\ 1 t.¢., over
9-10, not
IX. m Isa. xlii. 10f., xliv. 23,xlix.13.
0 viii. 13, cf. Sib. Or. iii. 323. p = 34
τ Viil. 2, xi. 1, etc., cf, Arist. Hist. Nat. x. 1, Hor. Od. iv. 4.
1,9, Plut. Timol. xxvi., Jos. Ant. xii. 4, 10, Aesch. Choeph. 239 f., and Dan. vii. 4.
Rhein. Mus. lvii. 148). On the accuser’s role cf. Sohar Levit. fol. 43 (ille semper stat tanquam delator coram rege Israelis) and the prayer of Jub. i. 20: ‘‘ let not the spirit of Beliar rule over them to accuse them before thee and to turn them deceit- fully from all the paths of righteousness ” (wh re both traits are combined, 7. above on 9).
Ver. τι. This sentence, like ver. 7, suggests that earth’s history is the reflex and outcome of transactions in heaven, on the common principle of Jalkut Rub. (on Exod. xiv. 7): ‘‘ there was war above (in heaven) and war below (on earth), and sore was the war in heaven”’. Satan’s dislodgment from heaven is an- other (cf. on xi. 19) sign of messiah’s approaching victory (cf. Yasna xxx. 8). What Jesus had already seen in his own victory over daemons (Matt. xii. 24 f.; cf. J. Weiss, Predigt Fesu, 28 f., 8g f.), John hails from another standpoint, as inaugurating the messianic age. Vexilla vegis prodeunt. How readily the mytho- logical trait could be moralised is evident from a passage like Rom. viii. 33 f., of which Apoc. xii. 11 is a realistic variant. In the background lie conceptions like that of En. xl. 7 where the fourth angel of the Presence is heard ‘‘ fending all the Satans and forbidding them to appear be-
fore the Lord of Spirits to accuse men”: Ver, 11 chronologically follows ver. 17, but the author, by a characteristic and dramatic prolepsis, anticipates the tri- umph of the martyrs and confessors, who refute Satan’s calumnies and resist his wiles. In opposition to the contemporary Jewish tradition (Ap. Bar. ii. 2, xiv. 12; 4 Esd. vii. 77, etc.), it is not reliance on works but the consciousness of redemp- tion which enables them to bear witness and to bear the consequences of their wit- ness. This victory on earth depends on Christ’s previous defeat of evil in the upper world (Col. ii. 15; cf. above on ii. 10, also xxi. 8) which formed its head- quarters.
Ver. 12. εὐφραίνεσθε, cf. the Egyptian hymn in honour of Ra, the sun-god: ‘* Ra hath quelled his impious foes, hea- ven rejoices, earth is delighted ”.—ovai κ.τ.λ. This desperate and last effort of Satan is a common apocalyptic feature (εἰ. εδ. 4. Εά a. 16°52 Αα. Bar. XXVili. 3, ΧΙ. 1, lxxv. 5; Mark xiii. 21; Did. xvi.), which John identifies later with the Imperial cultus.
The dragon’s pursuit of the woman (13-17) resumes and expands the hint of ver. 6,
Ver. 14. ''"ΤΠε two wings of a huge griffon-vulture’’ (rod either generic ar-
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