The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 19

John teaches that Jesus Christ is "equal plare. He doee not say simply "in Patmos," to the Father e.s touching his Godhead." e.s St. Luke says " to Rhodes" or "to These sublime attributes a.re e.pplice.ble to Cypru-s," but "in the isle that is called ea.eh. Like the doxology (see on ver. 6), Patmos." Now Patmo or Patino, but in the the statement of these Divine attributes in- Middle Ages Palmosa. Its small size and Ol'OOBell in fulness as the writing proceeds. rugged ohe.racter made it a suitable place Here" the Alpha and the Omega;" ver. 17 for penal transportation. _ llanishment to a and eh. ii. 8, ''the First and the Last;" in eh. small island (deportatio in imulam or iMalm :s.xi. 6, "the Alpha. ILnd the Omega, the Be- 1'inculum) W88 common. "Ande aliquid ginning and the End;" in eh. xxii.13, "the brevibus Gyaris et earcere dignum" (J uv., i. Alpha 1Lnd the Omega, the Firijt .1Lnd the 73). Compare the en.sea of Agrippa Poe- Last, the Beginning and the End." Of these tumus (Te.o., ' Ann.,' i. 3) and of Julie. (iv; four, the second and fourth certainly apply 71 ). For a full account of the island, see to the Son, and the third certainly to the GueriJ1's 'Description de l'Ile de Patmos,' Father, the first probably to the Son. The Paris: 1856. For the circumstances of St: Alm.ighty, With the exception of 2 Cor. John's banishment. see Introduction. It WIii vi. 18, where it occurs in e. quotation, this expression ( ,i Ilav.-01<p&:ra,p) is in the New in exile that Ja.cob saw God at Bethel; in exile that &loses saw God at the burning Testament peculiar to the Apocalypse, where bush ; in exile that Elijah heard the "still it occurs nine times. In the LXX. it tepre- small voice;" in exile that Ezekiel se.w "the 1B0nts more than • one Hebrew expreBBion; likeness of the glory of the Lord " by the e.g. Jer. ill. 19; Job v. 17. river Ohebar; in exile that Daniel saw" the Ancient of de.ye." For the Word of God, and Vere. 9-20.-'l'M introductory flinon. the-teatimon7 of J'esua. No doubt the Greeli: This section is introductory, not merely to (61& ,-1,., Ao-yov) might mean that be was in the epistles to fhe Churches, but to the Patmos for the sn.ke of receilling the word; whole book. In it the seer mmates how he but oh. vi. 9 and xx. 4 are deciaive ~ainst received bis commission; and with it should this (oomp. i,& .,-1, 6,,oµd µ.ou in John xv1. 21). be oompared Isa.. vi.; Jer. i. 1-10; Ezek. These r:-.8:sages and "partaker in the tribus lation' here prove that St. John's "coming i. 1-3; Dan. x., especially vers. 2, 7, where to be in Patmos " was caused by 11':ffef'flJf. "I Daniel" is exactly parallel to "I J obn " for the Word of God. The teatimony of here. The Revised Version is again mueb Jeam. This, as in ver. 2, probably means to be preferred to the Authorized Version. the testimony that he bore; rather than the testimony about him. "Obrist" iB e. oorrn}?t Ver. 9.-111 the tribulation and kingdom addition to the text in both p ~ in tbill and patience. The order of 'the words is verse. Y surprising: we should have expected" king- Ver. 10.-1 wu in the Spirit. I came to dom" to have come first or last. But" and be (see O'!l ver. 9) in a state or -ecstasy }latience "seems to be added epexegetically, capable of receiving revelations;· lili:e -y.- to show i'wto the tribulation leads to the king- vlcrOai !'• l11 ltccr.-d.crEt (Acts xiii. 17; iiomp. dom (comp.eh.ii 2,3,19; ili.10; :rlii.10; xiv. x. 10; 2 Cor. xii. ~4). On the L~'&day. 12). " In your patience ye 11hall win your The expression occurs here only in tl;ie New souls" (Luke xxi.19). "Tribulation worketh Testament, and beyond all ree.sonable donbi pa:tiene1;" (Rom. v. 3) ; and uthrough many it moans "on Sunday." This is, tberefow. tr1bulatiOUB, we must enter int.o the kingdom the earliest nee of the phrase in this senee, of God n (Acts xiv. 22). Bengel notes that That it means Easter Day or Pentecost is- it is in tribulation that believers specially baseless conjecture. The phrase had not love this book. The Church of Asia, par- yet beoome common in .A.,D. 57, as iii shown ticularly after the prosperous time of Con- from st. Paul writing, " on the first of the stantine, bad a low opinion of the Apoca- week" (1 Cor. xvi •. 2), the usual expreliaion lypse: while the African Church, which in the Gospels and Acts (Matt. xx'riii. 1; waa more subject to persecution, highly Mark xvi. 2; Luke xxiv. 1; John xxi. 19: esteemed it. " Everything tends to show Acts xx. 7; oomp. Mark. xvi. 9). But; \bat the Apocalypse was e.cknowledged in from Ignatius onwe.rds,-we have e. complete Africa from the earliest times as eanonica.l chain of evidence that ~ Kup,wc-6 became the Scripture" (Westcott,' On the' Canon of the regular Ohristia.n name for the fln1; day of New Testament,' p. 238). Was in the isle. the week: and KupuzK"lj is ltill the name .of Here and in ver. 10 " was " is literally Sunday in the Levant. "No longer obser:r- 4'came to be" (l-y•vdl'7J"), implying that ing sabbaths, but fashioning their Ii ves after 8Uoh we.a not his o~e.ry condition ; oomp. the Lord's da-y "(Ign., •Magn.,' ix.). Melito. .,.,,,1_..,.,os ,., • P"1-l1 (2 Tim. i. 17). That ii Bishop of Bardis (A.D. 170). wrote a tiee.tiila oalled l'&tmos. St. John does not assume TEp! Kup11.,dj, (Eusebius, 'Hist. Eool.,' IV, &hat hia readers 'kuow ao in11iguificant a xxvi. 2). Dion1sill8 of Corinth (A.D. 17.6),iA • THE RE.VELATlON OF ST. JOBN THE DIVINE. [CB. L 1-20