Witke
‘ ~ 7. Kat 6 πρῶτος ἐσάλπισεν, καὶ.
N.T. See ἐγένετο *ydhala καὶ Ἱπῦὂρ µεμιγµένα ἐν " αἵματι, καὶ ἐβλήθη εἰς
Ovid's
Met. xv. τὴν γῆν ' καὶ τὸ τρίτον τῆς γῆς κατεκάη, καὶ τὸ "τρίτον τῶν ' δέν-
788, Exod.
ix. 24, Isa. Όρων κατεκάη, καὶ Tas χόρτος χλωρὸς κατεκάη.
XXVili. 2, Ps. xviii.
8. Καὶ ὁ
δεύτερος ἄγγελος ἐσάλπισεν, "καὶ ws ὄρος µέγα πυρὶ καιόµενον
ο Gan. v. ἐβλήθη εἰς τὴν θάλασσαν ' καὶ ἐγένετο τὸ τρίτον τῆς θαλάσσης
8). e
t 4 Esd. v. 8, Isa. ii. 13. 20-21. y Irreg. as ix. 12, 18.
ture, nor of the tradition (preserved by R. Akiba) that the process of the resurrec- tion would be accompanied by seven trumpet-peals from God. The first four trumpets set in motion forces of ruin that fall on natural objects; in Sap. v. 17-23 (xvi. 17-24) the world of nature is used directly by God to punish men. The closing three concern human life, z.e., the godless inhabitants of the earth. The general idea is that of the Jewish tradition (see on xv. 2) which prefaced the second great redemption by disasters analogous to those preceding the first: cf. e.g., Sohar Exod. 4 6, tempore quo se reuelabit rex Messias, faciet Deus omnia ista miracula, prodigia et divinae uirtutis opera coram Israele, quae fecit olim in Aegypto, quemadmodum scriptum est Mic. vii. 15 ; also Jalkut Sim. i. 56 6, Targ. Jon. on Zech. x. 11, etc. The disasters remind one now and then of the Egyptian plagues (cf. Jos. Ant. ii. 14-1; also Amos iv. 4 f., Isa. ix. 7 f.). The first four visit earth, sea, waters, and the sky. Hail-showers were a traditional scourge and weapon of the divine armoury; on their associa- tion with thunderstorms see G. A. Smith’s Hist. Geog. 64, 65.
Ver. 7. Hail and fire, as in the fourth Egyptian plague, but with the added O.T. horror (see reff.) of a shower of blood instead of rain (see Chag. 12 3, where the sixth heaven is the storehouse of hail, storm, and noxious vapours, en- closed within gates of fire; and specially Sibyll. v. 377, wip yap ἀπ᾿ οὐρανῶν ... βρέξει . . . πὂρ καὶ αἷμα). For similar atmospheric phenomena, see on vi. 8, 12. Portents of this abnormal nature are re- corded for the seventh decade of the first century by Roman historians, but there is no need to see specific historical allu- sions in prophecy upon this grand scale. The sight of atmospheric fire always signified to the ancients the approach of
_ wuEn. xviii. 13 f., xxi. 3, cviii. 4, from Jer. ii. 25? w False apposition (ii. 20, etc.) or ptc. used (Weiss) as a relative clause.
Σαἷμα, 9. καὶ ἀπέθανε τὸ τρίτον τῶν κτισμάτων τῶν ἐν τῇ θαλ- μ. ᾽ ‘
άσσῃ, τὰ " ἔχοντα ψυχάς, καὶ τὸ τρίτον τῶν *Thotwy ” διεφθάρησαν.
v Exod. vii- x Isa. ii. 16.
various disasters, especially when stars fell. Wetstein cites Bara Mezia, 5ο, 1; dixit R. Eliezer, percussus est mundus, tertia mempe pars olearum, tertia pars tritici, et tertia hordei. The third is a primitive Semitic (Babylonian: Jastrow, 107 f.) division, which has its roots also in Iranian religion (Yasht, xiii. 3, Yasna, xi. 7, etc.), where the tripartite division of earth, derived originally from the threefold division of earth, atmosphere, and universe, is older than the seven- fold.—8€v8pwv, see Schol. (τὰ δένδρα. δηλονότι) on Thuc. ii. 19 καθεζόμενοι ἔτεμνον ... τὸ πεδίον. Pausan. ii. 365 (cf. iv. 166 f.) mentions among the pheno- mena attending earthquakes heavy rain. or prolonged drought, the discolour- ing of the sun’s disc, etc.; ‘springs mostly dry up. Sudden gusts sometimes. sweep over the country, blowing the trees down. At times, too, the sky is shot with sheets of flame. Stars are seen of an aspect never known before, and strike consternation into all be- holders.”
Vv. 8, 9. A fiery mass, huge as @ mountain, is flung into the sea—a de- scription which would recall the fiery volcanic bombs familiar to inhabitants of the Egean. The catastrophe includes, as in the first Egyptian plague, the turning of water into blood and the destruction of marine animals (4 Esd. v. 7, Verg. Georg. iii. 541 f.), besides havoc among the shipping. Volcanic phenomena (cf. Introd. § 3) in the Egean archipelago (e.g., at Thera) are in the background of this. description, and of others throughout the book; features such as the disturbance of islands and the mainland, showers of stones, earthquakes, the sun obscured by a black mist of ashes, and the moon reddened by volcanic dust, were the natural. consequences of eruption in some sub- marine volcano, and Thera—adjoinine