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I. Καὶ " σημεῖον µέγα ὤφθη ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, γυνὴ "περι- a Matt.
XXiv. 30, aril. att. 1.2. b Ps, civ. 2.
editor only in 10-12 (with 17 ο of course)’ while Weizsacker regards 13-18 as the expansion of I-12 (a Jewish-Christian fragment of 64-66 a.p.). Some of the incoherencies of the description are due, however, to the alterations necessitated by messianic belief in the circle of such ethnic traditions. The latter made the mother’s flight precede the child’s birth (as in4,5). But, on the messianic scheme, it was the child’s birth which roused the full fury of the enemy and turned it into an outburst of baffled revenge upon the mother (6, 13 f.), after the child’s escape. Furthermore, this activity of the devil on earth had to be accounted for by his dis- lodgement from heaven, as a result of the messianic child’s elevation to heaven (7 f.). Hence the apparent inconsist- encies, the shifting standpoint, and the amount of repetition and confusion are due to the presence of a messianic con- ception employing terms of earlier and inadequate mythology for its own pur- poses, rather than to any literary re- arrangement such as the transposition of part of the trumpet-visions to 7-12 (Sim- cox, J. Weiss). The interest of the pro- phet in this source or tradition, as in that of xi. 1-13, centres in the outburst of the evil power which shows that the end is imminent. There the beast’s attack on messiah’s heralds is ultimately foiled. Here the dragon’s attack on messiah himself is not only defeated but turned into a rout which obliges him to shift the scene of his campaign to a field where his deputies are presently to be annihilated.
Vv. 1-2. ἐν τ. οὐ. almost=‘“‘in the sky ” (cf. ver. 4.). A Greek touch: c/. Hom. /liad, ii. 308, ἔνθ᾽ ἐφάνη μέγα σῆμα" δράκων ἐπὶ vata δαφοινός (i.¢. fiery-red). Here as elsewhere mythological traits of the original source are left as impressive and decorative details. The nearest analogy is the Babylonian Damkina, mother of the young god Marduk and ‘“‘ queen of the heavenly tiara” (i.¢., the stars, cf. Schrader, pp. 360, 361). For Hebrew applications of the symbolism c/. Gen. xxxvii. 9, 10 and Test. Naph. 5 (καὶΙούδας ἦν λαμπρὸς ὡς ἠσελήνη καὶ ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ ἦσαν β΄ ἀκτῖνες). The Egyptian Osiris was also wrapt in a flame-coloured robe—the sun being the ‘‘ body” of deity (Plut. de Iside.
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