Vv. 5-6. Modelling from Dan. xii. 7, the writer describes the angel’s oath (by the living God, as usual in O.T.; cf. Matt. xxvi. 63), with its native gesture (cf. Trumbull’s Threshold-Covenant, 78 f.) and contents. In the ancient world oaths were usually taken in the open-air (Usener, Gétternamen, 181), before the all-seeing deities of the upper light. But here, as at iv. 17 and xiv. 7, the eschato- logical and the creative acts of God (the latter an outcome οἱ His living might, as Sir. xviii. 1, En. v. 1, Acts xiv. 15, etc.) are deliberately conjoined; God’s activity in creation and providence would culmi- nate in judgment. ‘‘ There shall be no further delay,” or time lost. The interval of vi. 11 (Dan. xii. 7) is over: all is ripe now for the end, 7 συντέλεια καιροῦ. The parallels in Slav. En. xxxiii. 2, Ixv. 7, upon the abolition of seasons and periods of time are merely verbal. What engages the writer here is the usual point of importance in apocalyptic literature, viz., “Is it long to the end? Is the future longer than the past” (4 Esd. iv. 44-50) ?
Ver.’ 7. Vav consec. with the Heb,
4—9.
413
µου ἀγγέλου, ὅταν µέλλῃη σαλπίζειν, καὶ Ἱἐτελέσθη τὸ µυστήριον α xv. 1,
A ~ A 7 τοῦ Θεοῦ, "ds " εὐηγγέλισεν τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ δούλους τοὺς προφήτας ”. 8. Καὶ 4 φωνὴ ἣν ἤκουσα ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, πάλιν λαλοῦσαν
pet ἐμοῦ καὶ λέγουσαν, '''Ὕπαγε "AdBe τὸ βιβλίον 1 τὸ * ἠνεωγ- / > ~ A lol lol c lol μεν ~ / Δ µένον ἐν τῇ χειρὶ τοῦ ἀγγέλου τοῦ ἑστῶτος ἐπὶ τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ
ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς”.
Christianity, Col. i. 26 = Eph. iii. 1-12 1 Pet. i. 10-12= Rom. xvi. 25. as act. vb. only here and xiv. 6 (ἐπὶ accus.) in N.T.: late Greek usage. v Double augment, Blass, § 15,7; Win. § 12, 7.
like ἀνάβα (iv. 2) an Attic form. xi. 12, for form.
ϱ. Καὶ " ἀπῆλθα πρὸς τὸν ἄγγελον, λέγων αὐτῷ