436
Γ1.ε., the
angels.
4 ” - ~ καὶ *aSoucw *eSivi Kawhy ἐνώπιον τοῦ θρόνου καὶ ἐνώπιον τῶν
Ε]πὰ, xvi. τεσσάρων ζώων καὶ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων: "καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐδύνατο μαθεῖν
13.
hcf.ii.17, τὴν ᾠδὴν ei ph at ἑκατὸν τεσσεράκοντα τέσσαρες χιλιάδες, | οἱ Xix. 12. ue
iconstr.ad ἡγορασμένοι ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς. sensum ας (asv.13, 4+ οὗτο εἶσιν ot μετὰ γυναικῶν οὐκ ἐμολύνθησαν' πἈπαρθένοι Xi. 4, etc.) >
k Triple γάρ εἰσιν. οὗτοι an ~ A > apo: Κ οὗτοι of ™ ἀκολουθοῦντες τῷ ἀρνίῳ ὅπου av " ὑπάγει. formula a a A \ (ef. Jude Κ oro. °hyopdoOnoay ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ’ ἀπαρχὴ τῷ θεῷ [καὶ 12, εἴς.). ών ,
lof. Just. τῷ ἀρνίῳ]. Apol.i.t Αα 2A ral , Met ke «5+ καὶ Tév τῷ στόµατι αὐτῶν οὐχ “εὑρέθη ψεῦδος : * ἅμωμοί εἰσιν. 12, Eus. H.E.v.
24 (Melito τὸν εὐνοῦχον), 2 Clem. xii. 2, C.I.G. 3098 (παρθένοι ἱερατείας, in ethnic sense). xxi. 19, I Pet. ii. 21-22. Quoted (in Ep. Lugd.) of the martyr Vettius Epagathus. p cf. Schol. on Eurip. Ovest. 96.
τ Jude 24; cf. Col. i. 22, 1 Pet. i. 19, Heb. ix. 14
Xvi. 24-25, Joh. xxi. 1¢ 22 nas in Mark vi. 56 (indic.). o 2 Pet. ii. 1. ΠΠ. 9, Zeph. iii. 13, Ps. xiv. rf, xxx. 2.
(sacrificial).
m Matt.
q 1 Pet. ii. 22, Isa.
1 Ti. (AL), Ws., Bj. rightly om. ws (with ΔΝ ΡΩ, etc., Me., Pesh., Aeth., Arm., Orig., Method., Ande, pal, Areth., Pr.) before wdnv, as an echo of ver. 2.
ence enabled them to enter into its mean- ing. This privilege is due to (vv. 4-5) their previous character and conduct, This inner circle are ascetics, παρθένοι. i.e., not merely unmarried or free from sexual vice but celibates (cf. Cheyne, Orig. Psalter, 446; Hoennicke, das Fudenchristentum, 1908, 130 f. ; Balden- sperger, 109; von Dobschiitz, 39 f., 228, 261); cf. 1 Cor. vii. 32. The prevailing Jewish respect for marriage did not check a tendency to celibacy which was by no means confined to the Essenes or Thera- peutae. Even Methodius, who allegorises the seven heads of xii. 3 into the seven deadly sins and the stars of xii. 2 into heretics, takes this phrase literally, in the sense of virginity not simply of purity (so Epiph. Her. xxx. 2); and, although the touch is too incidental to bear pressing, it is unmistakable (cf. Introd. § 6). In the popular religion of Phrygia there was a feeling (expressed in the eunuchism, é.g., of the priests at Hierapolis) that one came nearer to the divine life by annihilating the distinction of sex, while in the votive inscriptions of Asia Minor (C. B. P. i. 137) marriage is not recog- nised as part of the divine or religious life. This atmosphere of local feeling, together with the lax moral conscience of the popular religion, would foster the religious tendency to regard celibates as pre-eminently near to God.—axodov- θοῦντες: either a historic present to secure vividness (ἀκολουθήσαντες, syr. S), in which case the allusion is to their earthly loyalty (reff.), or, more probably (in view
of ὑπάγει, pres.),a description of their heavenly privilege and position (cf. vii. 17), borrowed from Egyptian religion where the “ followers of Horus,” the divine and victorious son of Osiris, were a series of celestial kings who were supposed to have reigned during the earlier dynasties. To be among the ‘followers of Horus” was an equivalent for immortal life. Cf. Ε. Β. D. tor: ‘Let me rise up among those who follow the great God; I am the son of Maiti, and that which he abomina- teth is the spirit of falsehood [cf. Apoc. xiv. 5]. 1am in triumph! ---ἀπό in 3, 4 is equivalent to the partitive ἐκ (cf. v. 9).— ἀπαρχή: they form the firstfruits of mankind for God; others are to follow, but these are the élite, they have a pres- tige all their own. The idea of priority shades into that of superiority, though in a very different way from that of Rom. xi. 16. Dr. Rendel Harris (in Present Day Papers, May, rgor) describes the interest and excitement at Jerusalem dur- ing the early days of summer when “the first ripe figs were in the market. When one’s soul desires the vintage or the fruit- age of the summer. . . the trees that are a fortnight to the fore are the talk and delight of the town.”—«al τ.ἀ., usually taken as a scribe’s gloss. Elsewhere the saints are redeemed by, not for, the Lamb: ν. 9).