Ver. 5. “Big and blasphemous (or abusive; 2 Peter ii. 11) words.” So- Apoc. Bar. Ixvii. 7: ‘“surget rex Baby- lonis qui destruxit nunc Sionem et gloria- bitur super populo et loquetur magna in corde suo coram Altissimo”.
Ver. 6. The days of Antiochus (Dan. viii. 10-12) havereturned. On the claims
4-9. ΑΠΟΚΑΛΥΨΙΣ ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ 441 βλασφημῆσαι τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν σκηνὴν αὐτοῦ [τοὺς ἐν ο C/. John μ a A ΧΙΧ. 10-11, τῷ οὐρανῷ σκηνοῦντας]. and below
. ς a on xvii.
Ἰ. Kat °€868y αὐτῷ Σ ποιῆσαι πόλεμον μετὰ τῶν ἁγίων καὶ τ7.
A be pxi.7. Ful- νικῆσαι αὐτούς : filment of
ι = ra μα Dan. vii.
καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ " ἐξουσία ἐπὶ πᾶσαν φυλὴν καὶ γλῶσσαν καὶ στ.
α θ 1 q Dan. v. eUvos. 19, Vii. 23. 8 x , αι ά ε A >. ο YF Constr.ad
. καὶ προσκυνήσουσιν " αὐτὸν πάντες οἱ κατοικοῦντες ἐπὶ TIS sensum,
a ‘the
y1S> beast, or
e a“ a - a ~ his Im-
*oU οὐ ' γέγραπται τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ βιβλίω τῆς ζωῆς [τοῦ τομ Aa
, A lol 4 ta-
ἀρνίου τοῦ ἐσφαγμένου] ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου. αμ aos 5, 9 tem." Cf.
9. “el τις έχει ος, ἀκουσάτω. Tiridates
to Nero i x ? ν (DioCass. Ixiii.): ‘I come to worship thee, my God, as Mithras” s Referring to each individual of
πάντες. t Dan. xii. 1; cf. Ep. Jer. 6, Addit. Esth. xiii. 14, xiv. 3-10. U 11, 7, etc.
1 The omission of Τα in ACP, 1, 12, 14, 92, Arm. (zoh.), Iren., Andp, Andbav (so
Spitta) is due to homoioteleuton.
of the emperor, see Introd. §6, and Sib. Or. v. 33, 34 (Nero ἰσάζων θεῷ αὐτόν), Asc. Isa. iv. 6-8, x. 13, εἴς.- τοὺς ... σκηνοῦντας, an exegetic gloss defining σκήνη (cf. xii. 7, 12). The temple in Jerusaiem is no longer the scene and object of the beast’s blasphemy.
Ver. 7. In Enoch xlvi. 7 the rulers and kings ‘‘make themselves masters of the stars of heaven [.ε., the righteous], and raise their hands against the Most High”. The beast’s world-wide autho- rity goes back to the dragon’s commission (2) but ultimately to divine permission (soin 5). There is a providence higher even than the beast.
Ver. 8. Standing on the verge of this crisis (note the change to the future tense), the prophet anticipates the almost universal success of the Czsar-cult (cf. iii. 1ο). Only the elect will be able to resist its appeal (cf. Matt. xxiv. 25). As in the O.T., the consciousness of predestination is made a moral lever (cf. xvii. 8). The rest of mankind who succumb to the cult are plainly not on the celestial burgess- roll or register. Cf. the instructive second-century gloss on Acts v. 39. As a rule the faithless in life are deceived (2 Th. ii. 2-10; Asc. Isa. iv. 7, 8), but here the Imperial cultus occupies the place of the false prophet in Mark xiii. 12, etc,— τοῦ Gd. τοῦ ἐσφαγμένου, which transfers to Christ the possession of the divine register of citizens in the heavenly state, is usually taken as a scribe’s gloss (after xxi. 27 where the position of ἀρνίου is less difficult). Elsewhere the book of life appears by itself. In any case, ἀπὸ
κ. κ. goes with γέγραπται, not ἐσφαγμέ- νον.
Ver. 9. The prophet’s nota bene introduces (ver. 10) what is either (a) a demand for patience and non-resistance, or (b) an encouragement to it. (a) ‘Be patient. If captivity is your destiny from God, accept it. If any one is (destined) for captivity, to captivity he goes (in God’s order, ὑπάγει in a future sense). Show your patient faith in God by ab- staining from the use of force” (cf. Matt. xxvi. 52). This interpretation (rejecting συνάγει OF ἀπάγει in το a) is preferable to (6) that which reads (or even under- stands; with B. Weiss) συνάγει, ἀπάγει, or ὑπάγει (SO some cursives and versions) in 1ο a, and thus finds in the words a promise of requital rather than an appeal for endurance. The fate inflicted on Christians will recoil on their persecutors (cf. xiv. 12). Imprisonment or captivity and death were the normal fates of the age for criminals who refused to in- voke the emperor’s genius (cf. Jos. Bell: wit.) το το το 8 οἱ Bhiles de Flacc. 11, leg. ad Gaium, 32). A varia- tion of this meaning would be: use force, and you (Christians) will suffer for it. The whole stanza is written for saints who, like Sigurd, are not born for blench- ing.—@8e κ.τ.λ. Josephus (Bell. iii. 5. 8, etc.) had just given, from prudential motives, a similar warning to Jews against participating in any anti-Roman movement. It was always hard to dis- abuse the Oriental mind of the idea that religious faith must be bound up with fate and fighting. Cf. Introd. § 6.