Ver. 10. To cast a crown before the throne was a token that the wearer dis- claimed independence ; an Oriental (Par- thian) token of respect for royalty (reff.). Cf. Spenser’s Hymne of Heavenly Beautie (141-154) and the pretty fancy in Slav. En. xiv. 2 where the sun’s crown is taken from him as he passes through the fourth heaven (before God) and given to God.
Ver. 11. An implicit refutation of the dualistic idea, developed by Cerinthus, the traditional opponent of John in Asia Minor, that creation was the work of some angel or power separate from God (Iren. i. 26, iv. 32, Hippol. Haer. vii. 33, x. I). The enthusiastic assent of the πρεσβύτεροι to the adoration of the Creator is expressed in word as well as in action. σύ emphatic=the usual apo- calyptic (R.J., 295, 296) emphasis on creation as a proof of God’s power ip
΄
382 ΑΠΟΚΑΛΥΨΙΣ ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ Vv. h Cf. 4 Esd. ὅτι “od ἔκτισας τὰ πάντα,
vi. 6, and αν | η x , 4 1 κ. τς , ”
on x. 6 καὶ * διὰ τὸ θέληµά σου ἦσαν ] καὶ ἐκτίσθησαν.
e€low. ν ας
iConstr.cf. WV. I. Καὶ εἶδον "ἐπὶ τὴν δεξιὰν τοῦ καθηµένου ἐπὶ τοῦ θρόνου
πα τα,
(dat. in- ;
etrum.). α κκ. χι b am. λεγ. N.T., cf. Dan. viii. 26, xii. 4, 9 (Isa. xxix. 11).
louk ησαν Q, 14, 38, 51, ‘‘created out of nothingness’’: A om. και εκτισθησαν, Pr., 36 om. ησαν και. For similar instances of the elision or addition of a negative, see Nestle’s Einf., 250-251 (E. Tr., 311-312).
2 The strongly supported variant εξωθεν (PQ, min., S., gig., vg., Arm., Aeth., Hipp., Pr., etc., so Bousset) for οπισθεν (KQA, 1, 14, Syr.) hardly alters the general sense of the passage, and is probably conformed to εσωθεν, cf. Zahn’s Einl., § 72, 7.
providence and claims on mankind (e.g. 4 Esd. iii. 4, ‘“‘thou didst fashion the earth, and that thyself alone’’). That God the redeemer is God the creator, forms one of the O.T. ideas which acquire special weight in the Apocalypse. De- spite the contradictions of experience and the apparent triumph of Satan, the apocalypses of the age never gave way to dualism. Their firm hope was that the world, ideally God’s, would become actually his when messiah’s work was done; hence, as here, the assertion of his complete power over nature and nations. ‘‘ Because thou didst will it (σύ, σου emphatic) they existed and were created” (act and process of creation). As an answer to polytheism this cardinal belief in God the creator came presently to the front in the second century creeds and apologies. But the idea here is different alike from contemporary Jewish and from subsequent Christian specula- tion, the former holding that creation was for the sake of Israel (cf. 4 Esd. vi. 55, vii. If, ix. 13, Apoc. Bar. αν. 18, 10, xv. 7, Ass. Mos, i. 12, etc., a favourite rabbinic belief), the latter convinced that it was for the sake of the Christian church (cf. Herm. Vis. ii. 4). Nor is there any evident trace of the finer idea (En. iii.-v., Clem. Rom. xx., etc.) which contrasted the irregularities and impiety of men with the order and obedience of the universe. The conception of the holy ones rendering ceaseless praise in heaven would be familiar to early Christians in touch with Hellenic ideas and associations; e.g., Hekataeus of Abdera, in his sketch of the ideal pious folk, compares them to the priests of Apollo, διὰ τὸ τὸν θεὸν τοῦτον καθ᾽ ἡμέραν ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν ὑμνεῖσθαι μετ) ᾠδῆς συνεχῶς (Dieterich 36 f., cf. Apoc. Pet. 19-20). Test. Levi 3 ἐν δὲ τῷ pet’ αὐτόν cior θρόνοι κ. ἐξουσίαι ἐν ᾧ ὕμνοι ἀεὶ τῷ θεῷ προσφέρονται.
CuHapTeR V.—Ver. 1. The central idea of this sealed roll or doomsday book lying open on the divine hand (c/. Blau, Studien zur alt-heb. Buchwesen, 36 f., E. J. Goodspeed, Fourn. Bibl. Lit. 1903, 70-74) is reproduced from Ezekiel (ii. ο f.) but independently deve- loped in order to depict the truth that even these magnificent angelic figures of the divine court are unequal to the task ofrevelation. Jesusisneeded. For God, a motionless, silent, majestic figure, does not come directly into touch with men either in revelation or in providence. He operates through his messiah, whose vicarious sacrifice throws all angels into the shade (cf. the thought of Phil. ii. 5- 11). For the ancient association of a many-horned Lamb with divination, cf. the fragmentary Egyptian text edited by Krall (Vom Konig Bokhoris, Innsbriick, 1898) and the reference to Suidas (cited in my Hist. New Testament,? p. 687). βιβλίον, which here (as in i. 11, xxii. 7- 18) might mean “ letter” or ‘ epistle”’ (cf. Birt’s Ant. Buchwesen, 20, 21), ap- parently represents the book of doom or destiny as. a _papyrus-roll (i.e. an ὀπισθόγραφον, cf. Juv. i. 6) which is so full of matter that the writing has flowed from the inside over to the exterior, as is evident when the sheet is rolled up. Here as elsewhere the pictorial details are not to be pressed; but we may visualise the conception by supposing that all the seals along the outer edge must be broken before the content of the roll can be unfolded, and that each heralds some penultimate disaster (so 4 Esd. vi. 20). There is no proof that each seal meant a progressive disclosure of the contents, in which case we should have to imagine not a roll but a codex in book form, each seal securing one or two of the leaves (Spitta). Zahn (followed by Nestle, J. Weiss, and Bruston) im-