5 δ.
, A λεύσουσι pet αὐτοῦ χίλια ἔτη.
7. καὶ ὅταν τελεσθῇ τὰ χίλια ν Ver. 3. 2Ο] τις,
3”. [ή A ~ fol ~ έτη, "AuOyoeTar 6 Σατανᾶς * ἐκ τῆς φυλακῆς αὐτοῦ, 8. καὶ é&eNevoeTata vii. 1, ϱ/.
πλανῆσαι τὰ ἔθνη τὰ "ἐν ταῖς τέσσαρσι γωνίαις τῆς γῆς, τὸν Toy ΔΝ x a καὶ τὸν Μαγώγ, συναγαγεῖν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸν πόλεμον, ὧν 6 ἀριθμὸς pb
ἔθνη whom Satan is temporarily pre- vented from beguiling. The likelihood is that the phrase simply denotes as else- where the bliss of undisturbed access to God and of intimate fellowship. John ignores the current belief that the loyal survivors on earth would be rewarded (cf. Dan. xii. 12; Ps. Sol. xvii. 50, etc.), which is voiced in Asc. Isa. iv. 14-16, but he re- produces independently the cognate view (Asc. Isa. iv. 16 f.) that ‘the saints will come with the Lord with their garments which are (now) stored up on high in the seventh heaven [cf. Apoc. vi. 11]... they will descend and be present in this world” (after which the Beloved exe- cutes judgment at the resurrection). He, retains, however, not only the general resurrection (12) but the variant and earlier idea (cf. 4 Esd. vii. 26 f.) of a resurrection (ἔζησαν, 4) confined to the saints. Hecalls this the first resurrec- tion not because the martyrs and con- fessors who enjoyed it had to undergo a second in the process of their final re- demption but because it preceded the only kind of resurrection with which sinners and even ordinary Christians had anything to do (Titius, 37-40; Baldens- perger, 74, 79 f.).—Kat βασιλεύσουσι, apparently on earth. This would be put beyond doubt were we to take the view of the risen martyrs’ occupation which has been set aside above. But, even apart from this, in the light of all relevant tradition and of the context, the earth must be the sphere of the millen- nium; Christ might of course be con- ceived to execute his sovereignty from heaven, but, though ver. 9 denotes a different cycle of tradition from 4-6, it is put on the same plane, and the vision of 4 (cf. 1) is evidently this world. ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς would be more in keeping with this context than with that of ν. 1ο, where again the refrain of xxii. 5 (κ.β. εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων) would be more αβρτορτίαΐθ.---χίλια ἔτη. This enigmatic and isolated prediction has led to more unhappy fantasies of specu-
lation and conduct than almost any other
passage of the N.T. It stands severely apart from the sensuous expectations of
Isa. xi. 12, Ezek.
Vil. 2.
Cf. Winck-
ν ler’s Alt- Orient. Forsch. ii. 160f., and E. Bi. 4331 f:
current chiliasm (fertility of soil, long- evity, a religious carnival, etc.), but even its earliest interpreters, Papias and Jus- tin, failed to appreciate its reticence, its special object, and its semi-transcendent atmosphere. For its relevance, or rather irrelevance, to the normal Christian outlook, see Denney’s Studies in Theo- logy, pp. 231 f., and A. Robertson’s Regnum Dei, pp. 113 f. When the mil- lennium or messianic reign was thus ab- breviated into a temporary phase of providence in the latter days, the resur- rection had to be shifted from its original position prior to the messianic reign; it now became, as here, the sequel to that period.
Vv. 7-10: As Baligant, lord of the pagans, issues from the East to challenge Charlemagne and be crushed, Satan emerges from his prison for a short period (3) after the millennium, musters an enormous army of pagans to besiege the holy capital, but is decisively routed and flung into the lake of fire to share the tortures of his former agents. The tenses shift from future (7-8, το 5) to aorist (9-10 a) the latter (cf. xi. rr) being possibly due to the influence of Semitic idiom.