Ver. 12. The books opened in God’s court contain the deeds of men, whose
476 ΑΙΠΙΟΚΑΛΥΨΙΣ ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ ας sili. 5, xii. καὶ ἄλλο * βιβλίον ἠνοίχθη, ὅ ἐστιν τῆς ζωῆς" 8, xvii. 8, a En. xivii. καὶ ἐκρίθησαν οἱ νεκροὶ ἐκ τῶν γεγραµµένων ἐν τοῖς βιβλίοις, 8, CViii. 3, i cf. Eurip, “kata τὰ ἔργα αὐτῶν. Fragm. ae] cups N ‘ 9 9.» 488. 13. Καὶ ἔδωκεν ἡ "θάλασσα τοὺς νεκροὺς τοὺς ἐν αὐτῇ, t2Cor.v ee το, Rom. καὶ 6 "θάνατος καὶ 6 “adns ἔδωκαν τοὺς νεκροὺς τοὺς ἐν 1. 5-11 a Jo. ν. 28- αὐτοίς : 29. A 3 , ο u For ane καὶ ἐκρίθησαν ἕκαστος Gk. idea 4 5 2 A of sea KaTG τα εργα αὐτωγ. preven-
ting dead
from passing into Hades, cf. Radermacher’s Das Jenseits im Mythos d. Hellenen (1903) 74 f. i w vi. 8, cf. Charles on En.
18, Isa. xxvi. 19.
fate is determined by the evidence of these ‘vouchers for the book of life”’ (Alford) ; the latter volume forms as it were a register of those predestinated to eternal life (cf. Gfrorer ii. 121 f., and below on ver. 15). The figure of books containing a record of man’s career was a realistic expression of Jewish belief in moral retribution, which prevailed es- pecially in eschatological literature (¢.g., Jubil. xxx.; Enoch. lxxxix.-xc.; Dan. vii. ro, etc.) after the exile. ‘‘ And in these lays | saw the Head of days, when he had seated himself upon the throne of his glory, and the books of the living were opened before him ’’ (Enoch xlvii. 3; of. Driver’s Daniel, p. 86). It is obvious, from ver. 15, that the resurrec- tion is general (as Dan. vii. 20; 4 Esd. vi. 20, vil. 32; Test. Jud. 25; Test. Benj. 10; Apoc. Bar. 7, etc.; ¢f. Gfrérer, ii. 277 f.; and Charles’s Eschatology, 340 f.), in opposition to the primitive and still prevalent belief which confined it to the righteous (E. Bi. 1390). Hence the books contain not the good deeds alone of the saints (the prevalent Jewish idea, cf. Charles on En. li. 1; Mal. iii. 16; Jub. xxx.; Ps. Ἱνι. 8, etc.), ποτ bad deeds alone (Isa. Ixv. 6; En. Ixxxi. 4; of. En. xc. 20; Apoc. Bar. xxiv. 1) but good and bad deeds alike (as Dan. vii. 10; Asc. Isa. ix. 20 f.). This again tallies with the Iranian faith (Hibschmann, 229), according to which, at the com- mand of Ormuzd, the righteous and the wicked alike were raised for their re- compense. Here the tribunal is a throne, before which the king’s subjects have to answer for their conduct ; rebels are punished and the loyal get the re- ward of good service (cf. xxii. 12, etc.). γεγραμμ., by whom? Jewish specula- tion conjectured Raphael as the record- ing angel (En. xx. 3) or a band of angels (Slav. En. xix. 5); but the Jewish idea of the heavenly tables (πλάκες τοῦ
vi. Ixiii. το. οὐρανοῦ) is omitted in the Apoc., nor is there the slightest mention of those living at the era of judgment. Did John mean that none would survive (cf. ver. 5) ? Or were any survivors to be taken directly to heaven at the coming of Christ, as in Paul’s primitive outlook (see on 1 Th. iv. 16-17) ?
Ver. αλ. See) Pirke ;Abothisivem sei ‘‘ Let not thine imagination assure thee that the grave is an asylum ’”’ (for, like birth and life and death, judgment is ap- pointed before the King of the kings of kings). ‘‘And the earth shall restore those that are asleep in her, and so shall the dust those that dwell therein in silence, and the secret chambers shall deliver up those souls (of the righteous, iv. 35) that were committed unto them,” 4 Esd. vii. 32—reproducing, as here, Enoch li. 1, ‘and in those days will the earth also give back those who are trea- sured up within it, and Sheol also will give back that which it has received, and hell will give back that which it owes’. Also En. Ἱχι. 5 where the res- toration includes ‘‘ those who have been destroyed by the desert, or devoured by the fish of the sea and by the beasts”’. Evidently drowned people are supposed not to be in Hades; they wander about or drift in the ocean (Achill. Tat. v. 313), μηδὲ εἰς G8ouv καταβαίνειν ὅλως. Ac- cording to the prophet’s conception (cf. xiii. 8, xiv. 9 f.) the fate of pagans must have been a foregone conclusion, when the Imperial cultus was made the test of character; in which case ‘‘ the scene Ῥε- fore the white throne is rather a final statement of judgment than a statement of final judgment ’’ (Gilbert). But the broader allusion to works here shows that the prophet is thinking of the general ethical judgment, which em- braced issues wider than the particular historical test of the Emperor-worship. —dns κ.τ.λ., cf. Plutarch’s (de Iside,