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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Revelation 10:2 - 10:2
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
And he had (kai echōn). This use of the participle in place of eichen (imperfect) is like that in Rev 4:7.; Rev 12:2; Rev 19:12; Rev 21:12, Rev 21:14, a Semitic idiom (Charles), or as if katabainōn (nominative) had preceded in place of katabainonta.
A little book (biblaridion). A diminutive of biblarion (papyri), itself a diminutive of biblion (Rev 5:1) and perhaps in contrast with it, a rare form in Hermas and Rev 10:2, Rev 10:9, Rev 10:10. In Rev 10:8 Tischendorf reads biblidarion, diminutive of biblidion (Aristophanes) instead of biblion (Westcott and Hort). The contents of this little book are found in Rev 11:1-13.
Open (ēneōigmenon). See Eze 2:9. Perfect (triple reduplication) passive participle of anoigō, in contrast to the closed book in Rev 5:1. There also we have epi (upon) tēn dexian (the right hand), for it was a large roll, but here the little open roll is held in the hand (en tēi cheiri), apparently the left hand (Rev 10:5).
He set (ethēken). First aorist active indicative of tithēmi. The size of the angel is colossal, for he bestrides both land and sea. Apparently there is no special point in the right foot (ton poda ton dexion) being on the sea (epi tēs thalassēs) and the left (ton euōnumon) upon the land (epi tēs gēs). It makes a bold and graphic picture.
As a lion roareth (hōsper leōn mukātai). Only instance of hōsper in the Apocalypse, but hōs in the same sense several times. Present middle indicative of mukaomai, an old onomatopoetic word from mu or moo (the sound which a cow utters), common for the lowing and bellowing of cattle, Latin mugire, but in Theocritus for the roaring of a lion as here, though in 1Pe 5:8 we have ōruomai. Homer uses mukaomai for the clangour of the shield and Aristophanes for thunder. It occurs here alone in the N.T. It does not mean that what the angel said was unintelligible, only loud. Cf. Rev 1:10; Rev 5:2, Rev 5:12; Rev 6:10; Rev 7:2, Rev 7:10, etc.