Ill.
ς ει ων - / q Unly here Τάδε λέγει 6% ἅγιος ὁ ἀληθινός, ὁ ἔχων τὴν * κλεῖν τοῦ 'Δαυείδ, ὁ
= Ghrist
, (cf. Acts ἀνοίγων καὶ οὐδεὶς κλείσει καὶ κλείων καὶ οὐδεὶς ἀνοίγει: 8.
iil. 14, iv. 27, 30,
John vi. 6ο, etc.), in Apoc. Hendia-
dys = 6 ἀληθῶς ἅγιος (Grot.)? ‘ Holy and true,” of God vi. το, cf. iv. 8. orthographical forms in ει or c, see Win. § 5, 13, 32, generally (§ 9, 7). u Constr. vii. 2, 9, xiii. 8, 12, xx. 8, cf. xii. 6, 14, xvii. 9; redundant Heb. use,
ii. 12, Col. iv. 3. Win. § 22, 7.
[Οἶδά σου τὰ Epya:]} ἰδοὺ δέδωκα ἐνώπιόν σου "θύραν ' ἠνεωγμένην,
- A ἣν οὐδεὶς δύναται κλεῖσαι " αὐτήν' ὅτι μικρὰν έχεις δύναμιν, καὶ
ri. 18. s Onsuch t 1 Cor. xvi. 9, 2 Cor.
1Pr, om. οιδα σου τα εργα (so Hauss. i. 211-212, breaking connection and har-
monistic).
of ‘‘genune,’ opposed to unreal rather than to untruthtul, cf. Justin’s Dial. cxvi., Athen. vi. 253 ο: no _ pseudo- messiah, as local Jews asserted, ¢f. 8c and ο) is here grouped with ἅγιος (i.e., not merely=legitimately messianic as in John x. 36, Clem. Rom. xxiii. 5, but freed from creaturely weakness and imperfection, his nature in intimate touch with the divine fulness, Issel: der Begriff der Heiligkeitt im Ν.Τ., 1887, pp. 70, 110, Κ.Σ. 305), as in iil. 14, xix. II, xxi. 5, xxii. 6 with πιστός, and in xv. 3, xvi. 7, xix. 2 with δίκαιος. Slightly otherwise, Apoc. Bar. Ixvii. 7: ‘‘He is true, so that Πε” shall do you good and not evil,” and below at xvi. 7 (though this sense might suit here also, aS an amplification of ἅγιος). κλεῖν κ.τ.λ. (based on Isa. xxii. 22) the messiah, as Davidic scion, possesses the absolute power of admission to and ex- clusion from the divine realm. This part of the title (cf. Job xii. 14, ἐὰν κλείσῃ κατὰ ἀνθρώπων τίς ἀνοίξει;) alludes to what immediately follows as well as to the arrogant claim mentioned in ver. 9. Christ alone, the heavenly κλειδοῦχος, has the right to excommunicate. Com- pare Savonarola’s brave reply to the bishop of Vasona who had pronounced his sentence of degradation (separo te ab ecclesia militante atque triumphante) :— Militante, non triumphante: hoc enim tuum non est.
Ver. 8. οἶδά . . . ἔργα, as in the case of Smyrna implying unqualified approval. The reward of this steadfastness (8 c, το) is threefold: (a) security in their relation to God (8 b), through the love of Christ for them (ο); (5) ultimate triumph over their foes (ο), and (ο) deliverance in the final crisis (10). The open door, here as in Paul (for the ethnic use of the term on sepulchres cf. C. B. P., ii. 395) is usually taken to denote facilities for preaching and advancing the faith among outsiders, in which case the sense would
be that the extension of the gospel de- pends upon, as it forms a high reward of, open confession and a decided stand for Christ. But in view of a passage written by Ignatius to this very church (ad Philad. 3, where Christ himself is termed θύρα τοῦ πατρὸς, δι ἧς εἰσέρχο- γται the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, καὶ 7 ἐκκλησία) and of Clem. Rom. xlviii. (where the gate of righteousness is de- scribed as open in Christ), the phrase
-is better connected with Christ himself,
not with any good opening for Christian activity. He makes access to God through himself sure; despite trials and temptations (vv. 8, g, 10) his church’s standing is guaranteed by his authority (as in John x. 7, 9, Christ ἡ θύρα τῶν προβάτων). θύρα here is the open heart of God for man; in ver. 20, man’s open heart for God. Jesus, then, equipped with the O.T. attributes of divine au- thority, assures the church how futile are such excommunications as the Jews were levelling against them. The latter have nothing to do with the conditions of the kingdom. Faith in Jesus consti- tutes a relation to God which cannot either be impaired or rivalled. Only, the perseverance of the saints is needed; an assured position with God depends not merely on Christ’s will and power but on Christian loyalty as the coefficient of grace. The church at P. is not blamed for the slenderness of her equipment, which evidently is due to causes outside her control. She is praised for having made good use of the slight resources she possessed (cf. Mark xiv. 8). Other- wise, though less well, a full stop might be placed after αὐτήν, and ὅτι .. . τὸ ὄνομα µου taken as the reason for the promise ἰδοὺ . . . σε, just as in ver. ΙΟ ὅτι . « « µου is followed by kayo... γῆς.- -αὐτήν, pleonastic use of pron. after relative, a Semitic idiom with Greek affinities (Vit. ii. 138, Thumb 128, Blass. § 50, 4) confined to Apoc. (exc. cit. fz. LXX,