ε Αα 5 A , 9/5 ol a ”” Ν 2S > “~ ημῶν ἐκ TOV κατοικούντων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς; II. καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτοῖς a> / 3 A 9 > , 5
ἐρρέθη αυτοις ινα αναπαυσωνται ETL
x 2 Kings ix. 7, 2 Chron. xxiv. 22, cf. Hab. i. a As ix. 4 for ἐρρήθη Attic.
in antagonism to the evil and contradic tions of the world (Titius, 9-11).
Ver. 11. The white robe assigned each (Blass, § 32, 4) of these martyr-spirits as a pledge of future and final glory (vii. 9) and a consoling proof that no judgment awaited them (xx. 4-6), is a favourite gift in the Jewish heaven (cf. Enoch Ἰκι. 15 f., and Asc. Isa. ix. 24 f.). The inter- mediate state was a much debated ques- tion in apocalyptic literature, and early Christian thought fluctuates between the idea of a provisional degree of bliss (as. here and, e.g., Clem. Rom. i. 3, “those who by God's grace have been perfected in love possess the place of the pious,. and they shall be manifested at the visit- ation of God’s kingdom”) and a direct, full entrance into heavenly Ρτϊνί]εσες--- especially, though neither uniformly nor exclusively, reserved for martyrs (Clem. Rom. v., Polyk. ad Phil. ix. 2, Heb. xii. 23, etc.); cf. Titius, 44-46. A cognate idea is reproduced in Asc. Isa. ix. 6 f., where in the seventh heaven Abel, Enoch and the Jewish saints appear all clothed ‘in the garments of the upper world’ (i.e., in their resurrection-bodies) but not. yet in full possession of their privileges, not yet seated on their thrones or wear- ing their crowns of glory. These are not. theirs, till Christ descends to earth and ascends to heaven again.—‘And they were told to rest (or wait quietly) for a little while yet,’’ as they had been doing till the successive shocks of providence stirred them to an outburst of eager and reproachful anticipation. To rest implies. to cease crying for vengeance (cf. iv. 8). Gfrorer (ii. 50) cites a rabbinic tradition that the messiah would not come until
all souls in ape (an intermediate resting-.
place of the departed?) were clothed’ with bodies. ἕως κ.τ.λ., this is closely and curiously reproduced, not so much from ideas preserved in the contemporary Apoc. Bar. xxiii. 4, 5 (where the end of” the world comes when the predestined number of human beings is completed) as. from the religious tradition also used in Clem. Rom. ii., lix., Justin (Afo/. i. 45), and the contemporary 4th Esdras (iv. 36 f., quoniam in statera ponderauit»
11-14.
χρόνον μικρόν, ἕως πληρωθῶσιν }
° ἀδελφοὶ ὃ αὐτῶν ot µέλλοντες * ἀποκτέννεσθαι ὡς καὶ αὐτοί. Καὶ εἶδον ὅτε ἤνοιξε τὴν σφραγίδα τὴν ἕκτην ' καὶ "σεισμὸς μέγας For ἐγένετο, καὶ ὁ ἥλιος ἐγένετο ; µέλας ὡς σάκκος “τρίχινος, καὶ ἡ σελήνη ὅλη ἐγένετο ὡς αἷμα, 13. καὶ οἱ " ἀστέρες τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἔπεσαν eis τὴν γῆν, ὡς συκῆ βάλλει τοὺς * dduvOous αὐτῆς ὑπὸ
ἀνέμου μεγάλου σειοµένη΄ 14.
form, cf. Helbing, 73-74. Dio Cass. Ixvi. 23, etc.
f Isa. xiii. το, 1. 3, g am. λεγ. N.T.