22
342
b (From b
Zech. i. 6, vii.12, etc, LXX), cf. trast γεν. ἐν ἑαυτῷ Acts xii. 11.
᾿Ιησοῦ. ro. ἐγενόμην
elaborated) it must be supposed to be vague simply because the matter was perfectly familiar to the circle for whom the book was written. It is to those exercised in prudence, temperance, and virtue that (according to Philo, de incor- rupt. mundi, § 1, cf. Plutarch’s discussion in defect. ογαο. 38 f.) God vouchsafes visions, but John introduces his personal experience in order to establish relations between himself and his readers rather than to indicate the conditions of his theophany.
Ver. το. Ecstasy or spiritual rapture, the supreme characteristic of prophets in Did. xi. 7 (where the unpardonable sin is to criticise a prophet λαλοῦντα ἐν πνεύματι), Was not an uncommon experi- ence in early Christianity, which was profoundly conscious of living in the long- looked for messianic age (Acts ii. 17 f., cf. Eph. iii. 5), when such phenomena were to be amatter of course. Through- out the Apocalypse (xxi. 5, etc.) John first sees, then writes; the two are not simultaneous. While the Apocaiypse is thus the record of a vision (ὅρασις, ix. 17), the usual accompaniments of a vision— z.e., prayer and fasting—are significantly absent from the description of this in- augural scene, which is reticent and simple as compared, e¢.g., with a passage like Asc. Isa. iv. 10-16. It is possible, however, that the prophet was engaged in prayer when the trance or vision over- took him (like Peter, Acts x. g-11, cf. len. ad Polyc. ii. 2, τὰ δὲ ἀόρατα αἴτει, ἵνα σοι Φανερωθῇ), since the day of weekly Christian worship is specially mentioned on which, though separated from the churches (was there one at Patmos ?), he probably was wrapt in meditations (on the resurrection of Christ) appropriate to the hour. The Imperial or Lord’s day, first mentioned here in early Christian literature (so Did. xiv., Gosp. Peter 11, etc.) contains an implicit allusion to the ethnic custom, prevalent in Asia Minor, of designating the first day of the month (or week ?) as Σεβαστή in honour of the emperor's birthday (see Thieme’s Inschr. Maeander, 1906, 15, and Deissmann in E.Bi. 2813 f.). Chris- tians, too, have their imperial day (cf. Introd. § 2), to celebrate the birthday of their heavenly king. With his mind absorbed in the thought of the exalted