Ver. 12. The reward of steadfastness here is a stable relation to God and ab- solute (trebly verificd) assurance of cternal life, permanence ἐν τῷ va@ (verbally inconsistent with xxi. 22) τοῦ θεοῦ pov (four times in this verse). From Strabo (xii. 868 B, ἤ τε Φιλαδελφία .. . οὐδὲ τοὺς τοίχους ἔχει πιστούς, ἀλλὰ καθ᾽ ἡμέραν τρόπον τινὰ σαλεύονται καὶ διίστανται: xiii. 936 B, πόλις Φιλ. σεισμῶν πλήρής:' οὐ γὰρ διαλείπουσιν οἱ τοῖχοι διϊστάμενοι, καὶ ἄλλοτ᾽ ἄλλο µέρος τῆς πόλεως κακοπαθῶν, κ.τ.λ.) We learn that the city was liable to frequent and severe earthquakes, one of which had produced such ruin a while ago (Tac. Ann. ii. 47) that the citizens had to be exempted from Imperial taxation and assisted to repair their buildings. These local circumstan:es (cf. Juv. vi. 411; Dio Cass. Ixviiil. 25; Renan, 335) lend colour to this promise, which would also appeal to citizens of a city whose numerous fes- tivals and temples are said to have won for it the sobriquet of “a miniature Athens” (E. Bi. 3692). The promise is alluded to in Ep. Lugd., where God's grace is said to have ‘‘ delivered the weak and set them up as στύλους ἑδραίους
il
γράψω ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ θεοῦ μου καὶ τὸ ὄνομα τῆς πόλεως h Gal. iv. Ἀτῆς καινῆς “Ἱερουσαλήμ, ἡ καταβαίνουσα !
τοῦ θεοῦ µου,
1The ungrammatical η
9)
, Heb. xi. 10, Xii. 22,xill.14. i Seeon xxi. 2,10; false apposition.
ἐκ τοῦ
καταβαινουσα (Sy*AC) has been corrected into η κατα-
βαινει (Q, Andr., Ar.) ana της καταβαινουσης (NCA).
able by means of their patience to stand all angry onsets of the evil one,” and Attalus of Pergamos is termed a στύλον καὶ ἑδραίωμα of the local Christians. Permanent communion with God is fur- ther expressed in terms of the widespread ethnic belief that to be ignorant of a god’s name meant inability to worship him, whereas to know that name implied the power of entering into fellowship with him. “Just as writing a name on temple-walls puts the owner of the name in continual union with the deity of the temple, so for early man the know- ledge, invocation and vain repetition of the deity’s name constitutes in itself an actual, if mystic, union with the deity named” (Jevons’ Introd. Hist. Religion, 1896, p. 245; of. Jastrow, p. 173). καὶ γράψω, κ.τ.λ., inscriptions upon pillars being a common feature of Oriental architecture, cf Cooke’s North Semitic Inscriptions, p. 266, names on pillars ; also Keitzenstein’s Poimandres,20. The provincial priest of the Imperial cultus erected his statue in the temple at the ciose of his year’s official reign, inscribing on it his own name and his father’s, his place of birth and year of office. Hence some of the mysterious imagery of this verse, applied to Christians as priests of God in the next world. This is more }robable than to suspect an allusion to what was written on the high priest’s forehead (Exod. xxviii. 36, cf. Apoc. vii. 3, xiv. I, xvii. 5, xxii. 4). Pillars were also, of course, sculptured now and then in human shape. For the first (a) of the three names, cf. Baba Bathra, 75, 2: R. Samuel ait R. Jochanan dixisse tres appellari nomine Dei, justos (Isa. xliii. 7), Messiam (Jer. xxiii. 6), Hierosolyma (Ezek. xlviii. 35); also Targ. Jerus. on Exod. xxvili. 30, quisquis memorat illud nomen sanctum [2.ε., τετραγράµµα- τον] in hora necessitatis, eripitur, et occulta reteguntur. Where a name was equivalent in one sense to personality and character, to have a divine name conferred on one or revealed to one was equivalent to being endowed with divine power. The divine “hidden name’
(Asc. Isa. i. 7 Jewish: “as the Lord liveth whose name has not been sent into this
world,” cf. viii. 7) was (according to En. Ixix. 14 f.) known to Michael, and had talismanic power over demons. Perhaps an allusion to this also underlies the apo- calyptic promise, the talismanic metaphor implying that God grants to the victorious Chris:ian inviolable safety against evil spirits (cf. Rom. viii. 38, 39). The second (b) name denotes (cf. Isa. lvi. 5, Ezek. xlviii. 35) that the bearer belongs not merely to God but to the heavenly city and society of God. Since rabbinic speculation was sure that Abraham had the privilege of knowing the mysterious new name for Jerusalem in the next world, John claims this for the average and honest Christian. On the connexion between the divine name and the temple, see 3 Macc. ii. 9, 14, Judith :x. 8, etc. The third (ο) ‘‘ my own new name” (xix. 12) is reflected in Asc. Isa. ix. 5 (the Son of God, et nomen eius non potes audtre donec de carne extbis); it denotes some esoteric, incommunicable, pre-existent (LXX of Ps. lxxi. 17, En. lxix. 26, cf. R. F. 249, 344) title, the knowledge of which meant power to invoke and obtain help from its bearer. The whole imagery (as in ii, 17, xix. 12) is drawn from the primitive superstition that God’s name, like a man’s name, must be kept secret, lest if known it might be used to the disadvantage of the bearer (Frazer's Golden Bough, 2nd ed. i. 443 f.). The close tie between the name and the per- sonality in ancient life lent the former a secret virtue. Especially in Egyptian and in Roman belief, to learn a god’s name meant to share his power, and often “the art of the magician consisted in obtaining from the gods a revelation of their sacred names”. The point made by the prophet here is that the Christian God bestows freely upon his people the privilege of invoking his aid successfully, and of entering into his secret nature; also, perhaps, of security in the mys- terious future across death. See the famous ch. cxxv. of E. B. D. where the suc- cessive doors will not allow Nu to pass till he tells them their names (cf. chapters cxli. f.). Ignatius tells the Philadelphians (ob- viously referring to this passage, ad Phil. 6) that people unsound upon the truth of