To receive (Aafeiv). Or perhaps, better, to take, since the glory, honor, and power are the absolute possession of the Almighty. See on John iii. 32.
Power. Instead of the hanks in the ascription of the living creatures. In the excess of gratitude, self is forgotten. Their thanksgiving is a tribute to the creative power which called them into being. Note the articles, “the glory,” etc. (so Rev.), expressing the absoluteness and universality of these attributes. See on ch. i. 6.
All things (ra wdvra). With the article signifying the
universe.
For thy pleasure (ua ro Jérnpa cov). Lit., because of thy will. So Rev. Alford justly remarks: “or thy pleasure of the A. V. introduces an element entirely strange to the context, and, however true in fact, most inappropriate here, where the 8rt for renders a reason for the worthiness to take honor and glory and power.”
They are (cial). Read Aoav they were. One of the great MSS., B, reads ov« hoav they were not; i.e., they were created out of nothing. The were is not came into being, but simply they existed. See on Johni. 3; vii. 845 viii. 58. Some explain, they existed in contrast with their previous non-existence; in which case it would seem that the order of the two clauses should have been reversed; besides which it is not John’s habit to apply this verb to temporary and passing objects. Professor Milligan refers it to the eternal type existing in the divine mind before anything was created, and in conformity with which it was made when the moment of creation arrived. Compare Heb. viii. 5. ‘Was the heaven then or the world, whether called by this or any other more acceptable name—as- suming the name, I am asking a question which has to be asked at the beginning of every inquiry—was the world, I say, always in existence and without beginning, or created and having a beginning? Created, I reply, being visible and tangible and having a body, and therefore sensible; and all sensible things