Ver. 4. κεχρυσ. goes by an awk- ward zeugma with λίθῳ (collective) καὶ µαργαρίταις; ‘with ornaments of gold and precious stones and pearls’’ (like
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452
n xvii τν 12, καὶ " λίθῳ τιµίῳ καὶ I
αργαρίταις, ἔχουσα ° ποτήριον " µαργαρ x τήρ
° xpucouv ev
xxvill- 13° TH χειρὶ αὐτῆς γέµον ” βδελυγµάτων καὶ τὰ ἀκάθαρτα σης 4 πορνείας
ojer.li.7; αὐτῆς, 5. καὶ ἐπὶ
τὸ μέτωπον
αὐτῆς ὄνομα * γεγραµµένον
πέος () Μυστήριον),1 “"Βαβυλὼν ἡ µεγάλη, ἡ ' µήτηρ τῶν πορνῶν καὶ τῶν
Comus, 67 f.
Ρ XXi. 27, cf. Lev. Xviii. 26-29, Sap. xii. 23-24 χὶν. née (= customs of idol- atry).
q Cf. Sap. Rae ;
roc. ην.
s2 ΤΗ. ii. 7. a
t Jer. 1. 11-12.
u Cf. Isa. Xxxiv. 17, xlix. 26. ν αν], 24.
x Diabolic antithesis to divine figure of iv. 8.
b xiii. 8.
βδελυγµάτων τῆς γῆς.’
τοῦ
καὶ τὰ δέκα κέρατα. 8.
καὶ " ἐθαύμασα ἰδὼν αὐτὴν " θαῦμα μέγα.
τὸ ὄνομα ἐπὶ τὸ "βιβλίον τῆς ζωῆς " ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου,
6. καὶ εἶδα τὴν γυναῖκα " µεθύουσαν ἐκ - , A A - ” αἵματος τῶν ἁγίων καὶ ἐκ τοῦ αἵματος τῶν μαρτύρων ᾿Ιησοῦ.
7. καὶ εἶπέ µοι 6 ἄγγελος,
ες ο , αν A . , κ ‘ 9 Διατί ἐθαύμασας; ἐγὼ ἐρῶ σοι τὸ µυστήριον τῆς γυναικος καὶ τοῦ θηρίου τοῦ βαστάζοντος αὐτὴν τοῦ ἔχοντος τὰς ἑπτὰ κεφαλὰς
τὸ θηρίον *6 εἶδες ἦν καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν'
καὶ μέλλει ἀναβαίνειν ἐκ τῆς 7 ἁβύσσου καὶ eis ἀπώλειαν * ὑπάγει. ὶ "θαυμασθήσονται οἱ κατοικοῦντες ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ὧν οὐ γέγραπται
"βλε-
w dm. λεγ. N.T. (contrast xiii. 3); for Attic ἐθαυμάσθην.
y ix. I. Ζ xiii. 3 (Blass, § 18, 3). α 1.5.
c Irreg. gen. absol. or appos. to ὧν, as meAA. Acts xxvi. 22.
1µνστηριον = the explanatory gloss of a reader, from ver. 7 (KOnnecke, 37).
Ezekiel’s doomed prince 6f Tyre). The harlot in Test. Fud. xiii. 5 was also decked ἐν χρυσίῳ καὶ µαργαρίταις and poured out wine for her victims. Rome is pronounced luxurious, licentious and loathsome. Here, as in the contem- porary 4 Esd. iii. 2, 29, it is felt to be a mystery that prosperity and permanence should belong to a state flaunting its im- piety and oppression, not merely enjoying but propagating vice.
Ver. 5. Roman filles de joie wore a label with their names thus (Juv. vi. 123). µνυστήριον (which hardly belongs to the title itself) indicates that the name is to be taken πγευματικῶς (xi. 8), not literally; ‘‘a name written which is a symbol,’”? or a mysteriously significant title—prytyp κ.τ.λ., Rome, the natural focus of Oriental cults in general, is charged with fostering all the supersti- tious and vicious practices of her sub- jects.—B5eX. (partly justified by a perusal of Petronius and Apuleius) is an apt rebuke if it comes from the prophet of a religion which one Roman_ historian classed among the αἰγοεία aut pudenda which disgraced the capital (Tacit. Ann. Χν. 44).
Ver. 6. Cf. Nahum’s “bloody city” (of Assyrian cruelty to prisoners, iii. 1), and for the metaphor Cic. Phil. ii. 24, 29, or Suet. Tiberius, 59, or Pliny, H. N. xiv. 28, '' quo facile intelligatur ebrius jam sanguine ciuium, et tanto magis eum sitiens,’’ also Jos. Bell. v. 8, 2. When a Jewish source is postulated,
kat... Inoov is bracketed (e.g., by Vischer, Spitta, S. Davidson, Briggs, Charles and others) as from the hand of the later Christian editor, who here, as in xviii. 24 (Mommsen), is thinking of the condemnation of provincial prisoners. to fight with gladiators or wild beastsin the arena of the capital. The ἅγιοι of the source would thus be defined as, or sup- plemented by, Christian martyrs. They are not contaminated, like the rest of men, but their purity is won at the ex- pense of their life. The Jewish martyrs. would be those killed in the war of 66- 70, primarily. The whole verse, how- ever, might be (cf. xviii. 24) editorial ; it is the contaminations, rather than the cruelties, of Rome which absorb the in- terest of this oracle.