Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Revelation 11:17 - 11:17
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Rev 11:17. Ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν, who is, and who was) Some have added, καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος.[121] The shorter reading here also is the true one; the fuller one is derived from a parallel passage. See App. Crit. Ed. ii. on this passage. Such varieties of reading are not to be decided in a cursory manner, on common grounds, but by careful investigation, according to the strong arguments which peculiarly and naturally belong to each passage. By which method we shall find, in the present instance, that this passage, ch. Rev 11:17, is not so much to be compared with the three preceding, as with the one which follows, ch. Rev 16:5. What is the aspect of the three preceding passages, we have before shown, on the passages themselves, and especially on ch. Rev 1:8 : but now both these passages, ch. Rev 11:17 and Rev 16:5, coincide with the trumpet of the seventh angel, and therefore with the consummation of the mystery of God, in which, that which had previously been foretold by the expression, καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος, now is exhibited in actual operation, and indeed is exhibited first in heaven, ch. Rev 11:17, and then on earth, ch. Rev 16:5. Interpreters on this passage have long ago seen this. Ansbert says, They do not here subjoin, as they were accustomed, and who art to come; they speak of Him as already present. Haymo, who usually treads in the footsteps of Ansbert: It must be observed that he does not add, as before, who art to come. For they show Him already present in the judgment, by which all these things will be accomplished, and therefore they by no means speak of Him as (still) to come. John Purvey, in his Comm. published with the preface of Luther, says; He does not add the third clause, which he has usually added, namely, and who is to come, for this reason, because the prophet, with his intellectual vision, then saw God as it were already sitting in judgment. Zeltner published a dissertation, A. 1712, which is inscribed, Evangelium Tetragrammaton e Novo Testamento Exulans. The subject, as it is comprised in the title, derives something from the truth. When the Son of God was engaged in the world, of the promises given in the Old Testament, and comprehended in the name of Jehovah, as many as were to be fulfilled at that time, were fulfilled: and then, that which had been future, was advancing to the present. But, however, in the prophecy of the New Testament, that is, in the Apocalypse, that phrase, ὁ ὤν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος, by which the tetragrammaton, יהוה, is usually expressed, is, as it were, set forth afresh; and the future itself, as though reviving in the second coming of Christ, respecting which see Heb 10:37, is placed before us, until at the entrance of the most important trumpet of the seventh angel, first the words, καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος, which, at the beginning, were alone contained in אהיה, and afterwards also the words καὶ ὁ ἦν, which was denoted by the termination of the noun יהוה, are most magnificently absorbed, and pass into the single expression, ὁ ὤν. Hence it comes to pass, that even great things, from this very passage, are not said to come, as lately they were said to come, Rev 11:14, and ch. Rev 9:12, but to have come, shortly afterwards, Rev 11:18, and ch. Rev 14:7; Rev 14:15, Rev 19:7. Those persons do not sufficiently hold fast the normal force of Scripture, which ought to be retained even in addresses, who even still in prayers, and in hymns, from time to time, say, Jehovah, instead of Lord, or Jah. For under the trumpet of the seventh angel this Tetragrammaton ceases to be used, and the Diagrammaton, יָהּ, is the only expression which the saints utter, together with applause; ch. Rev 19:1.
[121] Added by Rec. Text, in opposition to ABCh Vulg. Cypr.-E.