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Rev 14:6. Ἄγγελον, an angel) Under the name of angels the preachers of the heavenly doctrine come, in Rev 14:6; Rev 14:8-9. [They are opposed to him who published the threefold woe, ch. Rev 8:13.-V. g.] But as to that which G. G. Zeltner has in his Diss, de Chiliasmo præsenti, § 13, p. 22: Nor shall we be opposed, to it, if any one should affirm that the aid of Angels, or of one in particular, was employed here (Rev 21:1) in animating the Confessors of the Gospel, in the same sense in which an angel is said also to have stood beside Paul, Act 27:23, comp. with Daniel 10 throughout the whole chapter; and we admit that this explanation is MOST of all approved by us: we think that is more suitable to the three heralds (preachers) here mentioned.- αἰώνιον, existing through eternal ages) αἰὼν, an age, is attributed to the Gospel, or to the office of publishing it, which the angel here has. It is therefore a definite age,[157] which, in accordance with the analogy of the other times, consists of two periods (chroni), and extends from the publishing of this Gospel to the judgment day itself. This length of the age in particular, besides many other things, affords an occasion for considering whether this angel be Arndt. We are not so certain that the second angel is already come; if he is already come, it must be understood of Spener. The third precedes the close of the 42 months by a shorter interval: although the worship of the beast himself, and not only the worship of the image, which is subsequent, is forbidden by him.-εὐαγγελίσαι) There is a similarity of expression in πειρασμοῦ-πειράσαι, ch. Rev 3:10, and εὐαγγέλιον-εὐαγγελίσαι, in this passage.-τοὺς καθημένους) Several copies read τοὺς κατοικοῦντας,[158] according to the more usual phraseology of the Apocalypse. The Reuchlinian Manuscript has joined both readings: the better part of the copies, together with Lat. Orig. To sit on the earth is something more innocent than to dwell on the earth: the latter is the part of citizens, the former of persons less closely connected with it. They whom the three woes strike are spoken of as dwelling upon the earth: they to whom the everlasting Gospel is preached, as sitting on the earth. The difference between the words plainly appears from Isa 18:3, כל ישבי תבל ושכני ארץ.
[157] But that the notion of a definite age contributes in no slight degree to confirm the harmony of the rest of the chronology of Scripture, the sainted Author appears to me to have proved in his Ord. temp. Ed. I. p. 410, Ed. II. p. 352, n. 20, saying, Paul makes repeated mention τῶν αἰώνων, of the ages, especially in the Epistles which were written when the close of the fourth space of a thousand years was now drawing near. Rom 16:25; Eph 2:7; Eph 3:9; Col 1:26; 1Ti 1:17; 2Ti 1:9; Tit 1:2; especially 1Co 10:11, where he says that τὰ τέλη τῶν αἰώνων, the ends of the ages, have arrived. The duration of the world contains 35 times, or 7 periods (chroni), or 3 1/2 ages altogether: and when Paul wrote thus. 18 times were just on the close, and 17 times still remained. These are in the ratio of 1 8/10 to 1 7/10, and are in the total 3 ½ ages. We do not know how distinct a knowledge the apostles had respecting the past and future times of the world, before the Apocalypse was given to John, but undoubtedly they were so governed by God, that their expressions admirably agreed with the discovery about hereafter to take place. Comp. D. Burscher, in dem Versuch einer kurzen Erläuterung des Prophet Jeremiæ Leips. 1756, pp. 255, 256.-E. B.
[158] BC Orig. Vulg. Cypr. 312 read καθημἐνους. Rec. Text has κατοικοῦντας, with A Memph. Syr.-E.