k Matt. xxii. 2-3; cf. Dalm. i. § 1, ο. 50. Lk. xxi. 22.
the Lamb, absent since xvii. 14 from his pages, and absent again till xxi. g.
Ver. 7. A proleptic allusion to the triumphant bliss as a marriage between the victorious messiah and his people or the new Jerusalem (cf. Volz, 331). The conception is primarily eschatological (Weinel, p. 137; cf. Mechilta on Exod. xix. 17) and is so employed here. The marriage-day of Christ and his church is the day of his second advent. This is the more intimate and tender aspect of the divine βασιλεία. But, as a tradi- tional feature of the Oriental myth (Jere- mias, 45 f.) was the postponement of the deity’s wedding until he returned from victory (4.6., after vanquishing the dark- ness and cold of the winter), the religious application turns first of all to the over- throw of messiah’s foes (xix. 11 f.).— ἀγαλλιῶμεν, act. as in 1 Peter i. 8 (cf. Abbott, Diatessarica, 2,689).
Ver. 8. ‘‘ Yea, she is (has been) per- mitted to put on” (for διδόναι ἵνα cf. ix. 5, Mark x. 37), epexegetic of ἥτοιμ. ἑαυτήν (Isa. lxi. το). “' Uides hic cultum gravem ut matronae, non pompaticum qualis meretricis ante (xvii. 4) descriptus,”’ Grot. In the following gloss (see above) the rare use of δικαιώµατα (= ‘‘ righteous deeds’’) is paralleled by Bar. ii. το (τὰ δικ. τῶν πατέρων) and by an incidental em- ployment of the sing. in this sense by Paul (see on Rom. v. 18). Moral purity and activity, which are the conditions of future and final bliss, are (as in vii. 14, xiv. 4) defined as the outcome of human effort, although of course their existence must be referred to God (ἐδόθη), and their success to the aid of Christ (loc. cit.) ; see on i. 4-6. Ignatius similarly (Eph. x.) describes the saints as ‘‘ robed entirely in the commandments of Christ”. The connexion of thought is the same as that in Matt, xxi. 43, xxii. 2, 11-14. For ὃ ὃ