Ver. 15. κύνες, an archaic metaphor,
ro—16.
- Ν cal οἱ πόρνοι καὶ οἱ Φφονεῖς καὶ οἱ εἰδωλολάτραι καὶ Tas
ποιῶν Weddos.”
16. “«᾿Εγὼ ᾿Ιησοῦς " ἔπεμψα τὸν ἄγγελόν µου μαρτυρῆσαι »ὑμιν
- lal , ταῦτα Péml ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις *
ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ Σῥίζα καὶ τὸ γένος Δαυείδ, er ‘ ς x κ oo ϱ ὁ * ἀστὴρ ὅ λαμπρὸς καὶ 6 πρωϊνός.
prophets,” as in ver. 6. p= ‘Stor! στ].
491
™ φιλῶν καὶ m xxi. 27, cf. Asc.
Isa. (Gk.), iii. 3, Dan. viii. a5. See Win. § 20. IIc.
n Cf, xxii. 6 (God).
o (Dat. = Heb. x. 15) “the
v. 5: (the scion). r ii. 28, Sir. 1, 6, Test.
q = Nec On Levi 18, En, xxxviii. 2, Isa. xiv. 12, and Ign. Eph. xix, with Luke i. 78 (Dalman, i. viii. 10).
coloured by the nomad’s hatred of hounds; cf. Arabia Deserta, i. 337, 339 (“only the dog has no citizenship in the nomad life’. "Τε is the only life mishandled by the gentle Arab, who with spurns and blows cast out these profane crea- tures from the tent.”) Here κύνες are not merely impure pagans, but the im- pudently impure, possibly in the special and darker sense of ‘‘sodomites” (cf. τ Tim. i. το; Deut. xxiii. 19, 20, collated with πόρνη and βδέλυγµα). Cf. on xxi. 8 and Cooke’s North Sem. Inscriptions, p. 68. Such loathsome practices were not uncommon in the Oriental cults.
Ver. 16. Jesus in person now speaks in the colloquy (16, 13, 12) to ratify what has just been said. This apoca- lypse is not an individual fantasy (2 Peter i. 21). For the contemporary need of such accrediting, cf. Herm. Sim. ix. 22 and Asc. Isa. iii. 30, 31 (where in the last days ‘‘everyone will say what is pleasing in his own eyes. And they will make of none εβεοί the prophecy of the prophets which were before me, and these my visions also will they make of none effect, in order to speak after the impulse of their own hearts.”)—ayyedov, not John (Weiss, Wellh.) but the angelus interpres (cf. oni. 2 and 20).—tpiv, the plural here and in ver. 6 (cf. i. 1) might suggest that John’s apocalypse incorpo- rated some visions of other members be- longing to the prophets in the Asiatic circle or school (cf. the tradition about the co-operative origin of the Fourth gospel, in the Muratorian canon). But while any Jewish Christian sources may have been drawn from this’ quarter, the final authorship and authority is claimed by (or, for) John himself (cf. ver. 8).— Δανείδ. Like most early Christians, John attached more weight to the Da- vidic descent of Jesus as messiah (Bal- densperger, 82 f.), than Jesus himself allowed. Here Christ’s authority in re- velation is bound up with his legitimate claim to be messiah, and thus to inaugu-
rate the new and eternal day of God. As ἀνατολή (the dawn = ΓΙΟΣ) was
already a messianic symbol, and em- ployed in LXX (Jer. xxiii. 5, Zech. iii. 8, vi. 12) to denote the messianic branch or stem, this double usage explains the imagery here (so Justin, Apol. i. 32). Jesus has not only the historic prepara- tion of Israel behind him but the infinite future before him. In one sense he was the climax of Hebrew expectation; in another, he is of world-wide significance. In connexion with the heavenly Jerusa- lem it was natural that Jesus should be hailed as the scion of the David who had founded the first Jerusalem. The star-metaphor reflects the significance of the morning-star which meant the be- ginning of a new day for toilers in the Levant; but its eschatological outlook was taken ultimately from Babylonian astro- theology, where Nebo- Mercury (nebi= prophet), the morning-star, an- nounced the new era, or from Egyptian theology where (cf. E. B. D. p. cxliii.) Pepi the dead king “ goeth forth into heaven among the stars which never perish, and his guide the Morning-Star leadeth him to Sekhet-Hetep [the fields of peace]’’. The phraselogy brings out the conviction of the early church that the present trial was only the cold, dark hour before the dawn. Their faith in Jesus assured them that an eternal pro- spect of bliss awaited them, and that this vista of hope was bound up with the person of the risen Jesus (cf. ver. 13). The watchword was, sunrise and morn- ing-star (cf. Expos. Dec. 1902, 424-441). Christianity was not some ephemeral Oriental cult, which had had its day; the cosmic overthrow meant a new era for its adherents. The Apocalypse thus closes, as it began (i. 5, 6) with a note of ringing emphasis upon the eternal significance of Christ in the divine plan and purpose.