460 ΑΠΟΚΑΛΥΨΙΣ ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ ΧνΙΠ. ‘v2; see 21. καὶ ἠρεν eis ἄγγελος 'ἰσχυρὸς λίθον ὡς μῦλον µέγαν καὶ ος ἔβαλεν εἰ θάλ λέ ας. ἰς τὴν θάλασσαν λέγων, ih “ OtTws " ὁρμήματι βληθήσεται Βαβυλὼν ἡ µεγάλη πόλις, acc, lv. 8 (cf. Isa. "kal οὐ μὴ εὑρεθῇ ἔτι, XXViii. 2): aes bs Z “with 22. καὶ φωνὴ " κιθαρῳδῶν καὶ μουσικῶν καὶ αὐλητῶν καὶ * σαλ- sudden A onset or πιστων impetus,” a ” suiting οὗ μὴ ἀκουσθῇ ἐν σοὶ ἔτι, action to a ward καὶ πᾶς τεχνίτης πάσης τέχνης v Ezek. rs XXxvi. 21. οὐ μὴ εὑρεθῇ ἐν σοὶ ἔτι, Ww xiv. 2, Isa. ‘ σολ xxiv. 8, καὶ φωνη 7 pudou Ezek. a xxvi. 133 οὐ μὴ ἀκουσθῇ ἐν coi ἔτι, cf. 1 Macc. iii. 45, Suet. Nero, 40-41, Domtt. 4. x Win. § 13, 4. y Fr. Jer. xxv. 10 (Heb.), cf. Aen. i. 98, Bar. ii. 22f. καὶ ot ἀπόστολοι. The voice from tended to a conventional exaggeration 44
heaven is thus made to pass into a clos- ing apostrophe to heaven and its in- habitants (cf. xi. 18), imitated from Jer. li. 48 (Heb.). John seems to assume that all had a case against Rome as vic- tims of her cruelty, probably in the main as martyrs απά confessors. ‘* Apostles,’’ omitted in ver. 24, has here (as in ii. 2) its wider sense (otherwise xxi. 14), but it must include Peter and Paul (Zahn, Einleit. § 39, n. 4).--ὅτι «.7t.A.=‘' for God has judged her with your judgment,” i.e., vindicated you (done you justice, given you your due) by jexacting vengeance upon her. She who once doomed you is now doomed herself (cf. xvi. 6).—evppatvov. Cf. En. Ixii., where the kings and rulers con- demned by messiah to eternal torment are to be “‘a spectacle for the righteous and his elect; they will rejoice over them because the wrath of the Lord of spirits resteth upon them, and his sword is drunk with their blood’’; also Isa. xxx. 29, for the call to exult over a fallen oppressor. A Parisian workman, who was looking down at the corpse of Robes- pierre, was overheard to mutter, with relief, ‘‘ Oui, il y a un Dieu”’.
Vy. 21-24: a rhythmic song of doom, introduced by a symbolic action partly imitated from Jer. li. 63, 64.
Ver. 21. Rome’s fall will be irrevoc- able and sudden and violent, as a power- ful angel shows dramatically by seizing a huge boulder and flinging it into the sea. Cf. the analogous description of Babylon’s collapse in Sib. Or. v. 158, 163, 174. The reiterated emphasis on Roman luxury is notable. Later litera- ture, as Friedlander observes (iii. 9-17),
of the luxurious civilisation under the Empire; judged by modern standards, at any rate, it was not particularly ex- travagant. This denunciation of wealth and ease, however, is apposite in a source which reflects the age of Nero, since it was under Nero, rather than under Vespasian or Domitian, that Roman luxury during the first century of our era reached its zenith. The oracle breathes the scorn felt by simple provin- cials for the capital’s wanton splendour, and indeed for the sins of a pleasure- loving civilisation. But it is religious poetry, not a prose transcript of the contemporary commercial situation. Cf. Dill’s Roman Society, pp. 32 f., 66 f.
Ver. 22. µμουσικῶν ‘minstrels or musicians”? (x Macc. ix. 41); the ος- currence of the generic term among the specific is certainly awkward and would favour the rendering ‘‘ singers ’’ (Bengel, Holtzm.) in almost any other book than this. On these musical epithets see Friedlander, iii. 238 f.; the impulses to instrumental music at Rome during this period came mainly from Alexandria. For coins stamped with Nero as harpist see Suet. Nevo, xxv. φωνὴ µύλον, the daily accompaniment of Oriental life. The sound of the mill meant habitation, but in the desolation of Rome no more pleasant stir of mirth or business would be heard (Isa. xlvii. 5). The fanatic Jesus, son of Ananus, who howled dur- ing the siege of Jerusalem and for four years previously (Jos. Bell. vi. 5, 3) ‘“ woe to Jerusalem,”’ denounced upon her ‘‘a voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the temple.