ΑΠΟΚΑΛΥΨΙΣ ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ γι.
394
- : - - a , i Jer. iv. 24, βιβλίον ἑλισσόμενον, ‘kat πᾶν ὄρος καὶ νῆσος] ἐκ τῶν τόπων Ezek.
see 2 A > , = ‘ ς al a“ ~ ‘ ε k XXXviiil. αὐτῶν ἐκινήθησαν 15. και οι βασι εις της γῆς καὶ οἱ ΄ µεγισ- 20, Nah. - ‘ C405 | , ‘ ς m , SN ς Ἡἃ ‘ ‘ - i.5, cf. TGves καὶ οἱ Χιλίαρχοι καὶ οἱ '' πλούσιοι καὶ οἱ ἰσχυροὶ καὶ πᾶς
ΕΙ. να ο |. Οµαες.ῖν. δοῦλος καὶ ἐλεύθερος 26. , A ο 2 ρ
k xviii. 23 πέτρας τῶν " ὀρέων, 16. = the Parthian
chiefs (Macedonian term)? cf. Dan. v. 23, LXX, Ps. Sol. ii. 36. C § n From Hos. x. 8, Isa. ii. ro f., vi. 16, Ezek. xxxix. 17-20, Luke xxiil. 30;
m Jas. v. 1.
a characteristic of the wicked in En. xcvii. 3, 6. 4, cil. I.
cf. Helbing, 41.
‘ > A 3 έκρυψαν ἑαυτοὺς εἰς τὰ σπήλαια καὶ εἰς τὰς
n ‘ / λα ‘ a“ / καὶ λέγουσι τοῖς ὄρεσι καὶ ταῖς πέτραις,
1 On form see Win. § 8, 9.
o For uncontracted form,
1 The πασα prefixed to νησος by S. smoothes out the constr. of παν.
verse precede some divine punishment of men (Verg. Georg. i. 365 f.).
Vv. 15-17. Note the sevenfold descrip- tion of the effect produced on humanity (xix. 18, cf. xiii. 16), the Roman χιλίαρχοι (=tribuni), the riches and rank of men (tox. a dramatic touch =defiant authority, like Mrs. Browning’s Lucifer: ‘ strength to behold him and not worship him, Strength to be in the universe and yet Neither God nor God’s servant’’; see especially Ps. Sol. xv. 3, 4), the dis- tinction of slaves and free as a pagan, never as an internal Christian, division; also the painting of the panic from O.T. models (reff.). Those who are now the objects of dread, cower and fly to the crags and caves—a common sanctuary in Syria (cf. Introd. § 8). Mr. Doughty describes a meteoric shock in Arabia thus: ‘Ca thunder-din resounded marvellously through the waste mountain above us; it seemed as if this world went to wrack. κ... The most in the mejlis were of opinion that a ‘star’ had fallen’’ (Ar. Des. i. 462, 463). The Hosean citation (cf. Jer. viii. 3) here, as in Luke, gives powerful expression to the dread felt by an evil conscience; even the swift agony of being crushed to death is preferable to being left face to face with the indigna- tion of an outraged God. To stand (cf. Luke xxi. 36) is to face quietly the judgment of God (1 John ii. 28), which is impossible except after a life which has resolutely stood its ground (Eph. vi. 13) amid reaction and served God (Apoc. vi. Το, 11). The panic of kings, etc., is taken from the description of the judg- ment in Enoch Ikxii.-lxiii., where before the throne of messiah ‘the mighty and the kings” in despairing terror seek repentance in vain; ‘‘and one portion of them will look on the other, and they will be terrified, and their countenance will fall, and pain will seize them,” at the sight of messiah. In Apoc. Bar. xxv.
also the approach of the end is heralded by stupor of heart and despair among the inhabitants of the earth, while a similar stress falls (in Sap. vi. 1-9) on kings, etc., and (in En. xxxvii.-lxxi. generally) on the earth’s rulers. There is no need to suspect kat... G@pviov (16) as an editorial gloss (Vischer, Spitta, Weyland, de Faye, V6lter, Pfleiderer, von Soden, Rauch, J. Weiss, Briggs) ; it may be a characteristic touch designed to point the Ο.Τ. citation (for αὐτοῦ in 17 or in xxii. 3 cf. 1 Thess. iii. 11, 2 Thess. ii. 16, 17), rather than a scribal or editorial insertion in what was originally a Jewish source.
The great day of God’s wrath has come, but the action is interrupted by an entre-acte in vii., where as in x. I-xi. 13, the author introduces an intermezzo be- tween the sixth and the seventh members of the series. A change comes over the spirit of his dream. But although this oracle is isolated by form and content from its context, it is a consoling rhap- sody or rapture designed to relieve the tensicn by lifting the eyes of the faithful over the foam and rocks of the rapids on which they were tossing to the calm, sunlit pool of bliss which awaited them beyond. They get this glimpse before the seventh seal is opened with its fresh cycle of horrors. The parenthesis con- sists of two heterogeneous visions, one (1-8) on earth and one (9-17) in heaven. The former (and indeed the whole see tion, cf. the ἑστῶτες of g) is an implic# answer to the query of vi. 17, τίς δύναται σταθῆναι; it is an enigmatic fragment of apocalyptic tradition, which originally predicted (cf. Ezek. ix. 1 f.) God's safe- guarding of a certain number of Jews, prior to some catastrophe of judgment (‘Cry havoc, and let slip the winds of war!’’) upon the wicked. The chapter is nota literary unit with editorial touches (Weyland, Erbes, Bruston, Rauch), nor is