το---23.
δούλους πορνεῦσαι καὶ Φαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα.
, o ιο - , χρόνον ἵνα µετανοήσῃ, Skat ob θέλει µετανοῆσαι ἐκ τῆς πορνείας
αὐτῆς.
A 3 A ” Re μετ’ αὐτῆς eis θλίψιν peyddny, ἐὰν μὴ µετανοήσουσιν ἐκ τῶν ἔργων gi.
αὐτῆς, 23.
γνώσονται πᾶσαι αἱ ἐκκλησίαι ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι “6 ἐραυνῶν 1 " νεφροὺς
iMal. iii. 5, cf. Isa. Ivii. 3.
22. ἰδοὺ βάλλω αὐτὴν εἰς " κλίνην, καὶ τοὺς | μοιχεύοντας
k 2 Kings x. 7, Sir. xxiii. 24-25, En. x. 9. Ezek. xxxiii. 27, Ps. Sol. vii. 4, etc.; LXX (θ.:- 1 1 Τ)-
oO
επ]. 3, xix. 2, 5, XXii. 3,6 = Christ-
ians in
21. Καὶ ἔδωκα αὐτῆ
2of., xvi.
‘ A k , CARTS > ~ > 1 , ‘ καὶ τὰ "τέκνα αὐτῆς ἀποκτενῶ ἐν ᾿θανάτῳ" καὶ r1,c/.Sap.
xi. 23— xii. 2.
h See Jud. ΙΧ. 2-3.
1 Jer. xiv. 12, xxi. 7,
m Clem. Rom. xxi. n ἅπ.λεγ. N.T.
1¥For ερευννων (ΝΩΡ, etc., Al. Bs.) read (with AC, etc., edd.) the Egyptian (Thumb pp. 176-177; Helbing, 7) form εραυνων.
clared, ‘‘ more women, more witchcraft’. For the connexion of women and sorcery cf. Blau’s Alijiid. Zauberwesen 18 f., 23 f. —7 λέγουσα κ.τ.λ., an irregular nomin. absolute, characteristic of the writer. This LXX peculiarity of a detached parti- ciple thrown into relief, which is not con- finedto the Apocalypse (cf. Phil. iii. 16-19, etc.), renders the participle almost a re- lative (Vit. I., 202) ; but indeed any word or group of words, thus singled out as char- acteristic of some preceding noun_ tends to become independent and to take its own construction (II. 8f). See Zeph. i. 12 (LXX).
Ver. 21. The immorality was flagrant ; more flagrant still was the obstinate per- sistence in it, despite admonitions and forbearance (cf. Eccles. viii. 11; Bar. ΑΡ. xxi. 20; 2 Peter iii. ϱ). This allu- sion to an abuse of God’s patience and to a warning given already (hardly in some writing like Jud. 2 Peter, Spitta) is left quite indefinite; it was probably familiar enough to the first readers of the book. Interests and old associations had proved hitherto too strong for this prophetic counsel to be followed. Mem- bership of a trade-guild, although it ne- cessarily involved the recognition of some pagan deity and often led to orgies, ‘‘ was a most important matter for every trades- man or artisan; it aided his business, and brought, him many advantages socially ” (Ramsay).
Ver. 22. κλίνην (bed, not a couch of revelry) aegritudinis non amoris; disease or sickness (cf. for the phrase, 1 Macc. i, 5) the punishment of error, especially of error accompanied by licentiousness. The inscriptions from Asia Minor abound with instances of the popular belief that impurity, moral and even physical, was punished by disease or disaster to oneself, one’s property, one’s children. Sickness
might even go the length of death (x Cor. xi. 29-30). The prophet, however, seems to avoid calling Jesus or God σωτὴρ or σώζων, a term appropriated by the po- pular religions of Phrygia and lavished on many deities as healers and helpers (6. B. P. i. 262 f.). —potx., men and women who imitate her licentiousness, θλ., physical distress, illness.—peravoy- σουσιν, the fut. indic., expresses rather more probability than subj. with ἐὰν py (cf. Blass, § 65,5). For tense of βάλλω see Zech. viii. 7, LXX, etc.
Ver. 23. τέκνα, literally, perhaps with an indirect allusion to the killing of Ahab’s seventy sons. ἀποκτ. 0. (Hebra- ism), ‘I will utterly slay”; see on vi. 8. If any particular form of death is meant, it may be pestilence (the in- scriptions often mention fever), which represented to an Oriental mind the pun- ishment of God on man’s unfaithfulness. The curious difference between the treat- ment of the µοιχ. and the τέκνα is due to the fact that (cf. Dan. vi. 24), a parent’s sin was visited upon his family, both in Jewish and in contemporary pagan belief (cf. the Phrygian inscription, cited by Mayor on Jas. ν. 12, κατηράµενος ἤτω αὐτὸς καὶ τὰ τέκνα αὐτοῦ). Yet even when both classes are allegorised into active coadjutors and deluded victims, the relative punishment looks unequal. John, unlike Ezekiel (xiii. 17-23), holds that the victims of the false prophetess are willing and responsible for their posi- tion.—maoar αἱ ἐκκλ., the judgment was to be as notorious as evidently the scandal had been. The idea recalls one of Ezekiel’s favourite conceptions.—ey κ.τ.λ. “I know the abysses,” and ‘‘dis- cerner of hearts and searcher of the reins” were old Egyptian titles for divine beings. This intimate knowledge of man (cf. 16 c) pierces below superficial appear-