιλεία, the outcome of θλίψις in the messianic order: distress no end in itself; καὶ ὑπομονῇῃ, patient endurance the moral condition of participation in ἡ θλίψις and ἡ βασιλεία, by which one is nerved to endure the presence of the former without breaking down, and to bear the temporary delay of the latter without impatience. While paxpo@vpia is the absence of resentment at wrong, ὑπο- p-ovy =not giving way under trials. See Barn. ii., “the aids of our faith are fear and patience, long-suffering and _ self- control are our allies’’; also Tertul- lian’s famous aphorism, ‘‘ubi Deus, ibi et alumna eius, patientia scilicet”. —év Ἰησοῦ (a Pauline conception, only τε- peated in Apocalypse at xiv. 13), either with all three substantives or merely (cf. 2 Thess. iii. 5) with ὑπομονή. In any case ὑπ. is closely linked to ἐν *I1.; such patience, as exemplified in Jesus, and inspired by him, was the car- dinal virtue of the Apocalypse and its age. Inthe early Christian literature of this period ‘“‘we cannot name anything upon which blessedness is so frequently made to rest, as upon the exercise of patient endurance ” (Titius, 142). ἐγενό-
Wes.” Vi.
of age,
Heb. vi. 14%. 30; Lk, xxi.
g In sense of vi. 9, xx. 4, cf. Epict. Diss. iii. 24, 118. διὰ = ἕνεκεν
µην ἐν (“1 found myself in”: implying that when he wrote he was no longer there), not by flowing waters (as tre- quently, e.g., En. xiii. 7), but in the small, treeless, scantily populated island of Pat- mos, one of the Sporades, whither crimi- nals were banished sometimes by the Roman authorities (Plin. Hist. Nat. iv. 12, 23). Relegatio to an island was not an infrequent form of punishment for better-class offenders or suspects under the black régime of Domitian, as under Diocletian for Christians (cf. Introd. § 6). No details are given, but probably -it meant hard labour in the quarries, and was inflicted by the pro-consul of Asia Minor. Why John was only banished, we donot know. As “the word of God and the witness of Jesus” are not quali- fied by any phrase such as ὅσα elder (ver. 2, and thereby identified with the present Apocalypse), the words indicate as elsewhere (cf. διὰ, κ.τ.λ., reff.) the occasion of his presence in Patmos, i.e., his loyalty to the gospel (cf. θλίψις), rather than the object of his visit. The latter could hardly be evangelising (Spitta), for Patmos was insignificant and desolate, nor, in face of the use of διὰ, can the phrase mean “for the pur- pose of receiving this revelation” (Bleek, Liicke, Dtisterdieck, Hausrath, B. Weiss, Baljon, etc.). Either he had voluntarily withdrawn from the mainland to escape the stress of persecution (which scarcely harmonises with the context or the gen- eral temper of the book) or for solitary communion (cf. Ezek. i. 1-3), or, as is more likely, his removal was a punish- ment (cf. Abbott, 114-16). The latter view is corroborated by tradition (cf. Zahn, § 64, note 7), which, although later and neither uniform nor wholly credible, is strong enough to be taken as independent evidence. It can hardly be explained away as a mere elaboration of the present passage (so, 6.σ., Reuss, Bleek, Bousset); the allusion to paprv-’ ptoy is too slight to have been suggested by the darker sense of martyrdom, and it is far-fetched to argue that the tradition was due to a desire to glorify John with a martyrdom. Unless, therefore, the re- ference is a piece of literary fiction (in which case it would probably have beer