2. ἐν µέσῳ τῆς πλατείας αὐτῆς
487
καὶ τοῦ ποταμοῦ ἐντεῦθεν καὶ ε From
Ezek. ~ ~*~ A ~ oa 2, ἐκεῖθεν "ξύλον ζωῆς, ποιοῦν καρποὺς ! δώδεκα, κατὰ µῆνα *exacrov xlvii. 12, a ο, mh > h and Slav Ἀ ἀποδιδοὺς 1 τὸν καρπὸν αὐτοῦ: καὶ τὰ φύλλα τοῦ ξύλου εἰς "θερα- En. viii. , 5 x I-4. πείαν τῶν ἐθνῶν. f = δωδε- ΜΜ κάκις (cf. 3. καὶ wav κατάθεµα οὐκ έσται ἔτι" Matt. k Qi xe 6 / A A ‘ ae) , ale 3 ‘Vili. 22). καὶ 6 θρόνος τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἀρνίου ἐν αὐτῇ έσται ες Win., §20 A ς δ TN 9 A 1, , η 120. ε καὶ οἱ δοῦλοι αὐτοῦ ᾿λατρεύσουσιν αὐτῷ πεσοςν \ ” a Win. 4. καὶ '' ὄψονται τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ, εαν \ nm a a . Sim- καὶ "Td ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τῶν µετώπων αὐτῶν. et , _ Lang. Ν.Τ. 40. i From Zech. xiv. 21; on futures, see iv. 8-11. | k“‘ Hence”: cf. Josh. vi. 18, vii. 12. 1 vii. 15. m Job xlii. 5, Ps. xvii. 15, 1 John iii. 2, Heb. xii. 14, cf. Baldensperger, 63. n iii,
12, XIV. I, Vii. 3-4.
1 Ti., Tr., WH (marg.), Bs. rightly read αποδιδους (with XQ, min., Areth.).
earthly Jerusalem with its inferior stream, the new city is to be richly equipped with conduits and all that makes a city prosperous and secure (Isa. xxxiii. 21). Ver. 2. πλατείας (‘‘street,’’ or ‘‘ boule- vard”’) collective and generic (cf. Jas. v. 6) like ξύλον. Take ἐν . . . αὐτῆς with what precedes, and begin a fresh sentence with καὶ τοῦ ποταμοῦ (W. H.), ξύλον being governed by ἔδειξεν (from ver. 1). The river, which is the all-pervading feature, is lined with the trees of life. The writer retains the traditional sin- gular of Gen. ii. g, combining it with the representation of Ezekiel (yet note sing. in xlvii. 12); he thus gains symbolic impressiveness at the expense of pictorial coherence. Ramsay (C. B. P. ii. 453) observes, however, that the waters of the Marsyas were ‘probably drawn off to flow through the streets of Apameia ; this practice is still a favourite one in Asia Minor, e.g., at Denizli”.—«. µῆνα, the poetic imagination soars over the prosaic objection that months are im- possible without a moon (xxi. 22).— καρπὸν, κ.τ.λ. To eat of the tree of life was, in the popular religious phrase- ology of the age, to possess immortality. In En. xxiv., xxv., where the prophet sees a wonderful, fragrant tree, Michael ex- plains that it must stand untouched till the day of Judgment (καὶ οὐδεμία capt ἐξουσίαν ἔχει ἄψασθαι αὐτοῦ). ‘ Then the righteous and the holy shall have it given them; it shall be as food for the elect unto 119.’ So in contemporary Judaism; e.g., 4 Esd. vii. 53 and viii. 52 (‘‘ For unto you is paradise set open, the tree of life is planted, the time to come is prepared, a city is builded and rest is established,”’) as already in Test. Levi, 18, where the messianic high-priest is to
‘open the gates of paradise and remove the sword drawn against Adam, and per- mit the saints to eat of the tree of life ’’. For the association of God’s city and God’s garden, cf. Apoc. Bar, iv. : for the notion of healing, Apoc. Mos. vi., Jub. x. 12 f., and the Iranian idea that (Brandt, 434 f.) the tree of many seeds had cura- tive properties. John is therefore using the realistic and archaic language of Jewish piety to delineate the bliss of Christians in a future state where all the original glories and privileges of God’s life with man are to be restored. The Christian heaven is to possess everything which Judaism claimed and craved for itself. Cf. the Christian addition to 4 Esd. ii. 12, 34, 35, 38f.; also the famous hymn to Osiris (1. B. D., ch. clxxxiii. : “‘T have come into the city of God— the region which existed in primaeval time—with my soul, to dwell in this land. . . . The God thereof is most holy. His land draweth unto itself every other land. And doth he not say, the happi- ness thereof is a care to me ? ”’).