Spyte ἐπὶ wav! δένδρον. 2. Καὶ εἶδον ἄλλον ἄγγελον ἀναβαίνοντα « Cf. Jos. ell.
ἀπὸ ἆ ἀνατολῆς ἡλίου, ἔχοντα σφραγίδα Θεοῦ °Lavtos* καὶ ἔκραξε ii. 7,8 ig A 2 i and below Φωνῇ µεγάλη τοῖς τέσσαρσιν ἀγγέλοις ois ἐδόθη ξ αὐτοῖς ἀθικῆσαι : = rag ο E ο . Xvi. 14 τὴν γῆν καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν, λέγων, 3. “Mh ἕ ἀδικήσητε τὴν γῆν andon “ xxi. 13: μήτε τὴν θάλασσαν, µήτε τὰ δένδρα, ἄχρι " σφραγίσωµεν τοὺς Isa. xli.2, a a ο Β τν. a Ezek. δούλους τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν ἐπὶ τῶν * µετώπων αὐτῶν”. 4. Καὶ xiii. 2 » Q > x fal > , ν , Βατ. iv. ὔκουσα τὸν ἀριθμὸν τῶν ἐσφραγισμένων * ExaTov τεσσεράκοντα τέσ- 36, y. 5. a a En. v. 1, capes ᾿ χιλιάδες, ἐσφραγισμένοι ἐκ πάσης ™ φυλῆς υἱῶν ™ lopayd* © Jub.xxil4,
f Cf. on iii. 8
h 1.ε. the angels, as Matt. xxiv. 31. For tha
i vii. 11-12, xix. 5. k Only (in N.T.) in ix. 4,
1 Irreg. indep. nom. after accus., as often in Apoc., πι Only here in Apoc., except xxi. 12 (also an interpolated source 2).
g Aor. subj. “action not yet begun,” Burton, 164. more common ἄχρις οὗ or av cf. Blass, § 65, 10, XU. 10; κιν. το νι. 5, XX. 4, αχ. 4. cf. ix. 11, ii. 18, etc.
1 For παν (NP, 1, etc., Ti., Β]., Sw., WH) Lach., Tr., Al. Diist., Ws. read τι (CQ, min., vg., Pr.) [επι δενδρου A, Me., Syr. Arm., Aeth. (Bs = δενδρον ?): conj.
Naber (deleting also p. τα δενδρα in ver. 3) επι ανυδρου].
as these plagues hunt down the wicked, “τὸ γὰρ σημεῖον τῆς ἀπωλείας ἐπὶ τοῦ μετώπου αὐτῶν. This royal, sacred sign, which in Ezekiel is the cross or Tau as the symbol of life and is here probably
rryry >, authenticates the bearers as God’s property (cf. Herod. ii. 113, vii. 233) and places them beyond risk of loss. It identifies them with his worship and also (cf. on ii. 17) serves to protect them as an amulet against harm (see Deissm. 351, 352 ΟΠ Φυλακτήρια as protective marks and amulets). In Test. Sol. (tr. Conybeare, Few. Quart. Rev. 1898, p. 34) an evil spirit declares he will be destroyed by the Saviour ‘‘ whose number (στοιχεῖον), if anyone shall write it on his+ forehead, he will defeat me”. Mr. Doughty also describes (Ar. Des. i. 171) a false Christ in Syria who declared he had God’s name sculptured between his eyebrows; {.ε. the wrinkles resembled the Arabic hieroglyph for Allah. For the religious significance of such tattooing as a mark of divine ownership see R. S. 316; and, for the connection of vi. 12 f. and να, 1 f., the basal passage in Dan. xi. 40, 44, xii. I. The parallel device of Anti- christ later on (xiii. 16, etc.) shows that this sealing is something special, baptism or the possession of the Spirit (asin Paul) ys the guarantee of destined bliss. A contemporary expression of the idea oc- curs in Clem. Rom. lix., lx.: ‘* We will ask that the Creator of all things preserve intact to the end the appointed number of his elect throughout all the world, etc.”. As Apoc. vi. 1-8 and 12 ‘f. are free reproductions, with a special -oplication, of the ideas underlying Mark
xiii. 7, 8, 24, 25, so Apoc. vii. 1 f. is an imaginative sketch on the lines of Mark xiii. 27. The Apocalypse, however, has no room for the false messiahs of Mark xiii. 6, 22, etc. (cf. on Apoc. xiii. 11 f.) as a peril. See further 4 Esd. vi. 5, ‘‘ Ere they were sealed who laid up the treasure of faith,” and Melito (Otto ix. 432, 476) the apologist, who preserves a dual tra- dition of the end, including wind as well as fire = et selecti homines occisi sunt aquilone uehementi, et relicti sunt iusti ad demonstrationem ueritatis, (whilst at the deluge of fire) seruati sunt iusti in arca lignea iussu dei. But the Apoc- alypse like Philo, stands severely apart from the current Stoic notion, adopted in Sib. iv. 172 f.; 2 Peter, etc., of a de- struction of the world by means of a final conflagration,