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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Revelation 2:7 - 2:7
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
He that hath an ear, etc.
Compare Mat 11:15; Mar 4:9. The phrase is not found in John's Gospel. It is used always of radical truths, great principles and promises.
To him that overcometh (τῷ νικῶντι)
A formula common to all these Epistles. The verb is used absolutely without any object expressed. It is characteristic of John, occurring once in the Gospel, six times in the First Epistle, sixteen times in Revelation, and elsewhere only Luk 11:22; Rom 3:4; Rom 12:21.
Will I give
This phrase has a place in every one of these Epistles. The verb is John's habitual word for the privileges and functions of the Son, whether as bestowed upon Him by the Father, or dispensed by Him to His followers. See Joh 3:35; Joh 5:22, Joh 5:27, Joh 5:36; Joh 6:65; Joh 13:3; Joh 17:6. Compare Rev 2:23; Rev 3:8; Rev 6:4; Rev 11:3.
Of the tree (ἐκ ξύλου)
The preposition ἐκ out of occurs one hundred and twenty-seven times in Revelation, and its proper signification is almost universally out of; but this rendering in many of the passages would be so strange and unidiomatic, that the New Testament Revisers have felt themselves able to adopt it only forty-one times out of all that number, and employ of, from, by, with, on, at, because of, by reason of, from among. See, for instance, Rev 2:7, Rev 2:21, Rev 2:22; Rev 6:4, Rev 6:10; Rev 8:11; Rev 9:18; Rev 14:13; Rev 15:2; Rev 16:21. Compare Joh 3:31; Joh 4:13, Joh 6:13, Joh 6:39, Joh 6:51; Joh 8:23, Joh 8:44; Joh 9:6; Joh 11:1; Joh 12:3, Joh 12:27, Joh 12:32; Joh 17:5.
Tree, lit., wood. See on Luk 23:31; see on 1Pe 2:24. Dean Plumptre notes the fact that, prominent as this symbol had been in the primeval history, it had remained unnoticed in the teaching where we should most have looked for its presence - in that of the Psalmist and Prophets of the Old Testament. Only in the Proverbs of Solomon had it been used, in a sense half allegorical and half mystical (Pro 3:18; Pro 13:12; Pro 11:30; Pro 15:4). The revival of the symbol in Revelation is in accordance with the theme of the restitution of all things. “The tree which disappeared with the disappearance of the earthly Paradise, reappears with the reappearance of the heavenly.” To eat of the tree of life expresses participation in the life eternal. The figure of the tree of life appears in all mythologies from India to Scandinavia. The Rabbins and Mohammedans called the vine the probation tree. The Zend Avesta has its tree of life called the Death-Destroyer. It grows by the waters of life, and the drinking of its sap confers immortality. The Hindu tree of life is pictured as growing out of a great seed in the midst of an expanse of water. It has three branches, each crowned with a sun, denoting the three powers of creation, preservation, and renovation after destruction. In another representation Budha sits in meditation under a tree with three branches, each branch having three stems. One of the Babylonian cylinders discovered by Layard, represents three priestesses gathering the fruit of what seems to be a palm-tree with three branches on each side. Athor, the Venus of the Egyptians, appears half-concealed in the branches of the sacred peach-tree, giving to the departed soul the fruit, and the drink of heaven from a vial from which the streams of life descend upon the spirit, a figure at the foot of the tree, like a hawk, with a human head and with hands outstretched.
In the Norse mythology a prominent figure is Igdrasil, the Ash-tree of Existence; its roots in the kingdom of Eels or Death, its trunk reaching to heaven, and its boughs spread over the whole universe. At its foot, in the kingdom of Death, sit three Nornas or Fates, the Past, the Present, and the Future, watering its roots from the sacred well. Compare Rev 22:2, Rev 22:14, Rev 22:19. Virgil, addressing Dante at the completion of the ascent of the Purgatorial Mount, says:
“That apple sweet, which through so many branches
The care of mortals goeth in pursuit of,
Today shall put in peace thy hungerings.”
“Purgatorio,” xxvii., 115-117.
Paradise
See on Luk 23:43. Omit in the midst of. Παράδεισος Paradise “passes through a series of meanings, each one higher than the last. From any garden of delight, which is its first meaning, it comes to be predominantly applied to the garden of Eden, then to the resting-place of separate souls in joy and felicity, and lastly to the very heaven itself; and we see eminently in it, what we see indeed in so many words, how revealed religion assumes them into her service, and makes them vehicles of far higher truth than any which they knew at first, transforming and transfiguring them, as in this case, from glory to glory” (Trench).