Vv. 4-6. The millennium.
Ver. 4. θρόνους, tribunal-seats for the assessors of the divine judge (as in Dan. vii. 9, 10, 22, of which this is a replica). The unnamed occupants (saints includ- ing martyrs? as in Daniel) are allowed to manage the judicial processes (so Dan. vii. 22, where the Ancient of days τὸ κρίµα ἔδωκεν ἁγίοις Ὑψίστον) which constituted a large part of Oriental gov- ernment. But no stress is laid on this incidental remark, and the subjects of
472
ο Defining Or ex-
ο 9 , a καὶ °oltiwes οὗ προσεκύνησαν τὸ θηρίον οὐδὲ τὴν εἰκόνα αὐτοῦ
Ἡ ‘ A ~ panding, καὶ οὐκ ἔλαβον τὸ χάραγµα ἐπὶ τὸ µέτωπον καὶ ἐπὶ Thy χεῖρα αὐτῶν "
not speci-
. x ῶ η] fying ας καὶ ' έζησαν καὶ Ἱ ἐβασίλευσαν μετὰ "τοῦ Χριστοῦ χίλια ἔτη: 5.
i. 7) some of the previous class.
p ‘‘ Came to life,” as ii. 8.
9 Con- stative aor. Moult. i. 130. xiii. 8; cf. Mt. xxiv. 51.
ἡ ἀνάστασις ἡ πρώτη.
r xi. 15, ΧΙΙ. ΤΟ. V ii. 11, xxi. 8.
this sway are left undefined; they are evidently not angels (Jewish belief, shared by Paul). Such elements of vagueness suggest that John took over the trait as a detail of the traditional scenery. His real interest is in the martyrs, for whom he reserves (cf. Eus. H. E. vi. 42) the privilege assigned us- ually by primitive Christianity either to the apostles or to Christians in general. They are allotted the exclusive right of participating in the messianic interreg- num.—emeAextopevov, beheaded by the lictor’s axe, the ancient Roman method of executing criminals (cf. Introd. § 6). Under the empire citizens were usually beheaded by the sword. The archaic phrase lingered on, like our own “‘ exe- cution’’. Here it is probably no more than a periphrasis for ‘‘put to death”. Even if καὶ οἵτινες meant a second divi- sion, it must, in the light of xi. 7, xiii. 15, denote martyrs and confessors (who had suffered on the specific charge of refusing to worship the ΕΠΙΡΕΤΟΓ).--- Χίλια ἔτη, tenfold the normal period of human life (Plato, Rep. 615), but here=the cosmic sabbath which apocalyptic and rabbinic speculation (deriving from Gen. ii. 2 and Ps. xc. 4) placed at the close of creation (cf. Drummond’s ¥ewish Messiah, 316 f.; Bacher’s Agada d. Tann.? i. 133 f.3 E. Bi. iii. 3095-3097 ; Encycl. of Religion and Ethics, i. 204 f., 2.9). John post- pones the παλιγγενεσία till this period is Over (contrast Matt. xix. 28). He says nothing about those who were living when the millenium began, and only precarious inferencescan bedrawn. Does ver. 6 contain the modest hope that he and other loyal Christians might partici- pate in it ? or does the second (καὶ οἵτινες) class represent (or include) the living loyalists (so, e.g., Simcox, Weiss, Bous- set)? The latter interpretation involves an awkward ambiguity in the meaning of ἔζησαν (=came to life, and also continued to live), conflicts with ot λ. τ. νεκρῶν (5)
s Isa. xxvi. 14.
c ~ [ων - οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν νεκρῶν " οὐκ ἔζησαν ' ἄχρι τελεσθῇ τὰ χίλια ἔτη. αὕτη 6. Μακάριος καὶ ἅγιος ὁ ἔχων "µέρος ἐν - 2 , cal , San , ve , , > ” τῇ ἀναστάσει τῇ πρώτῃ" ἐπὶ τούτων " ὁ δεύτερος θάνατος οὐκ ἔχει , A A A A A ἐξουσίαν, ἀλλ᾽ έσονται "ἱερεῖς τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ: καὶ * βασι-
t Cf. Blass, § 65, 10. x ν. 10, Isa. 1xi. 6.
u xxi. 8, Joh. wi. 6.
and ψυχὰς (4), and is therefore to be set aside, as 5-6 plainly refer to both classes of 4. A third alternative would be to suppose that all Christians were ex hypo- thest dead by the time that the period of xx. 1 f. arrived, the stress of persecu- tion (cf. on xiii. 8 f.) having proved se severe that no loyalist could survive (cf. below, on ver. 11).
Ver. 6. An interpolated explanation of the preceding vision. "Άγιος, if a con- tinuation of µακ., must almost be taken in its archaic sense of “belonging to ἀοά”’. The ordinary meaning reduces the phrase to a hysteron proteron, unless the idea is that the bliss consists in holi- ness (so Vendidad xix. 22, ‘happy, happy the man who is holy with perfect holi- ness”). ‘‘ Blessed and holy,” however, was a con¥entional Jewish term of praise and corgratulation (cf. Jub. ii. 23).—é δεύτ. θάνάτος κ.τ.λ. According to the Hellenic faith recorded in Plutarch (in his essay on “the face in the moon’s orb”’), the second death, which gently severs the mind from the soul, is a boon, not a punishment. But John’s view reflects. the tradition underlying the Iranian be- lief (Brandt, 586 f., 592) that the right- eous were exempt from the second death (defined as in xxi. 8). The clause aA’ - - « Χριστοῦ refers to the permanent standing (i. 6, v. 10 a) of these risen martyrs not only during but after the millennium ; otherwise it would be mean- ingless, since the danger of the second death (as the penalty inflicted on all who are condemned at the final assizes) does not emerge until the millennium is. over. The subsequent clause καὶ βασι- λεύσουσι κ.τ.λ. is independent, refer- ring back to the special and temporary privilege of the first resurrection and the millennium. For this reason it is preca- rious to infer from ἔσονται tepeis τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ (elsewhere τῷ θεῷ) that the occupation of these saints is the mediation of divine knowledge to the