Ver. 6. As in En. cviii. 6 (only men- tion of prophets in Enoch), ‘‘ what God announces through the mouth of the pro- phets” relates to the future.—vevp. the plurality of spirits is an archaic detail (cf. i. 4) adapted also from the Enochic formula (xxxvii. 2, etc.), ‘God of the spirits ”’.
Ver. 7. Here as elsewhere it is irrele- vant toask, whoisthespeaker? Angels
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ceremonial impurity (ῥυπαρᾷ ἐσθῆτι, in votive inscriptions). _d iii. 4, Vil, 14. ο. 58 Mixed construction (cf. xiv. 13). f Accus. here and vi. 8, xiii. 7, xvi. 9; genit. Π. 26, xi. 6, xiv. 18,
g Cf. ver. 2. h Loose extension of dat. instrum. i‘ Out with the (or, out ye)": so Dust., Benson, J. Weiss, Wellh., cf. xxi. 8, 27, 1 Cor. vi. 9-10, Introd. § 6. __ k Matt. vii. 6, Phil. ili. 2: ="*praua concupiscentia " (Gfrorer, i. le ix. 21, cf. Deut. xxiii. 18. On their punishment in the Hellenic world, cf. Rohde’s Psyche, 366 Ε.
1 The ample style of the Apoc. tells against the conjecture (Zahn, Nestle’s Einf. 264-265; Bebb, Studia Biblica, ii. 209-210) that the orig. reading is preserved in Ep. Lugd. ο avopos avopnoatw kato δικαιος δικαιωθητω ett, the rest being glossematic. The v. 1. δικαιωθητω (38, 79, vg.) has been mechanically conformed to αγιασθητω.
2Instead of the well-supported OIMOIOYNTECTACETOAACAYTOY (Q, min., Syr., S., Arm., Me., Areth., And., Tert., Tic., Cyp., cf. 1 Jo. v. 21; so de Wette, Diist., Bs.) OIMAYNONTECTACCTOAACAYTON (ΝΑ, 7, 38, vg., Aeth., Pr., Haym., etc., edd.) is to be read, the variant being possibly due to the feeling that
some moral characteristic was needful after 11 (Ws.).
are the envoys and mouthpieces of God here as in the O.T., and therefore en- titled to speak in his name or in that of Christ. ‘‘ The Oriental mind hardly dis- tinguishes between an ancient personage and one who appears in his power and spirit’? (A. B. Davidson on Ezek. xxxiv. 23). In 4 Esd. ν. 31-40 the angel is also addressed as if he were the Lord—the angelic personality evidently fading into the divine, as here, and the writer being equally unconscious of any incongruity in the representation (cf. Zech. iii. 1-4). As the ‘‘showing”’ of the ἅ 8. γ. ἐν τ. is (i. I) an ἀποκ. of Jesus, he (or a word of his) naturally breaks in (7 α).--τηρῶν κ.τελ., an apocalyptic form of emphasis. Cf. e.g., Slav. En. xlvii. 1-3 and xxxvi (‘‘tell thou thy sons and all thy house- hold before Me, that they may listen to what is spoken to them by thee... and let them always keep my command- ments, and begin to read and understand the books written out by thee’’). All apocalypses were meant to be trans- mitted to mankind, but the usual method of delivery is complicated (cf. En. Ixxxii. I, 2; Slav. En. xxxiii. 9, xIvii. 2, 3, etc.).
Ver. το. The book of Daniel, the great classic of apocalyptic literature, is represented (cf. Slav. En. xxxiii. απ Xxx.) BoE nL κο πο ον. το etc.) as having Ῥεεπ providentially kept secret at the time of its com-
position, since it referred to a future period (viii. 26, xii. 4, 9). This was a literary device, to explain why it had not been divulged before. As John’s apocalypse is for an immediate crisis, it is not to be reserved for days to come. It is not merely valid (7) but intended for the prophet’s contemporaries (unlike Isa. xxx. 8, cf. Cheyne’s note), though reserved, like most of its class, as eso- teric literature for the “' wise”’ (contrast 4 Esd. xiv. 38-48). Some interval, how- ever, is presupposed between the vision and its fulfilment, otherwise it would be futile to write the visions down, and to arrange for their circulation throughout the churches. A certain career (7, 9, 18-19) is anticipated for the Apocalypse. But (ver. 11.) persistence in good and evil is about all the writer expects—a stereo- typed feature of the apocalyptic outlook on the obduracy of the wicked and the perseverance of the saints. Apocalyptic never encouraged propaganda, and no radical or widespread change is antici- pated during the brief interval before the end. Asin Dan. xii. το, 11, so here, the crisis simply accentuates and ac- celerates human character along pre- vious lines. No anxiety is shown, how- ever, as in 4 Esd. iv. 50 f., whether the prophet himself is to see the end.