Ver. 14. As Beliar sets up “his image before him in every city” (Asc. Isa. iv. 11, after 1o=‘‘and there will be the power of his miracles in every city and region”’), so here the εἰκών or bust of the emperor as the Neronic antichrist representing the empire (cf. the hint repeated from ver. 12 c) is brought for- ward along with the statues of the gods to receive offerings of wine and incense
so—18.
455
εἰκόνα τῷ θηρίῳ " ὃς ἔχει τὴν πληγὴν τῆς paxaipys καὶ ἔδησε. 15. nC/.on
καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῶ δοῦναι εὖμα TH εἶκό ῦ θηρί η Ώ oO πνεῦμα TH εἰκόνι τοῦ θηρίου,
Ms «αὐτόν (8). ινα και ο Acts xvi. 16.
3 4 Ολαλήσῃ ἡ εἰκὼν τοῦ θηρίου, καὶ } ποιήσει 1 ἵνα SScor ἂν μὴ Mpoo-pC/. ver. 12.
κυνήσωσι τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ θηρίου 5 ἀποκτανθῶσι.
A ‘ 3.) A Ν ‘ , A πάντας, τοὺς μικροὺς καὶ τοὺς preyddous, καὶ τοὺς πλουσίους καὶ τοὺς πτωχούς, καὶ τοὺς ἐλευθέρους καὶ τοὺς δούλους, Piva * δῶσιν
αὐτοῖς "χάραγµα ἐπὶ τῆς ' χειρὸς
τὸ "µέτωπον αὐτῶν, 17. [καὶ] "iva py τις δύνηται ” ” ἀγοράσαι ἢ MR > κι SP x / . 5 ~ 4 x2 BY πωλῆσαι, εἰ μὴ 6 ἔχων τὸ Χάραγµα, τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ θηρίου, *% τὸν
ἀριθμὸν τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ.
322). q Dan. iii. 5-7, 15.
Xvi. 2, Xix. 18-20 (vii. 3, ix. 4), cf. Ps. Sol. xv. 30.
Ant. iii. 7.6. Or neck? Ps. Sol. ii. 6. w 1 Mace. xiii. 49. quality; cf. ν. 12, vii. 12.
18. *Gde ἡ 7 σοφία ἐστίν.
τ Indef. plur. as x. 11, xvi. 15 (=" they get”’).
Double use of ποιεῖν, the ἵνα +++ TOL (epexeg. Of μεγάλα) of ver. 13 (with πυρ displaced for em- phasis) = ὥστε ποιεῖν Of result (Burton, 5 xiv. 9-11, u Cf. Jos.
16. καὶ Ρποιεῖ
αὐτῶν τῆς ' δεξιᾶς, ἢ ἐπὶ
ς ” ο εχων
t Cf. Assuan Papyri (K, 4. 6).
5 _ v=lInfin. epexeg. 1 John v. 20, etc. Burton, 198, 213. X Xvii. 9, cf. 4 Esd. vi. 10 ζήτει, Ἑόρα.
y only here in Apoc., of human
Ίποιησει SQ (min.), Syr., Tr.marg., WH_marg., Ws.: for την εικονα (A, min., Lach. Al. Bs.) Ti., Tr., WH, Ws., Bj., Sw. read τη εικονι (NQPQ, etc., Hipp.,
Areth.). displaced by αυτη (αυτω).
Little is to be said for WH’s conj. that τη γη has been either lost after or
2 Lach., Ti., Bj. om., Al. WH, Bs.. Sw. bracket, the και of SecAPQ, etc., vg., Arm., Aeth., Areth., Haym.: the irreg. δυναται is read by PQ, min. (Ws., WH marg., Bs.).
from the citizens. For the naive identi- fication of such images with the deities they represented see Friedlander, iii. 500 f.—A¢ywv= κελεύων (Blass § 72, 5).
Ver. 15. The statue is made to speak, in order to work on the credulity and awe of the worshippers. The trick was well within the reach of contemporary magic (cf. Valer. Maxim. i. 8. 3-5), and later tradition attributed it to Simon Magus (Clem. Recogn. iii. 47, cf. Clem. Hom. ii. 32), while similar ventriloquism was practised by Apollonius of Tyana and Egyptian sorcerers at Caligula’s court. Cf. Lucian’s αὐτόφωνοι χρησμοὶ (Alex. 26).—amroxtavaorv, cf. the scutcheon of Captain Pope in Bunyan’s Holy War— “ the stake, the flame, and the good man init:
Vv. 16, 17. Detection was inevitable, for the very coins were stamped (Matt. xxii. 19) with the head of the Cesar, the gods, or Rome itself, and the prophet apparently expected that genuine Chris- tians would refuse to sanction idolatry and condone blasphemy by handling such emblems of profanity ee Ign. ad Magn. 5, δύο νομίσματα, ὃ μὲν θεοῦ, ὃ δὲ κόσμου). Only abject, servile devotees of the cultus will stoop to that! Irenzus has a similar allusion (iv. 30, 2) to those who carried money ‘‘cum inscriptione et imagine Cesaris’”.—pétwrov. This highly figurative allusion is to the habit of marking soldiers and slaves with a