Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Revelation 18:12 - 18:12
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Fine Linen (βύσσου)
See on Luk 16:19.
Purple (πορφύρας)
See on Luk 16:19.
Silk (σηρικοῦ)
Properly an adjective, meaning pertaining to the Seres. From Σῆρες Seres, a people of India, perhaps of modern China.
Before the time of Justinian, when silkworms were first brought to Constantinople, it was thought that the Seres gathered or combed the downy substance woven by the worms from the leaves of certain trees. Hence Virgil speaks of the Seres, how they comb (depectant) the fine fleeces from the leaves (“Georgics,” ii., 121).
Silk was a costly article of luxury among the Romans, so that Tacitus relates that in the reign of Tiberius a law was passed against “men disgracing themselves with silken garments” (“Annals,” ii., 33). “Two hundred years after the age of Pliny,” says Gibbon, “the use of pure or even of mixed silks was confined to the female sex, till the opulent citizens of Rome and the provinces were insensibly familiarized with the example of Elagabalos, the first who, by this effeminate habit, had sullied the dignity of an emperor and a man. Aorelian complained that a pound of silk was sold at Rome for twelve ounces of gold” (“Decline and Fall,” ch. xl.).
At the time of Justinian the Persians held a monopoly of this trade. Two missionary monks residing in China imparted to Justinian the project of introducing the eggs of the silkworm into Europe, and returning to China concealed the eggs in a hollow cane and so transported them.
Scarlet
See on Mat 27:6.
Thyine wood (ξύλον θύΐ́νον)
Only here in the New Testament. From θυία or θύα the citrus, a North-African tree, a native of Barbary, used as incense and for inlaying. Pliny speaks of a mania among the Romans for tables made of this wood. The most expensive of these were called orbes, circles, because they were massive plates of wood cut from the stem in its whole diameter. Pliny mentions plates four feet in diameter, and nearly six inches thick. The most costly were those taken from near the root, both because the tree was broadest there, and because the wood was dappled and speckled. Hence they were described by different epithets according as the markings resembled those of the tiger, the panther, or the peacock.
Vessel (σκεῦος)
See on 1Pe 3:7, and see on Act 9:15. Also see on goods, Mat 12:29; see on Mar 3:27; and see on strake sail, Act 27:17.
Of ivory (ἐλεφάντινον)
Only here in the New Testament. References to ivory are frequent in the Old Testament. The navy of Tarshish brought ivory to Solomon with apes and peacocks (1Ki 10:22). His great throne was made of it (1Ki 10:18). Ahab's ivory palace (1Ki 22:39) was probably a house with ivory panels. “Ivory palaces” are mentioned in Psa 45:8, and “houses of ivory” in Amo 3:15. The Assyrians carried on a great trade in this article. On the obelisk in the British Museum the captives or tribute-bearers are represented as carrying tusks. The Egyptians early made use of it in decoration, bringing it mostly from Ethiopia, where, according to Pliny, ivory was so plentiful that the natives made of it door-posts and fences, and stalls for their cattle. In the early ages of Greece ivory was frequently employed for ornamental purposes, for the trappings of horses, the handles of kegs, and the bosses of shields. Homer represents an Asiatic woman staining ivory with purple to form trappings for horses, and describes the reins of chariot-horses as adorned with ivory. The statue of Jupiter by Phidias was of ivory and gold. In the “Odyssey” of Homer, Telemachus thus addresses his companion, the son of Nestor as they contemplate the splendor of Menelaus' palace:
“See, son of Nestor, my beloved friend,
In all these echoing rooms the sheen of brass,
Of gold, of amber and of ivory;
Such is the palace of Olympian Jove.”
“Odyssey,” iv., 71-74.
Marble (μαρμάρου)
From μαρμαίρω to sparkle or glisten.