443
XV. 1. Καὶ εἶδον ἄλλο σημεῖον ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ µέγα καὶ α 6/. Exod.
, ec "θαυμαστόν, ἀγγέλους ἑπτὰ ἔχοντας πληγὰς ἑπτὰ τὰς ἐσχάτας, ὅτι Ὁκ. 7.
ἐν αὐταῖς θάλασσαν 4
, 1 a > , A - ~ ~ *@nptou καὶ ἐκ τῆς εἰκόνος αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ τοῦ " ὀνόματος
Ῥἐτελέσθη ὁ "θυμὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ. 2.
ς , , , ~ ῥαλίνην µεμιγµένην πυρί, καὶ τοὺς νικῶντας ἐκ τοῦ
yr ts «. CVi. 17, Xi. καὶ εἶδον ὡς 18.
. 4 ἶν. 6, same scene
(cf. ver, 7 substan. tially.
Ate A f ‘ 9 αὐτοῦ ἑστῶτας ᾿ ἐπὶ τὴν θάλασσαν τὴν © ὑαλίνην, ἔχοντας " κιθάρας « xiii. 17,
τοῦ Θεοῦ.
co) ‘ Ν 298 PS s 2 Θεοῦ καὶ τὴν wdhv τοῦ ἀρνίου, ™ λέγοντες,
τῆς 9. h v. 8, xiv. 2. i Xiv. 3, m From Song of Three Child. 4.
T2 xix. το, xvi. τ). Wike ch. xvi., to which it forms an overture, xv. is not the revision of a Jewish source (so especi- ally Spitta, Ménégoz, and Schmidt) but Christian (Briggs, Erbes) and the work of the Apocalyptist himself (Sabatier, Schon, Bousset, etc.)
Vv. 2-4. An interlude like xix. τ f. The manifestation of divine judgment (4) evokes reverence (contrast xvi. 11) and praise from the saints in heaven.
Ver. 2. νικ. ἐκ κ.τ.λ., ‘those who came off conquerors from ’—another pregnant use of é« (cf. ii. 21, viii. 11) combining the ideas of victory over (cf. on ii. 7) and deliverance from. A pos- sible Latinism (cf. Livy viii. 8, uictoriam ferre ex aliquo; xlv. 38, aliquis est Romae qui triumphari de Macedonis nolit ?) ? The prophet paints the downfall of the Roman persecutor in terms of the Jewish tradition preserved, e.g.,in Targ. Jerus. (on Exod. xii. 42) which singled out four memorable nights, that of the creation, that on which God’s promise of a son came tu Abram, that of the tenth Egyp- tian plague, and that on which the world is ended (when Moses appears in a cloud from the wilderness and messiah in a cloud from Rome, led by the Word of the Lord). Cf. Schemoth Rabba on Exod. xii. 2: ex quo Deus mundum suum elegit, determinauit principium mensis redemptionis, quo liberati sunt Israelitae ex Aegypto, et quo liberabuntur futuro saeculo. In time as well as in method (cf. on viii. 6, and 1 Cor. x. 1-11) the two redemptions, Mosaic and mes- sianic, are to correspond.—rvpt, a truly Red sea, red with the glow of God’s wrath. Like Pharaoh and his host (Exod. xv. 5, 10o=Apoc. xviii. 21) the persecutors of God’s people in these latter days not only fail to effect their purpose, but are themselves destroyed by God’s vengeance (cf. xvi. 2). The faithful get
Xiv. 11.
FPG o A 208 k , fol a 3. καὶ ' ἄδουσι τὴν ᾠδὴν " Μωυσέως τοῦ ᾿ δούλου τοῦ f Elsewhere
in Apoc.
(ν. 13, Vil. τα. ο, 5,
8) ἐπὶ
6 Cf. use of δρακόντων in Ps. Ixxiv. 14, LXX. (Apoc. xiii, 2, 11, and x Macc. i k On form, cf. Win. § 5, 20 c, Helbing, 59. να ο. For sequence of thought, see Jude, 5 {.
1 Cf. Heb. iii. 5-6.
through their sea of troubles, resisting threats and persuasions, and now stand safe at (i.e., on the shore of) the hea- venly sea. ‘‘ Duteous mourning we fulfil | In God’s name ; but by (iod’s will / Doubt not the last word is still / victory” (D. G. Rossetti). Here, as at xii. rz the thrill of triumph is enhanced by the fearful odds against which the saints had to contend. Apparently the world is now tenanted by pagans only, God’s faith- ful having been removed. Hence the plagues are all-embracing (contrast vii. πρ), σοι {-
Ver. 3. As in Exod. xiv.-xv. Moses leads Israel in a song of praise to God over the dead Egyptians, so, after Rome’s downfall (xiv. 8 f., ver. 2) the faithful are led by their captain (xii. 11, xiv. 1, 4, cf. Heb. ii. 12), in a chant of triumph and gratitude. (Note the lack of any refer- ence to their own sufferings. Their in- terest is in the great work of God.) For messiah as a second Moses in Jewish tradition, cf. GfrGrer, ii. 328 f. The song on the Red Sea had already been adapted to the worship of the Therapeutae (Philo, de uit. contempl. § xi.)—thv ᾠδὴν τ. a. There is a continuity in redemption, which unites the first deliverance to the final. True to his cardinal idea of the identity of God’s people (Christians be- ing the real Israel, cf. on i. 6), the pro- phet hails Jesus as the Christian Moses who, at the cost of his life, is commis- sioned by God to deliver the new Israel from their bondage to an earthly mon- archy. The lyric with its Hebrew paral- lelisms is a Vorspiel of the succeeding judgments ; it resembles /. E.Bi. 4954) the benediction after the Shema of Juda- ism (‘‘a new song did they sing to Thy name, they that were delivered, by the seashore; together did all praise and own Thee as King, saying, ‘ Yahveh shall reign world without end’”), and is al-