The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 18

tween "washed" (Aorla-a,,.,.,) and "loosed" return to judgment; ver. 8, his perl"ect (.1,.,la-a,,.,.,}, both teadinga being very well Divinity. 11Upported : but we ahould oertainly omit Ver. 7.-B:e eometh. He who loveth u "own" before"blood." The blood of Jesus and cleansed us and made us to be a king- Christ cleansing us from all sin is a frequent. dom will assuredly come. While interpret- thought with the apostle who witnessed the ing the verse of the second advent, we.Deed piercing of the side (eh. vii. IS. 14; l John not exclude the oommg to" those who p i ~ 'i; v. 6-8). him" in the destruction of Jeruee,lem, ,md . Ver. 6.-.And hath made 'Ill kings and to-" the tribes of the earth" in the· break-up priests ; rather, as in the Revised Version, of the Roman empire. Wl.th the- cloll.da. aild he 'll'l(UU m (to be) a kingdom, (to be) This probably refers to Mark xiv. 62, "Ye prte,ts. "Made us" is not co-ordinate with :shall see the Son of man • • • coming with uloosed us: " the sentence makes a frl'Bh the clouds of heaven" (comp. Dan. vii. 13, ■tart. "Kingdom," not "kings:" is the "Behold, one like the Son of man ea.me right reading. Christians are nowhere eaid with the clouds of heaven"). .Aquinas and to be kings. Collectively they are a king- other writers make the clouds eymbolize the dom-" a kingdom of priests" (Exod. xix. saints, "who rain by prea.ching, gliaten by 6), or, as St. Peter, following the LXX-1 working miracles, are lifted up by refusing gives it, "a royal priesthood" (1 Pet. ii. 9). earthly things, fly by lofty cont.emplation." Each member of Christ shares in his eternal .And they also ; better, and all they who priesthood. Unto God and his li'a.ther; more (o'fr,vu) pieTced him. This is strong evi- probably we should render, with tbe Revised ,jence of common a.uthorship beiween the Version, umo his God and Father (oomp. ~ourth Gospel-and the .A.poce.lypse. (1) St. John xx. 17; Rom. xv. 6; 2 Cor. i. S; Eph. John alone mentions the piercing, (2) Here i. 3). .Alford objects that when St. John [11:nd in -John xix. 37 the writer, in quoting wishes a possessive genitive to apply to !Zech. xii 10, deserts the LXX. and .i>llowa more than one substa.ntive, he commonly the Masoretic Hebrew text. The LXX. repests the genitive; and he quotes John softens down "pforced" into "insulted" (r<a- ii 12; vi 11 : u. 21. But in these pas- ,,.,.,PXflO'a.To), "piercing" app~g a violent; g,ges he repeste not only the genitive, bl\t expression to use rt,spectihg- men's treat- the article. Here the article is not re- ment of Jehovah. (3) Here .and iil John peated, a.nd Tr, e~,; r<al llaTpl ..tm>ir must xix. 37 the writer, in translating from the be taken as one phnu!e. TO'" him be the Hebrew, uses the unoommoB Greek·word gloey. The construction returns to that of llCIC•,,.,.«V. The reference here i11 to au ~ the opening clause," Unto him that Ioveth who "crucify the Son of God a.tnish, not us." St. John's doxologies increase in merely to the Jews. In what follows thd volume as he progresses-twofold here, Revised Version is to be preferred: "and a.It threefold in eh. iv. 11, fourfold in eh. v. 13, lhe tribea of the earth shall wlOUm _.him." eeVfinfold in eh. vii. 12. In ea.eh case all The wording is similar to Matt.. :uiv. SO the substantives have the article-" the and the LXX.of Zech. xii. 10. The mourn- gloey," '-'the honour," "the power," etc. For ing is that of beating the breast, not wailing, aer aml ever; literally, unto the age, of the and it is "over him'' {W almlv). 'Eveu so, vigea ( .ls Tobr afi.i11as Ti.iv a,tfi,,..,,,, in BlllCUla Amen. Na!, 'Aµ.11•, like "Abba, Father" ~ m ) . It occurs twelve times in the (Mark iv. 36; Rom. 'fiii. 15; Gal. iv:. 6), Apooa.lypse, besides once without the a.rticles combines a Hebrew word with ill Greek (oh. xiv. 12). In his Goepel and Epistles equivalent (oomp. 2 Cor. i. 20). St. John uses the simpler formula., "for Ver. 8.-.A. prelude to the book. In the ever," litera.lly, "unto the age" ( •ls ,,.,b,, simple majesty of its solemn languae it re- al.;vc,.). (See .Appendix E. to St. John, in minds us of the opening of St. John'a t:iospel the 'Cambridge Greek Testa.ment.') An and of his First Epistle. ·, I am tha .Alpha indefinite period of immenl!8 dumtion is and the Omega" is here not followed by meant (comp. Gal. i. 5 and Eph. ii. 2, 7, "the Beginning and the End," which the whore the countless ages of the world to Vulgate and some other a.nthoritiea i'Deelt co111,e seem to be contrasted with the transi- from eh. xxi 6 and mi. lS. Who ia " the tory age of this world; see also -Heb. xiii Lord," that ntters ihese words? Snrely the 21 and l Pet. iv. 11). Christ, as seems clear from ver.17; ~- ii. 8; · Vers. 7, 8.'-lt is difficult t.o determine the :nii. 13. To attribute. them to the Father exact co11ne:x.ion of these vurses with one robe the words of their 1JJ8cl!ll appropriat,e. another, and with what precedes and follows. nel!B in this coQtexi, where they form a pre- It eeems best to make ver. 7 aki11d of app,•n- lude to "the Revelatiou o/ JaU/J Christ" aa di.x to the salutation, and ver. 8 a kind c>f God and WI the Almighty "Ruler of the prelude to the whole book, They each kings of. fue ea.rth." Yet th~ faat that give ns one of the fundamental thoughts simila.r language is also used ef the F1;1tl,cr of the Apocalypse: ver. 7, Ch1iat'11 certain (eh. vi. 6; :ui. 6) show11 how elew-ly St. OJL L 1-ru>.] THE REVELATION. OF ST, ,JOHN THE DIVINE.