τέσσαρας γωνίας τῆς γῆς, "κρατοῦντας "τοὺς τέσσαρας
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ΥΠ. 1. Meta τοῦτο εἶδον τέσσαρας ἀγγέλους ἑστῶτας ἐπὶ τὰς
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ἵνα μὴ πνέῃ ἄνεμος ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, µήτε ἐπὶ τῆς θαλάσσης,
hurricane is to sweep the earth previous to the resurrection of the dead (trees being here singled out as most exposed to a storm’s ravages). If such allusions are not mere echoes of the present pas- sage, they would appear to indicate a runlet of eschatological tradition flowing behind more important ideas. Or are the saints like trees of God (Ps. Sol. xiv. 2, 3) never to be uprooted by a wind or onset of foes (bid. viii. 6, xvii. 13) ? It is no longer possible to be sure. In En. xviii 1 f. by a semi-Babylonian touch, the four winds are identified with the four pillars of the heaven and the founda- tions of the earth ; in Apoc. Bar. vi.. 4, 5, four angels with lamps are restrained by another angel from lighting them (cf. also E. Bi. 5303). There seems to be no allusion to the notion of a blast (from the sea) as a form of mortal fate (e.g., Oed. Col. 1659, 1660 ; Iliad, vi. 345 f.); on the contrary, the idea goes back to Zech. vi. 8 (LXX), whence the prophet had already developed vi. 1-8. As xiv. τ t. roughly answers to vii. 9 f., so the ap- pearance of wild beasts out of the agitated sea of the nations (in Dan. vii. 1-8) corresponds to the sequence of Apoc. vii. 1-4, and xiii. τ f.
The earth is a rectangular plane or disc on which John looks down from heaven’s dome resting on it, to observe (ver. 2) a fifth angel “' ascending” from the sun-rising (the east as the source of light, cf. on xvi. 20, the site of paradise, the sphere of divine activity ?). ζῶντος, here (as in xv. 7; cf. Heb. x. 31) in Ο.Τ. sense (cf Deut. xxxii. 39 f. ; Ezek. xx. 33; Jer. x. 10, etc.) of vitality to succour and to punish, God’s “life” being manifested in his effective preservation of the saints and chastisement of their enemies or of the world in general. He lives and keeps alive. Here, as in the parent passage, Ezek. ix. 4-6 (cf. Exod. xii. 13 f. and the ‘‘ Egyptian” character of the plagues in chap. viii.), the true δοῦλοι of God are distinguished by a mark denoting God’s ownership. Before the crisis good and evil must be discriminated (Spitta, 80 f.). Cf. Ps. Sol. xv. 6 f. on the immunity of the righteous, ὅτι τὸ σημεῖον τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπὶ δικαίους εἰς σωτηρίαν, λιμὸς καὶ po; data καὶ θάνατος μακρὰν ἀπὸ δικαίων: here-
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