4 A a ~ a A 5. "kat μετὰ ταῦτα εἶδον, καὶ ” ἠνοίγη 6 ναὸς τῆς "σκηνῆς τοῦ y Fresh a ; x ye = i stage in µαρτυρίου ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ: 6. καὶ ἐξῆλθον ot ἑπτὰ ἄγγελοι οἱ vision, see on iv.
3 \ A a >
ἔχοντες τὰς ἑπτὰ πληγὰς ” ἐκ τοῦ ναοῦ, © evdedupevor Aivov! καθαρὸν 1.
d " . Wale r . s A - “ z already in αμπρὸν καὶ "περιεζωσμένοι περὶ τὰ στήθη ἵώνας χρυσᾶς. 7.
χι το, αλ τα 2 a , a a See Acts καὶ ἓν ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων ζώων ἔδωκε τοῖς ἑπτὰ ἀγγέλοις ἑπτὰ Vii. 44
4 4 a a a A a a a only). φιάλας χρυσᾶς ®yepotcas τοῦ θυμοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ "tod Γῶντος ΡΜ
κ Ν 2A an na 5 A 17. τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. 8. καὶ ' ἐγεμίσθη 6 ναὸς καπνοῦ ἐκ τῆς ο κής. Β, ra
δόξης τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἐκ τῆς δυνάµεως αὐτοῦ: “Kal οὐδεὶς ἐδύνατο * Ὁ, πο
εἰσελθεῖν εἷς τὸν ναὸν ἄχρι τελεσθῶσιν αἱ ἑπτὰ Γπληγαὶ τῶν ἑπτὰ τοι, Αὰ
Be as. dt Μπα, απ. Kat ἤκουσα μεγάλης " φωνῆς ἐκ τοῦ ναοῦ λεγούσης © FY. to
Gas ε Ae / ες & + \ b2 A ς Le XXii. 31 τοις επτα Ὃ
ς Orr ο. Υπάγετε oe ἐκχέετε τὰς ἑπτὰ Φιάλας τοῦ * See ‘Qupo τοῦ θεοῦ εἰς τὴν "γῆν. 2. καὶ ἀπῆλθεν ὁ πρῶτος καὶ Pa on vil. 27 9 ῃ > Aes Q A St. 2 d¢ \ τα 3 Π ἐξέχεε τὴν φιάλην αὐτοῦ εἰ ν γῆν: καὶ ἐγένετο ἆ ἕλκος κακὸν καὶ | 154: vi. 4. ξέχεε τὴν φιάλη ς τὴν γἢ γ ς κακὸν καὶ i Isa. vie 4.
πονηρὸν "ἐπὶ ! τοὺς ἀνθρώπους τοὺς ἔχοντας τὸ χάραγµα τοῦ θηρίου oh ah ae
ν Kings viii. ro-11, also 2 Chron. vii. 2. (cf. 2 Chron. vii. 3 with ver. 2 above and iv. 10). ier, I ‘a Of God (Isa. Ixvi. 6), cf. xv. 8. b For form, cf. Win. § 13, 23. ο Vili. 5, Jer. x. 25, Zeph. iii. 8, Ps. xix. 24. d Exod. ix. 10-11, Deut. xxviii. 35, Job ii. 7, Luke xvi. 21. e Cf. Luke i.
65, iii. 2. f xiii. 15-17, xiv. 9-10.
1 For the λινον (λινους §¥, λινουν min., Lat.) of PQ, Syr., S., And., Arm., Areth., etc. (Al., Ws., Ti., Bs., Bj., Sw.), Lach., Tr., Diist., WH, Sp. read the transcrip- tional (ΛΙΘΟΝ for AINON) error λιθον AC, 38 mg., 48, go, etc. (from LXX of Ezek. xxviii. 13 2---λινον being commonly used of flax, not of flaxen garments. Cf. Nestle’s
Einj., 263).
XV. 5-Xvil. 1: the introduction to the seven bowls or plagues.
Ver. 5. The temple in heaven is here “the tent (or tabernacle) of witness,” as it represents God’s judicial revelation and presence ; its contents and the move- ments of which it forms the source, are evidence of God’s covenant with his people.
Ver. 6. These heavenly beings are magnificent creatures, robed in gold and light (a Hellenic conception, Dieterich, 38 f.) and linen (to denote their honour- able and sacred office: so the scribe of judgment, Ezek. ix. 2, and the angel in Dan. x. 5, xii. 6). Plutarch (de Iside, 3, 4) explains that the linen surplice was affected by Egyptian votaries of Isis for religious reasons ; ¢.g., the bright smiling colour of flax, its freedom from lice, and the smooth, cleanly material it yielded.
Vv. 7, 8 The φιάλαι, shallow bowls -or saucers, do not exhale a smoke (like the censer of viii. 4) grateful to God; they
_are filled with poisonous, hot, bitter wine, while the smoke pours from the divine ma- iesty, whose intense holiness (ver. 4, as in Ο.Τ. theophanies) is breaking out in
judgments against human sin (δόξα -- (νε
divine δύναµις in action or expression). Smouldering fires of indignation are now on the point of bursting into punishment from the arsenal of anger. Hence, till the plagues are over, God’s presence is unendurable (as in Enoch xiv. 18 f.). This emphasis on the unapproachable, austere majesty of God is consonant with the general religious feeling re- flected in the Apocalypse (cf. on i. 2). CHAPTER XVI.—Vv. 2-21.—The series (first three εἰς, last four ἐπὶ) of these plagues as usual consists of four and three; the former, as in the seals, affecting earth (i.e., votaries of the Im- perial cultus), sea, waters, and the sun. The special object of the writer in this passage (i.e., to introduce the doom of Rome and the worshippers of the Em- peror) leads him to vary the materials, drawn from the Egyptian plagues which had been already used in the correspond- ing series of the trumpet-visions (viil.-ix.) by defining precisely the victims of the first plague as worshippers of the Beast, by substituting the throne and realm of the Beast in the fifth plague for mankind in general, in the sixth by connecting the Parthian invasion with the Beast