354
Diat. πάσχειν. 2781.
v Result of θλῖΨις (Heb. x. 33-34) ? iv, 21. x Cf. 1 Pet. iii. 16, iv. 4.
(Blass, § 72, 2). a iii. 9, 2 Cor. xi. 14-15.
Il.
οὐκ εἰσὶν, ἀλλὰ συναγωγὴ "τοῦ Σατανᾶ. 19. Μηδὲν] φοβοῦ & µέλλεις ἰδοὺ μέλλει βάλλειν 6 διάβολος ἐξ ὑμῶν eis φυλακὴν
w 2 Cor. vi. 10, viii. 9, Jas. ii. 5, cf. Ps. xxxiv. 10-11, and espec. Tobit y John iii. 25.
z Constr. iii. 9, Rom. ii. 19, Lk. xx. 20 b 2 John 4, partitive by harsh Hellenistic usage,
‘For µηδεν (NP, etc., vg., Syr., Aeth., Andacbav, Areth., Cypr., Pr., Ti., Sx., Bs.) Lach., Al., Diist., Tr., WH, Ws., Bj., Sw. read the easier and less probable pr
(ACQ, 8, 38, 49, Arm, Andpal),
tives (reff.), or of malicious, anonymous accusations laid before the Roman au- thorities with reference to revolutionary designs on the part ofthe churches. ‘‘ Les Orientaux prennent d’ordinaire la religion comme un prétexte de taquineries” (Re- nan). Judaism was strong at Smyrna, and its hostility to the Christians (see Otto’s notes on Just. Dial. xvi. 11, xxxv., etc.) would not be lessened by the accession of converts from the old faith to the new (ign. ad Smyrn. i. 2, describes the saints and faithful folk of Christ εἴτε ἐν Ἰουδαίοις εἴτε ἐν ἔθνεσιν); the reasons for such social animosity and interference are analysed in Jowett’s note on 1 Th. iii. 13, in E. G. Hardy’s Christranity and the Roman Government, pp. 45-53, and in Ramsay’s Seven Letters, 272 f. At the martyrdom of Polykarp in Smyrna, some years after the Apocalypse was written (as later still at the death of Pionius, 250 A.D.) the Jews made themselves conspic- uous by denouncing him with the pagan mob before the Asiarch (ἀκατασχέτῳ θυμῷ καὶ µεγάλῃ φωνῇ), eagerly assisting to heap faggots on his pile (προθύμως, ὡς ἔθος αὐτοῖς), and helping to prevent the Christians from obtaining the martyr’s body Wench) umay καὶ ἐνισχυόντων τῶν Ἰονδαίων: Mart. Polyk. xii., xvii.). The name of “ Jew,” ancient and honour- able, is claimed (καὶ οὐκ εἰσί) for believers in Jesus the messiah, who constitute the real people of God with a legitimate claim to the privileges and titles of the Ο.Τ, community. ‘‘ Now by our faith we have become more than those who seemed to have God” (2 Clem. ii. 3).— συν. oat. a bitter retort to the contem- porary claims of Judaism with its σ. τοῦ κυρίου (cf, Num. xvi. 3, xx. 4, Ps. Sol. xvii. 18, σ. ὁσίων). The allusion here is to Jewish, in ver. 13 (throne of S.) to pagan, and in ver. 24 (depths of S.) to heretical, antagonism.
Ver. ΙΟ. µη. Φφοβοῦ, κ.τ.λ. ‘Thou orderest us to endure, not to love, trials. A man may love to endure, but he does not love what he endures’”’ (Aug. Conf. x. 28). Ill-treatment, as well as misrepre- sentation, is traced back to a diabolic source, in the common early Christian manner (Weinel, 13 f.). The Imperial authorities (διάβολος as in 1 Peter v. 8), although often instigated by the Jews, had the sole power of inflicting imprison- ment, in this case for a refusal to worship the emperor’s image; the prophet here predicts an imminent persecution of this kind (compare Acts ix. 16, and above Introd. § 6) lasting for a short and limited time (δέκα Hp. see reff., originally due to the rough Semitic division of a month into decades). The local intensity of feeling upon the Imperial cultus may be gathered from the fact that in 23 Α.Ρ. Smyrna had secured from Tiberius and the senate, after keen competition, the coveted distinction of possessing the second temple decreed by the province to the Imperial cultus. Hence the struggle anticipated here is desperate (ἄχ. ϐ.); martyrdom is no remote contingency. Compare Ep. Lugd., where the martyr-crisis is taken as an anticipation of the final persecution (cf. Apoc. iii. το, xiii. 7-15): ‘‘ with all his might the adversary assailed us, giving us a hint of what his unbridled advent would be like at the end”; the martyrs ‘ en- dured nobly all the assaults heaped on them by the mob. They were shouted at, struck, haled about, robbed, stoned, imprisoned ; in fact they suffered all that an infuriated mob likes to inflict on enemies and opponents.”—Then follows a commandment with promise: Ὑγίνου (not ἴσθι), ‘show thyself” throughout all degrees of trial and inany emergency. It is more than doubtful if this is a subtle local allusion to the loyalty and local patriotism upon which Sardis prided her-