10—13.
343 ἤκουσα | ὀπίσω µου φωνὴν μεγάλην "ὡς σάλπιγγος 11ο )λεγούσης, i C/. Esek. «3Ο βλέπεις γράψον εἰς βιβλίον καὶ πέµψον "ταῖς ἑπτὰ ἐκκλη- k δε φωνήν; σίαις, cis Ἔφεσον καὶ εἰς Σμύρναν kal εἰς Πέργαμον καὶ eis Θυάτειρα wis and τι where voice re-
curs, also Soph.
καὶ εἲς Σάρδεις καὶ eis Φιλαδελφίαν καὶ εἰς Λαοδικίαν '.
12. Καὶ ἐπέστρεψα " βλέπειν τὴν φωνὴν ἥτις ἐλάλει pet ἐμοῦ - καὶ ἐπιστρέψας εἶδον ἑπτὰ "λυχνίας χρυσᾶς, ‘Ajax, 17.
1 = λεγού- σαν, false attract.to 4 o. instead m ii. 8, etc., xxii. 16. For ἐκκλ. cf. on 1 Thess. 1.2. n Cf. Jos., Ant., ix. 4, 54 p Cf. xiv. 14, Ez. i. 26, from Dan. vii. 13 (cf. Abbott, 175),
13. καὶ ἐν pécw” τῶν λυχνιῶν Sporov P utdv ἀνθρώπου
of ϕ. © Exod. xxxvii. 23 (cf. Abbott; 194 f.).
1 For the orthography of Ἔμυρναν (ἵμυρναν Sy, vg.) see on ii. 8.
2 Almost invariably AC, like A (LXX), write eppeow for εν µεσω (cf. Meisterhans, Gramm. d. att. Inschr., 110 f.): the original νιον (of SQ, 1, etc., Andc, so Ti., WH, Simcox, Bj., Swete, Bousset) has been corrected, as at xiv. 14, into νιω by ACP, etc., ΟΥΡ., Ar. (so ΑΙ., Ws., WH marg.): the µαστοις (απ. λεγ. in this sense) of CPQ, min., Ar. (edd.) has also been corrected into µασθοις (3, min., Ti.) or even µαζοις (A, min., so Lach., Ws.); µαζους uirorum µαστους (Luke, xxiii. 29) mulierum: χρυσαν, an irregular contraction, is smoothed out in ${cPQ into χρυσην (for the
papyri-usage, cf. Class. Rev., 1901, 35).
nature as conceived by the popular reli- gion of contemporary Phrygia, viz., (d) prophetic power, (4) healing and purify- ing power, and (c) divine authority (sym- bolised by the axe): C. B. P., ii. 357.
Ver.11, γράψον (cf. Herm. Vis. II. iv. 3); this emphasis put upon the commission to compose and circulate what he sees in the vision, is due to the author’s claim of canonical authority and reflects a time when a literary work of this nature still required some guarantee, although at an earlier date smaller oracles had been written and accepted (e.g., that which determined the flight of the early Chris- tians to Pella, Eus. H. E., iii. 5, 3). John’s réle, however, is passive in two senses of the term. He seldom acts or journeys in his vision, whereas Jewish apocalypses are full of the movements of their seers; nor does his vision lead to any practical course of action, for—un- like most of the O.T. prophets—he is not conscious of any commission to preach or to reform the world. The prophet is an author. His experience is to be no luxury but a diffused benefit ; and as in Tob. xii. 20 (‘and now... . write ina book all that has taken place”) and 4 Esd. xii. 37 (‘‘ therefore write in a book all thou hast seen, and thou shalt teach,” etc.), the prophet is careful to explain that compo- sition is no mere literary enterprise but due to a divine behest. The cities are enumerated from Ephesus northwards to Smyrna (forty miles) and Pergamos (fifty miles north of Smyrna), then across for
forty miles S.E. to Thyatira, down to Sardis, Philadelphia (thirty miles S.E. of Sardis), and Laodicea (forty miles S.E. of Philadelphia). Cf. on ver. 4 and Introd. § 2. Except Pergamos and Laodicea, the churches lay within Lydia (though the writer employs the imperial term for the larger province) which was at that period a by-word for voluptuous civilisa- tion.
Ver. 12. The seven golden lamp-stands are cressets representing the seven chur- ches (20), the sevenfold lamp-stand of the Jewish temple (cf. S. C. 295-99) having been for long used as a symbol (Zech. iv. 2, 10). The function of the churches is to embody and express the light of the divine presence upon earth, so high is the prophet’s conception of the com- munities (cf. on ii. 4, 5); their duty is to keep the light burning and bright, other- wise the reason for their existence dis- appears (ii. 5). Consequently the prim- ary activity of Jesus in providence and revelation bears upon the purity of those societies through which his influence is to reach mankind, just.as his connexion with them on the other hand assures them of One in heaven to whom out of, difficulties here they can appeal with confidence.