CHAPTER 5§ 1. Contents and Authorship

As in 4 we have the vision of Him that sitteth on the throne, to whom the world and all that is therein owe their being, in v. we have the vision of the Lamb into whose hands the destinies of the world and all that is therein are committed. By His victory once and for all (ἐνίκησεν, 5:5, and ὡς ἐσφαγμένον, 5:6) He has shown Himself equal to this task, for whose achievement none else could be found. And as in iv. the Living Creatures praise God as the All Holy, the Almighty and the Everlasting-One, and the Elders fall down and worship Him as the Creator of all things, in 5:8 sqq. first the Living Creatures and the Elders fall down and worship the Lamb who through His redeeming death had won the right to carry God’s purposes into effect, next (11 sq.) the countless hosts of angels praise the Lamb as God, and finally (13) the whole world of created things in heaven, in earth and under the earth joins in a universal burst of thanksgiving to Him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb. Thus as in 4 God the Creator is the centre of worhip, in 5 it is God the Redeemer, who thereby carries God’s purposes into fulfilment, while the chapter closes in the joint adoration of Him that sitteth on the throne and of the Lamb.

As regards the authorship, every clause of it is from the hand of our author except two glosses in 8, 11, which are intended to be explanatory and supplementary, but are both in conflict with the thought of the writer. Whilst the diction and the idiom (§ 2), which latter is not so pronounced as in the earlier chapters, are clearly those of our Seer, there is not an idiom or phrase that is not his.

§ 2. Diction and IdiomThere can be no doubt as to this chapter being from the hand of our author.(a) Diction.2. ἄγγελον ἰσχυρόν: again in 10:1, 18:21. ἐν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ: again in

14:7, 9, 15. Without ἐν in 5:12, 6:10, 7:2, 10, 8:13, 10:3, etc. Contrast the non-Johannine ἐν ἰσχυρᾷ φωνῇ in 18:2.

3. ὑποκάτω. Cf. 13, 6:9, 12:1. Elsewhere in NT 7 times.4. ἄξιος εὑρέθη. For εὑρεῖν with part. or adj. Cf. 2:2, 3:2, 20:15.6. ἀρνίον. This word is applied to Christ 29 times in our author and not elsewhere

in the N.T., where ἀμνός is used (Fourth Gospel, Acts, 1 Pet.).9. ᾄδουσιν ᾠδὴν καινήν : cf. 14:3, 15:3. ἐσφάγης: cf. 6, 12, 13:8.

ἠγόρασας: cf. 14:3, 4. ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου: cf. 1:5. φυλῆς κ. γλώσσης κ. λαοῦ κ. ἔθνους : cf. 7:9, 11:9, 13:7, 14:6.

10. βασιλείαν καὶ ἱερεῖς : cf. 1:6. βασιλεύουσιν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς :cf. 20:4, ἐβασίλευσαν…χίλια ἔτη— both statements referring to the Millennial Kingdom. Contrast 22:5.

12. ἄξιόν ἐστιν τὸ ἀρνίον … λαβεῖν τ. δύναμιν: cf. 11:17, εἴληφας τ. δύναμιν. τὴν δύναμιν κ. πλοῦτον κτλ. For the same seven, save in the case of πλοῦτον, cf. 7:12.

13. τῷ καθημένῳ ἐπὶ τ. θρόνῳ κ. τῷ ἀρνίῳ. Cf. 6:16, 7:10, 14:4, 22:1, 3.

(b) Idiom.1. τοῦ καθημένου ἐπὶ τ. θρόνου. Cf. 7, 13, and the note on 4:2, for the

unique use of these phrases in our author.4. ἔκλαιον. The past imperfect is not frequently used in our author, and its use is

very forcible (except in 5:14): cf. 1:12, 2:14, 5:4, 14, 6:8, 9, 10:10, 19:14, 21:15.

N.T. New Testament.

5. εἷς ἐκ. Seven times elsewhere in our author: twelve times in Fourth Gospel: ten times in rest of N.T.

ὁ λέων ὁ ἐκ τῆς φυλῆς. For this use of the art. connecting the noun with a following phrase, cf. 1:4, 2:24, 8:3, 9, 11:19, 14:17, 16:3, 19:14, 20:8, 13.

6. ἐν μέσῳ … ἐν μέσῳ = בין . . . ובין = “ in the midst of … and ”—a Hebraism.

ὡς ἐσφαγμένον: A frequent idiomatic use of ὡς in our author. ἀρνίον … ἔχων. This breach of concord in gender frequent in our author. Cf. πνεύματα … ἀπεσταλμένοι, which follows.

7. ἦλθεν καὶ εἴληφεν: cf. 8:3, 17:1, 21:9 for this Semiticism, which does not occur in the Fourth Gospel. Introd. to II.–III. § 2 (a), p. 39. It has been pointed out that the use of the perfect εἴληφα is characteristic of our Seer.

11. ὁ ἀριθμός … λέγοντες. Another instance of this breach of concord common in our author occurs in 13, πᾶν κτίσμα … λέγοντας.

13. τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς πάντα. πᾶς precedes its noun in our author except here and in 8:3, 13:12.

5:1. καὶ εἴδον ἐπὶ τὴν δεξιὰν τοῦ καθημένου ἐπὶ τοῦ θρόνου βιβλίον γεγραμμένον ἔσωθεν καὶ ὄπισθεν, κατεσφραγισμένον σφραγῖσιν ἑπτά. For the construction ἐπὶ τὴν δεξίαν compare 20:1, ἐπὶ τὴν χεῖρα. The book-roll lies on the open palm of the right hand, not in the hand.

Opinions are divided as to i. the form, and ii. the contents of the βιβλίον.i. The form.—(a) Grotius (ii. 1160), Zahn (Einleit. ii. 596), Nestle (Text. Crit. of NT

333), take it to be not a roll but a codex; for (1) it is said to be ἐπὶ τὴν δεξίαν. Had it been a roll it would have been ἐν τῇ δεξιᾷ. This argument is already answered above. (2) “The word used for opening the Book is ἀνοῖξαι (5:4) and not, as in the case of rolls, ἀνελίσσειν, ἀνειλεῖν or ἀναπτύσσειν.” But this is not so. ἀνοῖξαι is used

in Isa. 37:14 (ἤνοιξεν αὐτό = τὸ βιβλίον) as a rendering of 3פרׂש, the word which Ezekiel uses in 2:10, and which the LXX renders there by ἀνείλησεν.

ἀνοίξαι is used of unrolling a book also in Luke 4:17, where א D correct the ἀνοίξας into ἀναπτύξας, against ABL and most Versions. In Luke 4:20 πτύξας is used of rolling up the book. Nestle further adds: “That it was not written on the outside is also shown by the fact that it was sealed with seven seals, the purpose of which was to make the reading of the book impossible. Not till the seventh seal is broken is the book open and its contents displayed.” But the idea in our text is that with the opening of each successive seal a part of the contents of the book-roll is disclosed in prophetic symbolism. Hence these scholars read γεγραμμένον ἔσωθεν καὶ ὄπτισθεν κατεσφραγισμένον, taking the two latter words together. To this it has been reasonably rejoined that such a description is superfluous, as a roll is never written on the outside and sealed on the inside.

(b) Spitta, 281, supposes that the βιβλίον is a book consisting of parchment leaves, each pair of which is fastened with a seal.

(c) But with most scholars we take the βιβλίον to be a book-roll. In Ezek. 3:1, Ezra

6:2 this is simply called κεφαλίς (מגלה), in Ezek. 2:9, Ps. 39:8 κεφαλίς βιβλίου

.The roll was ὀπισθόγραφον, written on the back also as in Ezek .(ספר מגלת)2:10. In the latter passage it is described as “written before and behind”—

LXX Septuagint.

.Petrograd. Sd. δ (iv) אԠא

γεγραμμένα … τὰ ἔμπροσθεν καὶ τὰ ὀπίσω (כתובה פנים ואחור), but in our text as “written within and without”—γεγραμμένον ἔσωθεν καὶ ὄπισθεν. This may be due, as Bousset suggests, to the fact that in Ezekiel the roll is open, but that in our text it is closed. On the use of such ὀπισθόγραφα amongst the Greeks and Romans, Wetstein quotes Lucian, Vit. Auct. 9, ἡ πήρα δέ σοι θέρμων ἔσται μεστὴ καὶ ὀπισθογράφων βιβλίων; Juvenal, i. 6, “Summi plena jam margine libri scriptus et in tergo necdum finitus Orestes”; Martial, 8:62, “Scribit in aversa Picens Epigrammata charta,”

ii. The contents.—(a) According to Huschke (Das Buch mit den sieben Siegeln, 1860), Zahn (op. cit.), and J. Weiss1 (Die Offenb. 57 sqq.) the Book represents a Will or Testament relating to the Old and New Testament Covenant. A will, according to the Praetorian Testament, in Roman law bore the seven seals of the seven witnesses on the threads that secured the tablets or parchment (see Smith, Dict. of Greek and Roman Ant., p. 1117). Such a Testament could not be carried into execution till all the seven seals were loosed.

The Seal visions are, therefore, on this view only signs of the end, the “woes” of the Messiah. But, if this view were right, then our author could not have omitted the most significant part of the whole procedure—the opening of the Book itself after the undoing of the seventh seal.

(b) The roll contains the divine decrees and the destinies of the world. It deals with the things ἃ μέλλει γενέσθαι. With the loosing of each seal a part of its contents is revealed in symbolic representation. In other words, the Book is a prophecy of the things that fall out before the end. Owing to the solemnity with which it is introduced and the importance attached to it by the Seer, it should contain all the future history of the world described in the Apocalypse to its close; and so Nicolas de Lyra, Corn. a Lap., Bengel, Düsterdieck, Bousset, etc., explain. This appears to be the right view, though it is hard to reconcile this view with the rest of the Apocalypse.

That this Book is sealed with seven seals shows that the divine counsels and judgments it contains are a profound secret (cf. 10:4, 22:10; Isa. 29:11; Dan. 8:26, 12:4, 9), which can only be revealed through the mediation of the Lamb.

In apocalyptic literature we have conceptions closely related to that of the Book in our text. It recalls the thought expressed by the phrase “the heavenly tablets” (αἱ πλάκες τοῦ οὐρανοῦ) which is found in the Test. XII Patriarchs, the Book of Jubilees, and in 1 Enoch. The conception underlying this phrase is to be traced, partly to Ps. 139:16; Ex. 25:9, 40, 26:30, where we find the idea that heaven contains divine archetypes of certain things that exist on earth; partly to Dan. 10:21, where a book of God’s plans is referred to; but most of all to the growing determinism of thought, for which this phrase stands as a concrete expression. The conception is not a hard and fixed one: in 1 Enoch and Test. XII Patr. it wavers between an absolute determinism and prediction pure and simple. In the following passages as in our text the heavenly tablets deal with the future destinies of the world in 1 Enoch 81:1 sq., 93:1–3, 106:19, 107:1; and the blessings in store for the righteous 103:2. They are apparently called the Book of the Angels, 103:2 (gm, β), and are designed for the perusal of the angels, 108:7, that they may know the future recompenses of the righteous and the wicked.

1 A colleague of J. Weiss (op. cit. p. 57, n. 3) has been shown that it is possible

to construct a roll in which the seals fastened to the cords can be so fastened

that with the removal of one a part of the roll can be unrolled, while the rest

remains secure.

Here there is a divergence between the Book in our text and the books in Enoch. The Book in our text is closed, and can only be opened by the Lamb. Those in Enoch are open to be perused by the angels. Notwithstanding the ideas are closely related. See my notes on 1 Enoch 47:3 and Jub. 3:10.

2. καὶ εἰδον ἄγγελον ἰσχυρὸν κηρύσσοντα ἐν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ. A “strong angel” is referred to again in 10:1, 18:21. The strength of the angel is dwelt upon, as his voice penetrates to the utmost bounds of heaven and earth and Hades. The phrase ἐν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ (see note on 10:3) recurs in 14:7, 9, 15; κηρύσσοντα ἐν is a Hebraism.

τίς ἄξιος ἀνοῖξαι τὸ βιβλίον καὶ λῦσαι τὰς σφραγῖδας αὐτοῦ. ἄξιος here = ἱκανός. Matt. 8:8: cf. 2 Cor. 2:16, πρὸς ταῦτα τίς ἱκανός; In John 1:27 it is combined with ἵνα. The “worthiness” (ἀξιότης) is the inner ethical presupposition of the ability (ἱκανότης) to open the Book. In ἀνοῖξαι καὶ λῦσαι there is a hysteron proteron, or else we may take λῦσαι as defining more nearly the preceding word ἀνοῖξαι.

3. καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐδύνατο ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ οὐδὲ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς οὐδὲ ὑποκάτω τῆς γῆς ἀνοῖξαι τὸ βιβλίον οὐδὲ βλέπειν αὐτό. Our author uses ἐδύνατο, never ἐδυνήθη. In the whole sphere of creation none was worthy to open the Book. This threefold division is found already in Ex. 20:4 (cf. 20:11; Ps. 146:6), though in an earlier and different form: “that is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” This latter agrees exactly with the Babylonian division of the world into heaven and earth and water (apsu = water under and around the earth: see Zimmern, K.A.T.3 ii. 350, 615), each of which had its own god. In Ex. 20:4 the Babylonian polytheism has of course disappeared, though the cosmic division has survived. But, inasmuch as there has been a great eschatological development between Ex. 20:4 and the time of our Apocalypse, the third division has become synonymous with Hades. This appears clearly in Phil. 2:10. On a fourfold division of creation see note on 13.

4. καὶ ἔκλαιον πολύ, ὅτι οὐδεὶς ἄξιος εὑρέθη ἀνοῖξαι τὸ βιβλίον οὔτε βλέπειν αὐτό. The Seer began to weep unrestrainedly because no being in creation was found worthy to open the Book. Others think that his weeping was due to his fear that the hoped for revelation would now be withheld, as it depended on the opening of the Book.

5. καὶ εἷς ἐκ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων λέγει μοι Μὴ κλαῖε· ἰδοὺ ἐνίκησεν ὁ λέων ὁ ἐκ τῆς φυλῆς Ἰούδα, ἡ ῥίζα Δαυείδ, ἀνοῖξαι τὸ βιβλίον καὶ τὰς ἑπτὰ σφραγῖδας αὐτοῦ. εἷς ἐκ is found twelve times in the Fourth Gospel and eight times in the Apocalypse. One of the Elders here, as again in 7:13, intervenes, as elsewhere do other angels, 10:4, 8 sqq., 17:1, 19:9, 21:9, 22:8, in order to inform or guide the Seer. μὴ κλαῖε: cf. John 20:13. The actual phrase is used by Christ in Luke 7:13, 8:52.

ἰδοὺ ἐνίκησεν. The ἰδού serves to introduce vividly the scene represented in the next verse. ἐνίκησεν is to be taken here, as always in the LXX and the N.T., absolutely. It states that once and for all Christ has conquered: cf. 3:21, ὡς κἀγὼ ἐνίκησα, and the object of this conquest was to empower Him to open the book of destiny and carry the history of the world throughout its final stages. Thus the ἀνοῖξαι is to be taken as an infinitive of purpose. The victory has been won through His death and resurrection. The Victor is designated as ὁ λέων ὁ ἐκ τῆς φυλῆς Ἰούδα in

K.A.T. Schrader’s Die Keilinschriften und dasalte Testament, edited and

rewritten by H. Zimmern and H. Winckler, 1903.

dependence on Gen. 49:9, σκύμνος λέοντος Ἰούδα … ἀναπεσὼν ἐκοιμήθης ὡς λέων, and as ἡ ῥίζα Δαυείδ in dependence on Isa. 11:1, ἐξελεύσεται

ῥάβδος ἐκ τῆς ῥίζης (עX ]Zַז ג (מ\ׂש^][ר[ׂש^[יו) Ἰεσσαί, καὶ ἄνθος ἐκ τῆς ῥίζης (מ\

ἀναβήσεται, and 11:10, καὶ ἔσται ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἡ ῥίζα ( τοῦ (ׂש^`רZׂש^Ἰεσσαί. The first passage was interpreted Messianically in the 1st cent. B.C., as we see from the Test. Judah 24:5, and the second in Rom. 15:12. Since Isa. 11:4, “He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth,” is applied to the Messiah in Pss. Sol. 17:39, we may conclude that Isa. 11:1–10 was interpreted Messianically in pre-Christian times. In 22:16 of our text the author returns to these designations of the Messiah: ἐγὼ εἰμὶ ἡ ῥίζα καὶ τὸ γένος Δαυείδ.

6. καὶ εἶδον ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ θρόνου καὶ τῶν τεσσάρων ζῴων καὶ ἐν μέσῳ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων ἀρνίον ἑστηκὸς ὡς ἐσφαγμένον. The position of the Lamb, in the scene depicted, depends on the rendering assigned to ἐν μέσῳ … ἐν μέσῳ. 1. The text may mean “between the throne and the four Living Creatures (on the one side) and the Elders (on the other).” In

this case the Greek would be Hebraistic = בין ובין. The LXX constantly translate in this way the Hebrew preposition literally, and not idiomatically, as in Gen. 1:4, 7, 18, 3:15, 9:16, 17, etc. On this view the Lamb would stand somewhere between the inner concentric circle of the Living Creatures and the outer concentric circle of the twenty-four Elders. 2. Or the two phrases ἐν μέσῳ may be parallel and emphasize the fact that the Lamb stood in the centre of all the beings above named. In favour of the latter view may be cited 7:17, τὸ ἀρνίον τὸ ἀυὰ μέσον τοῦ θρόνου. If this view is correct it would imply that the Lamb is standing in immediate closeness to the throne. But 5:7, καὶ ἦλθεν καὶ εἴληφεν, is against this. Accordingly the text seems to teach that the Lamb, when first seen by the Seer, appeared in the space between the circles of the Living Creatures and the twenty-four Elders.

The term ἀρνίον as applied to our Lord is peculiar to the Apocalypse—elsewhere in the N.T. it is ἀμνός that is used: John 1:29, 36; 1 Pet. 1:19; Acts 8:32. This last passage is a quotation from Isa. 53:7, ὡς πρόβατον ἐπὶ σφαγὴν ἤχθη καὶ ὡς ἀμνὸς ἐναντίον τοῦ κείροντος αὐτὸν ἄφωνος. That this passage was interpreted of Christ by the first Christians is shown by Acts 8:34 sqq. The prophet applies it to himself in Jer. 11:19, ἐγὼ δὲ ὡς ἀρνίον ἄκακον ἀγόμενον τοῦ θύεσθαι οὐκ ἔγνων κτλ. The word is used twenty-nine times in twelve chapters of the Apocalypse as a designation of the crucified Messiah. Vischer (38–46) has tried to show that ἀρνίον is an interpolation in the present passage as well as throughout the rest of the Apocalypse, but unsuccessfully save perhaps in 13:8. So far, however, is Vischer from being right as to the present passage, that with J. Weiss (p. 57) the conceptions of the Book and the Lamb are to be regarded as “the kernel of the Vision.” ὡς ἐσφαγμένον, i.e. as though slain in sacrifice and still retaining the appearance of death wounds on its body. These wounds are tokens that the sacrifice has been offered. The Lamb is represented ὡς ἐσφαγμένον, because in very truth He is not dead but alive: cf. 1:18, 2:8.

ἔχων κέρατα ἑπτά. The horn first of all symbolizes power in the O.T. Cf. Num. 23:22; Deut. 33:17; 1 Sam. 2:1; 1 Kings 22:11; Ps. 75:4, 89:17, etc. Next it marks kingly dignity, Ps. 112:9, 148:14; Zech. 1:18; Dan. 7:7, 20, 8:3 sqq.; Apoc. 12:3, 13:1, 2, 17:3.In 1 Enoch 90:9 the Maccabees are symbolized by “horned lambs”: “And I saw till horns grew upon those lambs”: and in Test. Joseph 19:8 sq., one of this family is

O.T. Old Testament.

designed under the term ἀμνός, which destroys the enemies of Israel. While the idea underlying ἀρνίον ὡς ἐσφαγμένον is clearly derived from Isa. 53:7, it is very probable that the conception underlying ἔχων κέρατα ἑπτά is sprung from apocalyptic tradition. It is probable also that it is the Jewish Messiah that is designated ἀμνός in the above passage of the Test. Joseph; and such is certainly the case in 1 Enoch 90:37, “And I saw that a white bull was born with large horns.” “The Lamb,” then, “with the seven horns” is the all-powerful (observe the perfect number “seven” is used) warrior and king. Cf. Matt. 28:18; John 17:1, 2. Over against the Christ so represented we have His counterpart in the Beast with the seven heads in 13:1.

καὶ ὀφθαλμοὺς ἑπτά, οἵ εἰσιν τὰ [ἑπτὰ] πνεύματα τοῦ θεοῦ ἀπεσταλμένοι εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν. Omniscience appears to be here attributed to the Lamb. The possession of the seven eyes has this import: for these belong to Yahweh in the O.T.: cf. Zech. 4:10, ἑπτὰ οὗτοι ὀφθαλμοί εἰσιν κυρίου

οἱ ἐπιβλέποντες (ִט\יםgׂש^וִ̀טgמ) ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν. The clause οἵ εἰσιν … γῆν has been rejected by Weyland, Spitta (p. 67), Völter, iv. p. 12, Wellhausen (p. 9) as an explanatory addition. Its removal would certainly make the interpretation of the text easier. But there is no objection to this clause as coming from our author’s hand: cf. 3:1. In 4:5, on the other hand, we found that alike the verse structure of 4:1–8 and the order of the words were against the originality of 4:5b (?), but not against its insertion, when he edited his visions as a whole. Furthermore, since ἀπεσταλμένοι or

ἀπεσταλμένα seems to be a very loose but independent translation of מׂשוִטִטים (LXX, ἐπιβλέποντες), and since we have already found that our author does not depend for his knowledge of the Hebrew on the LXX, this forms a presumption in favour of his authorship of this clause. Accordingly recognizing its originality, we should next determine the true text. This, we fear, cannot be done with any certainty. The authorities are divided between ἀπεσταλμένοι, ἀπεσταλμένα, and ἀποστελλόμενα. This word could be used either of the “eyes” or of the “spirits,” and hence gives us no help, though the original passage in Zechariah is in favour of connecting the words ὀφθαλμούς and ἀπεσταλμένοι.

B. Weiss (p. 442) decides definitely for this view and accordingly reads ἀπεσταλμένοι. On the other hand, the context is rather in favour of connecting πνεύματα and the participle. In this case Bousset thinks we should read ἀποστελλόμενα or ἀπεσταλμένα. But there is no necessity whatever for so doing. Such a construction as πνεύματα … ἀπεσταλμένοι is quite a normal one in our author, however abnormal in itself. The seven eyes are here identified with the seven spirits of which the Lamb is Lord and Master, 3:1. The conception of spirits being sent forth as the agents of Divine Providence is easier of comprehension than that in Zech. 4:10.

On the probable origin and meaning of the eyes and “spirits” in this connection, see note on p. 12 sq.

It is quite impossible to conceive a figure embodying the characteristics of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, and the seven-horned Lamb with seven eyes. The Apocalypse deals with ideas, not with plastic conceptions. The terms used have become for the most part purely symbolical and metaphorical. They have been derived from various sources. Taken by themselves and separately, they are but one-sided and partial representatives of the Messiah of our author. Without any fear of seeming contradiction he combines apparently in one concrete whole these various conceptions, in order to embody fitly the Messiah of his faith and visions. If we confine ourselves to the ideas, and ignore the conflicting plastic manifestations, we shall find no difficulty.

The Lion of the tribe of Judah is the one strong member par excellence of this tribe; the Root of Jesse,1 is, of course, the plant springing from the root of Jesse (cf. Isa. 53:2; Deut. 29:18).

Thus in 22:16 ἡ ῥίζα and τὸ γένος are practically synonymous. These two expressions designate in tradition the expected Messiah of the tribe of Judah. When we combine with these the further one, “the Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes,” we have a being possessing full power and omniscience—the supreme ruler under God descended from the tribe of Judah. Quite another idea underlies the phrase ἀρνίον ὡς ἐσφαγμένον. As in the former expressions supreme power and omniscience are indicated, by this latter it is supreme self-surrender and self-sacrifice. But there is no contradiction between the ideas, however it may be with their symbols; for this absolute self-sacrifice which has already been undergone, as our author indicates, has become the avenue to supreme power and omniscience.

Such appears to have been the meaning attached to the conception of the Lamb by our author. But some of the elements in the conception may possibly, as Gunkel (Zum Verstäandniss NT, 60 sqq.) and Bousset (259) point out, go back to an ancient heathen myth. One such element is the opening of the sealed Book. Magical books, magical rings, magical oaths and formulas were everywhere current in the East. He who could make himself master of such books or oaths2 became to a great degree lord of the universe, and a new deity. By virtue of his magical power, however won, he has power to loose the seals of the book of destiny, to bring the old world to a close and enter on the sovereignty of the new, and thus be enthroned among the ancient deities, as Marduk in the Babylonian creation myth. Gunkel and Bousset assume the currency of some such heathen myth which was subsequently adopted into Judaism and from Judaism into Christianity. However this may be, our author has no consciousness of the existence of this myth, even if in the above form it ever existed. Some elements of the picture, however, do appear to go back to a heathen original.

7. καὶ ἦλθεν καὶ εἴληφεν ἐκ τῆς δεξιᾶς τοῦ καθημένου ἐπὶ τοῦ θρόνου. In ἦλθεν καὶ εἴληφεν we have a Semiticism (cf. 8:3) not found in the Fourth Gospel; cf. 8:3, 17:1, 21:9. See Dalman’s Words of Jesus, p. 21. But the ἦλθεν may not be a mere Semiticism, but may describe the actual advance of the Lamb from the place where He appeared between the Living Creatures and the Elders to the throne of God. Weiss, followed by Bousset and Swete, takes the perfect εἴληφεν as pointing to the permanent results of the action. “Christ receives the revelation of the secrets of the future as an abiding possession.” On the other hand, Moulton (Gram. N.T. Greek, i. 145) and Blass (p. 200) regard εἴληφεν as a genuinely aoristic perfect, as well as the perfect in 7:14, 8:5, 19:3, and probably in 3:3, 11:17, 2:27. Other examples are found in 2 Cor. 2:13, 1:9, 7:5; Rom. 5:2a; Mark 5:15. It is characteristic of the Apocalypse.

1 In Jer. 19:19 the expressions “lamb” and “tree” are applied to the same

subject, i.e. Jeremiah.

2 Compare the magical oath in 1 Enoch 69:15 sqq., by virtue of which the

heavens were made fast, the sea created, the earth founded on the waters, and

all the planets and stars kept in their courses. Michael the greatest of all the

angels and the patron of Israel had the charge of this oath.

8–14. Adoration of the Lamb—first by the Living Creatures and the Elders, 10; next, by the countless hosts of angels, 11–12; next, by all creation, 13; whereupon the Living Creatures say “amen” and the Elders fall down and worship, 14.

8. καὶ ὅτε ἔλαβεν τὸ βιβλίον, τὰ τέσσερα ζῷα καὶ οἱ εἴκοσι τέσσαρες πρεσβύτεροι ἔπεσαν ἐνώπιον τοῦ ἀρνίου. Spitta (p. 67) removes ἔπεσαν … ἀρνίου as a gloss, (1) because elsewhere not the Living Creatures, but only the Elders fall down and worship. But this is not so in 19:4, and there is no reason why the Cherubim in our author’s view of them should not prostrate themselves. (2) As the Elders had harps and censers in their hands they could not fall down. But Hirscht (Apocalypse und ihre neueste Kritik, p. 47) adduces the Egyptian picture, in which Rameses 11. is represented as falling down before the sungod Amen-Ra, holding the offering in his left hand and a crozier and a whip in his right (Lepsius, Aegypt. Wandgemälde d. Königl. Museen3, 1882, p. 26). (3) The falling down of the Elders first takes place in 5:14. This prostration removes, as Bousset points out, the difficulty alleged in (2). Besides, as Hirscht states, 11 seems to presuppose that the Living Creatures are again standing, and the Elders are sitting on their thrones. (4) Through the addition of the verb the following participles are brought unsuitably into relation with the Living Creatures. There is no more cogency in this objection than in the first. The Living Creatures, i.e. the Cherubim, were simply angels, and no longer bearers of the throne of God. As such there would be nothing strange, even if the Cherubim were conceived as holding harps and censers in their hands. But the latter belong exclusively to the Elders. On the other hand, J. Weiss (p. 55) would explain the clauses referring to the Elders as additions of the final editor, as in 4:4, 5:6, and would thus represent the Living Creatures as holding the harps and censers. But though 4:4 appears to have been added by our author when re-editing an earlier vision, there seem to be no adequate grounds for the view of Weiss with regard to the other passages.

ἔχοντες ἕκαστος κιθάραν καὶ φιάλας χρυσᾶς γεμούσας θυμιαμάτων [αἵ εἰσιν αἱ προσευχαὶ τῶν ἁγίων]. The words ἔχοντες ἕκαστος appear to refer only to the Elders, though, so far as the grammar goes, the ἔχοντες could refer to the τὰ ζῷα taken κατὰ σύνεσιν. Cf. ἔχων in 4:7. But the office of the Cherubim is not of a priestly nature, as we have already seen above, whereas that of the Elders is (see note). They have harps (cf. 14:2, 15:2) and censers in their hands, and the theme of their hymn is the self-sacrifice of the Lamb, by the which He has won the salvation of His people chosen from every race and tongue. The αἵ refers to θυμιαμάτων and not to φιάλας. Its gender is to be explained by attraction from προσευχαί. The prayers of the saints are symbolized by the incense: Ps. 140:2, κατευθυνθήτω ἡ προσευχή μου ὡς θυμίαμα ἐνώπιόν σου. The ἅγιοι are those dedicated to God, i.e. the Christians; for so the latter are frequently designated in the Apocalypse: cf. 8:3, 4, 11:18, 13:7, 10, 14:12, 16:6, 18:20, 20:9. Spitta (p. 67) and Völter (iv., p. 13) bracketed the clause αἵ … ἁγίων as an explanatory gloss, and a wrong one to boot; for the incense and the prayers are not identical. At most they can be compared to incense. The gloss is due to a spiritualizing of the idea in 8:3, to the effect that prayer is the true incense of heaven. This is no doubt a true idea, but it does not belong to the Apocalypse. The true relation of prayer and incense in our Book is given in 8:3.

The office of presenting the prayers of the faithful before God, which the gloss attributes to the Elders, is assigned to Michael in Origen, De Prin. i. 8. 1, and to the guardian angels in the Apoc. Pauli, 7–10. In 3 Bar. 11., Michael descends to the fifth heaven to receive the prayers of mankind. According to the Apoc. Pauli, 7–10, the doors of heaven were opened at a definite hour to receive these prayers. Judaism is the source

of these views, as we see by going back to an earlier work, the Test. Levi 3:5–6, where it is said that in the highest heaven the archangels, of whom Michael is the chief, “minister and make propitiation to the Lord for all the sins of the righteous, Offering to the Lord … a reasonable and a bloodless offering.” Next, in 3:7, in the fifth heaven, is the order of angels who present the prayers of the faithful to the archangels, who in turn lay them before God. (See my edition with notes in loc.) Cf. Tob. 12:12, 15. Thus in our text (except in 8:3–5) the four and twenty Elders have definitely taken the part assigned in many circles of Judaism to the Archangels, if the gloss is a valid interpretation of the text. They present before God the prayers of the saints, which they have probably received from a lower order of angels. It is a priestly function, as that of the Archangels in Test. Levi. 3:5–7; Origen, De Orat. 11 on Tobit. In the O.T. and later Judaism, as I have shown in my notes on Test. Levi 3:5, the angels acted as intercessors for mankind. But in the face of 8:3–5 the rôle of the Elders can hardly be that of presenting the prayers of the faithful to God. They exercise priestly functions, it is true, but their chief function is the praise of God and of the Lamb, who has redeemed humanity.

9. καὶ ᾄδουσιν ᾠδὴν καινὴν λέγοντες. This song is sung exclusively by the Elders, who play on their harps to the accompaniment of their song. “Heaven is

revealed to earth as the homeland of music” (C. Rossetti). The ᾠδὴ καινή ( ׂש^יר was originally a song of praise inspired by gratitude for new mercies. As such it (חדׂשoccurs six times in the Psalter: 32 (33):3, 39 (40):4, 95 (96):1, 97 (98):1, 143 (144):9, 149:1. But in Isa. 42:10 the phrase has a fuller content, corresponding to the deeper sense of “new things” in 42:9. The one cycle of events is fulfilled, the other is about to begin. However great the glories of things of old time, they shall be dimmed by the splendour of things to come. To this new cycle the new song belongs. Suddenly in our text the old God-appointed Jewish dispensation, with its animal sacrifices and racial exclusiveness, is brought to a close, and the new Christian dispensation is initiated, as the “new song” declares, by the self-sacrifice made once and for all (ἐσφάγης) by the Lamb, and the universal Church thereby established and drawn from every people and nation and language. The continuous song (ᾄδουσιν) is the note of continuous thankfulness and joy.

The καινότης—the newness in character, purity, and premanence of the New Kingdom is a favourite theme in the Apocalypse, and rightly; for form the beginning of and throughout apocalyptic literature there had been a promise of a new world and a new life. Although in earlier times the expected world may have been in most respects merely a glorified repetition of the world that then was, in later times the expectation became transformed and a world was looked for that was new, not as regards time (νεός), but as regards quality (καινός). And so our Apocalypse, as closing the long development of Apocalyptic in the past, dwells naturally on this theme. The Seer beholds in a vision the οὐρανὸν καινὸν καὶ γῆν καινήν and the Ἰερουσαλὴμ καινήν—the new universe created by God, who in the vision declares ἰδοὺ καινὰ ποιῶ πάντα, 21:5, 2 (cf. 3:12). Each citizen, moreover, of this New Kingdom is to bear a new name ὄνομα καινόν, 2:17, 3:12, and in praise of this kingdom the Elders sing the new song ᾠδὴν καινήν, and likewise the angels, 14:3, and the blessed company of the martyrs before the throne, 15:2.

Ἄξιος εἶ λαβεῖν τὸ βιβλίονκαὶ ἀνοῖξαι τὰς σφραγῖδας αὐτοῦ,ὅτι ἐσφάγης καὶ ἠγόρασας τῷ θεῷ ἐν τῷ αἵματί σουἐκ πάσης φυλῆς καὶ γλώσσης καὶ λαοῦ καὶ ἔθνους,

10.     καὶ ἐποίησας αὐτοὺς τῷ θεῷ ἡμῶν βασιλείαν καὶ ἱερεῖς

καὶ βασιλεύουσιν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.σφάζεσθαι is, as Swete points out, used to describe the death of Christ in this Book (6, 9, 12, 13:8) in dependence on Isa. 53:7, ὡς πρόβατον ἐπὶ σφαγὴν ἤχθη, and the death of the martyrs in 6:9, 18:24. ἀγοράζειν expresses the idea of salvation as one of purchase. Christ has bought the faithful for God by the shedding of His blood (cf. 1 Pet. 1:19). The power or sphere from which the purchase sets free is not mentioned here. In (14:3 it is from the earth and its evils, and in-a gloss) 14:4 from wicked men that they are withdrawn through the purchase. ἀγοράζειν is a Pauline word, 1 Cor. 6:20, 7:23 ; 2 Pet. 2:1. B. Weiss (p. 443) holds that the word points back to 1:5, so far as the loosing of the bands of sin makes this possible, in order that the redeemed may become ἅγιοι.

Bousset is of opinion that the word suggests release from a hostile power. In later ages many Christian theologians held that Christ purchased His disciples from the devil by His death.

ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου. Here as in 1:5 ἐν = the Hebrew ב, denoting price: “at the cost of Thy blood.”

ἐκ πάσης φυλῆς κτλ. This expression does not attribute the same universal scope to the redemptive power of Christ’s death as 1 John 2:2, αὐτὸς ἱλασμός ἐστιν … περὶ ὅλου τοῦ κόσμου.

φυλῆς καὶ γλώσσης καὶ λαοῦ καὶ ἔθνους. These four words occur, but in different order, in 5:9, 7:9, 11:9, 13:7, 14:6. In no two instances is the order the same. They recur twice more, but not only in a different order but with βασιλεῦσιν instead of φυλαῖς in 10:11, and ὄχλοι instead of φυλαί in 17:15. But this last occurs in a gloss. There is a similar enumeration in 4 Ezra 3:7, “Gentes et tribus, populi et cognationes” ( = ἔθνη καὶ φυλαί, λαοὶ καὶ συγγένειαι (?)). Now the source of all these is ultimately the Book of Daniel, 3:4, 7, 29, 5:19, 6:25, 7:14, whether it be the Massoretic, Theodotion, or the LXX. In the printed texts of the LXX it is found also in 3:31, but it is to be observed here that 3:31–32 were borrowed by Origen from

Theodotion. Now, since the Massoretic has in all the above passages א][ י ][א אsמ][ י XמgמXַע][א Xי gל\ׂש^][נ and Theodotion λαοί, φυλαί, γλῶσσαι, it will become clear as we וproceed that the enumerations in our text, which in every case consist of four members and one of these members ἔθνος or ἔθνη, cannot be derived from either the Massoretic text or Theodotion. On the other hand, the LXX has ἔθνος or ἔθνη always as one member of the enumerations, and in 3:4 there are four members in the

enumeration —ἔθνη καὶ χῶραι (= מדינתא?), λαοὶ καὶ γλῶσσαι. In the remaining four passages 3:2, 7, 29, 6:25, only three are mentioned: in the first three of these ἔθνη καὶ φυλαὶ καὶ γλῶσσαι (in various cases), and in 6:25, ἔθνεσι κ. γλώσσαις καὶ χώραις. Here we observe that, whereas λαός is found in all the passages in the Apocalypse and in Theodotion, it is found only once in the LXX (3:4). Thus this list is more nearly related to the LXX than to the Massoretic and Theodotion, but diverges also from the former. Hence our text presupposes either the existence of a translation differing both from the LXX and Theodotion though more akin to the former, or the independent use of an older Aramaic text of Daniel than that preserved in the Canon.

10. βασιλείαν καὶ ἱερεῖς κτλ. On the expression βασιλείαν καὶ ἱερεῖς see note on 1:6. The present βασιλεύουσιν, which is the harder reading, is also the right reading. It resumes the idea in βασιλεία and explains it. In the vision the Seer sees the saints already reigning. Thus the expression is proleptic, and refers primarily to

the Millennial Kingdom in 20. Or βασιλεύουσιν may, like συντρίβεται in 2:27, be a Hebraism for βασιλεύσουσιν. Others explain it as preserving its natural sense on the ground that the Church even then was reigning on earth, and that all things were being put under her feet as under those of her Lord: cf. Eph. 2:6; 1 Cor. 15:25. Not the Caesars, but the persecuted Christians are the true kings of the earth. But this sovereignty is not referred to here: it is only potential and is not realized till 20:4.

11. καὶ εἶδον καὶ ἤκουσα φωνὴν ἀγγέλων πολλῶν κύκλῳ τοῦ θρόνου [καὶ τῶν ζῴων καὶ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων], καὶ ἦν ὁ ἀριθμὸς αὐτῶν μυριάδες μυριάδων καὶ χιλιάδες χιλιάδων. The καὶ εἶδον introduces a new feature in the vision: see note on 4:1. Round about the two smaller concentric circles of the highest angels, the Seer sees and hears innumerable angelic hosts acclaiming the Lamb with one voice.

I have bracketed καὶ τῶν ζῴων κ. τῶν πρεσβυτέρων as a gloss. Their special thanksgiving has already been recorded in 9–10: that of the countless hosts of the angels comes in 12; then the thanksgiving of all creation. Further, when the various orders of heavenly beings are mentioned, they are given in the following order: Living Creatures, Elders, angels; or angels, Elders, Living Creatures, according as the Seer’s description proceeds from the throne outwards, or vice versa. See note on 4:4. The order of the words μυριάδες … χιλιάδες is surprising, and Bousset therefore brackets μυριάδες μυριάδων καί as an addition. They are omitted by the Vulgate and Primasius. The combination is already found, but in its natural order, in 1 Enoch 40:1, 60:1, 71:8 = χιλιάδες χιλιάδων καὶ μυριάδες μυριάδων, and these passages may have been in the mind of our author. The same combination is found also in Dan. 7:10, though verbs intervene: χίλιαι χιλιάδες ἐλειτούργουν αὐτῷ καὶ μύριαι μυριάδες παριστήκεισαν αὐτῷ (Theodotion). For partial parallels, cf., 1 Enoch 14:22; Ps 67 (68):18 (μυριοπλάσιον, χιλιάδες εὐθηνούντων), Deut. 32:30; Gen. 24:60, and our text, 9:16.

12.     ἄξιός ἐστιν τὸ ἀρνίον τὸ ἐσφαγμένον λαβεῖν τὴν δύναμινκαὶ πλοῦτον καὶ σοφίαν καὶ ἰσχὺνκαὶ τιμὴν καὶ δόξαν καὶ εὐλογίαν.

The doxology is uttered either in recognition of the power already possessed by the Lamb, or on its immediately impending assumption by Him. The fact of this assumption is subsequently referred to in 11:17, εἴληφας τὴν δύναμιν … καὶ ἐβασίλευσας.

In 4:9, 11 there are only three predicates over against four in 5:13, and seven in 5:12, 7:12. Next, whereas in 4:11, 7:12 the article precedes each number of the ascription, here one article includes them all, as though they formed one word. Again, the seven members of the ascription in our text recur in 7:12, though in a different order, except that for πλοῦτος in 5:12 we find εὐχαριστία in 7:12. The latter doxology, moreover, is addressed to God, as also those in 4:9, 11. The septenary number may indicate completeness. Two heptads of such titles of honour are found as early as 1 Chron. 29:11, 12, though each member does not always consist of a single word, but in 29:11 of a clause in two instances, and in three in 29:12. In the latter verse four of the members are the same as those in our text, πλοῦτος … δόξα … ἰσχύς …

δύναμις (עׂשר . . . כבוד . . . כח . . . גבורה). These are not the renderings of the LXX. If our author made any use of 1 Chron. 29:11, 12 here, he did not use the LXX version of it.

Bousset points out that the seven members of the ascription fall into two divisions of four and three: the four deal with the power and wisdom that the Lamb assumes; the three with the recognition of the Lamb on the part of mankind. In this way he accounts for the different order in 5:12 and 7:12. Spitta (285) thinks that the different order in the

attributes in 4:11, 5:12, 7:12 is due to the wish of the writer to bring out more fully the contrast between τὸ ἀρνίον τὸ ἐσφαγμένον and the attributes δύναμις, πλοῦτος, σοφία, ἰσχύς. Thereupon follow the δόξα, τιμή, εὐλογία, which in the doxologies addressed to God, however, are at the beginning.

13.     καὶ πᾶν κτίσμα ὃ ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆςκαὶ ὑποκάτω τῆς γῆς καὶ ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ ἐστίν,καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς πάντα, ἤκουσα λέγοντας.

Again the circle of the worshippers is extended, and on the doxologies and thanksgivings of the Cherubim and Elders, and the innumerable hosts of angels, follows the great finale pronounced by all creation.

Here the writer, who in 3 had given the usual threefold division of creation, now gives a fourfold one. Since the inhabitants of heaven have already been fully (?) enumerated, we should expect the mention of those in the air (ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ), on the

earth, and in the sea (cf. Ps. 8:7–8); and this is actually the text of א , some cursives, and two Versions, which omit ὑποκάτω τῆς γῆς.

But the textual evidence strongly supports this clause, which is, therefore, to be interpreted of the inhabitants of Hades, as it cannot well admit of any other meaning. That the inhabitants of Hades join in the doxology, shows the vast progress that theology has made from O.T. times, when no praise of God was conceived of as possible in Sheol: Ps. 6:5, 30:9, 88:10–12; Isa. 38:18. This being the meaning of this clause, what meaning are we to attach to ὃ ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ? (a) If we follow the interpretation suggested above, we have the birds of the air, the men and the animals on the earth, the souls in Hades, and the fish of the sea. This is a very unsatisfactory list. Other explanations of ὃ ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ have accordingly been offered. (b) Thus Corn. a Lap. has suggested that it refers to the sun, moon, and stars. This is quite possible, since we know that the Jews attributed a conscious existence to these luminaries, 1 Enoch 18:13 sqq., and according to 2 Enoch 11. They belong to the fourth heaven. (c) Or the clause may be taken as referring to all the inhabitants of heaven except the Cherubim and the Elders, who pronounce the amen on this doxology. (d) Or, finally, the clause is to be taken resumptively as including all that went before. In favour of this view it may be observed that at the close of the enumeration in 13 we have another resumptive clause embracing exhaustively all the creation of God (καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς πάντα). Thus the universe of created things, the inhabitants of heaven, earth, sea, and Hades, join in the grand finale of praise that rose to the throne of God. Yet 14 might seem, but not necessarily, to exclude from these the Cherubim and the Elders.

For a parallel resumptive expression cf. Mark 15:1, οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς μετὰ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων καὶ γραμματέων καὶ ὅλον τὸ συνέδριον. The phrase τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς πάντα is already found in Ex. 20:11; Ps 165 (146):6.

ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ. So א and various Versions. ἐπί, cum gen. impossible here.τῷ καθημένῳ ἐπὶ τῷ θρόνῳ καὶ τῷ ἀρνίῳἡ εὐλογία καὶ ἡ τιμὴ καὶ ἡ δόξακαὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων.

τῷ καθημένῳ ἐπί (see note on 4:2) τῷ θρόνῳ καὶ τῷ ἀρνίῳ. This conjunction of God and the Lamb, which recurs in 7:10, attests the advanced Christology of our author. The throne of Both is one and the same, 22:1, 3, 3:21, and the worship offered to Each is also one and the same: cf. 7:12.

In this verse we have the climax of chaps. 4 and 5 Chap. 4 relates to God, and 5:1–12 to the Lamb; 5:13–14 to the conjoined glory of God and the Lamb. The two doxologies offered respectively by the Cherubim (4:9) and the Elders (4:11) dwell on

the holiness, almightiness, and everlastingness of God, and the manifestation of His glory in creation. The first two doxologies in 5 which are offered by the Cherubim of Living Creatures and the Elders (5:9–10), and by the innumerable hosts of angels (5:12), dwell on the redemption of the world by the Lamb, and pronounce Him as worthy to rule it and to receive the sevenfold attributes of God (cf. 7:12). And now the climax of the world’s adoration has come, and the worship offered to God in 4, and that to the Lamb in 5:1–12, are united in one great closing doxology, in which all created things throughout the entire universe acclaim together God and the Lamb, with praise and honour and glory and power for ever and ever. The doxology has four members, consisting of the last three attributes in the doxology in 12 together with one which is elsewhere found only in the doxology in 1:6.

14. καὶ τὰ τέσσερα ζῷα ἔλεγον Ἀμήν. It is fitting that the Cherubim, the highest order of angels, should close the doxology of all creation with the solemn ἀμήν of confirmation, as at the beginning, 4:8, they had pronounced the first doxology. Both Cherubim and Elders join in this ἀμήν in 19:4. Cf. Deut. 27:15 sqq.

Amen is used in the Apocalypse in probably four senses. i. The initial amen in which the words of a previous speaker are referred to and adopted as one’s own: 5:14, 7:12, 19:4, 22:20. The earliest instances of this use are found in 1 Kings 1:36; Jer. 28:6, 11:5. ii. “The detached Amen, the complementary sentence being suppressed (Deut. 27:15–26; Neh. 5:13).” Such may be the use in 5:14 of our text. This amen was used liturgically, in the time of the Chronicler, 1 Chron. 16:36 = Ps. 106:48—though not in the Temple service, when the response was different, but in the services of the synagogue (Schürer, G.J.V. II. ii. 453–454, 458), whence the custom passed over to the Christian Church (cf. 1 Cor. 14:16). This usage is vouched for by Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 65, ὁ παρὼν λαὸς ἐπευφημεῖ λέγων Ἀμήν, and later by Jerome. iii. The final amen with no change of speaker, 1:6, 7. This use is frequent from the N.T. onwards, but not found in the O.T. save in the subscriptions to the four divisions of the Psalter, 41:14, 72:18, 89:52, 106:48. iv. See note on 3:14. For other uses of this word see the article in Encyc. Bib. i. 136 sq., by Professor Hogg, which I have drawn upon for the above notes;

and that in Hastings’ D.B. ן yא[מ is rendered in the LXX by γένοιτο in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalter, but by ἀμήν in the Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Apocrypha. (See note on ναί, ἀμήν in 1:7.)

With the doxology in 13bc and the succeeding amen we should compare 1 Chron. 16:36, εὐλογημένος κύριος ὁ θεός Ἰσραὴλ ἀπὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος καὶ ἕως τοῦ αἰῶνος, καὶ ἐρεῖ πᾶς ὁ λαός Ἀμήν. That the doxologies in the Psalter were in the mind of our writer will become clearer when we come to 19:4.

Swete well remarks in loc., “the whole passage is highly suggestive of the devotional attitude of the Asiatic Church in the time of Domitian towards the person of Christ. It confirms Pliny’s report: ‘(Christianos) carmen Christo quasi deo dicere secum invicem.’” This was already remarked by Völter, Das Problem d. Apok. p. 512, “Wenn Plinius an Trajan schreibt. dass die Christen am Tag ihrer Zusammenkünfte gewöhnt seien, carmen Christo quasi Deo dicere, so erinnert man sich dabei … der Lobpreisung des Lammes in Apok. v. 13.” Here the Elders prostrate themselves before God and the Lamb, as in 4:10 they had done before God.

APPENDIXWriters have dealt very variously with this chapter. Vischer, 54 sqq., Schmidt, 35,

are obliged from their standpoint of an original Jewish Apocalypse to reject 5:9–14, since the glorification of the Lamb and His redemption of the Gentiles cannot appear in

D.B. Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible.

such an Apocalypse. The former rejects also the words ἀρνίον … ὡς ἐσφαγμένον in 5:6 and ἀρνίου in 5:8. Weyland, 148 sqq., from the same standpoint goes farther and assigns 5:6–14 to the Christian redactor, and X. (in Z.A.T.W., 1887, No. 1) is still more drastic and regards 5:2b, 3–6, 8–14 as derived from a Christian redactor. Rauch, 79 sq., 121 sq., is content with excising 5:9b, 10, the explanatory relative sentences in 5:6, 8, and the phrase καὶ τῷ ἀρνίῳ in 5:13.

Even critics who start from the basis of a Christian Apocalypse remove 5:11–14. So Völter ii., i. 156, ii. 27 sq., iii. 84–86, iv. 13 sq., 27, mainly on the grounds that the chronology is expressed only in general terms and takes no account of the Lamb taking the Book and opening the seals, and that He is set on equality with God. This addition he variously assigns to a reviser of the year 129 or 114. In iv. 145 he finds additions made by a redactor of Trajan’s time, in 5:6b because of the exalted view of the Lamb, and in 5:9b because of the contradiction existing between this universalistic conception and 7:1–8, and in 5:10b where the final clause is added on the basis of 20:4, 22:5. Erbes, 50, 102, regards 5:11–14 as an intrusion in their present context, and thinks that it stood originally after 15:2–4. Spitta, 280–287, maintains the integrity of the chapter on the whole, but excises as additions of a redactor the relative clauses in 5:6, 8, the final clause of 5:10, and ἰδοὺ … αὐτοῦ in 5:5, and ἔπεσον … ἀρνίου in 5:8.

But no valid grounds exist for any such mutilations of the text of this chapter or the preceding one, seeing that the ideas are so closely wrought together and elaborated in a growing crescendo (cf. closing note on 5:13), and that the diction and idiom are so distinctively characteristic of our author. To the intrusion of certain glosses in 4–5 we have already drawn attention.

Z.A.T.W. Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft.

Völter Völter, Offenbarung Johannis