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Rev_1:13. The entire appearance of Christ expresses essentially what has been said of him in Rev_1:5-6,[746] and is likewise as highly significant as that declaration, as to the entire contents of the book. Hence each of the seven epistles is introduced “by a sketch of his form,”[747] as the majesty of Christ here presented, who holds his people in his hand,[748] is the real foundation and support of the apocalyptic hope.[749]
[746] Cf. Rev_1:17-18.
[747] Herder.
[748] Cf. Rev_1:20.
[749] 1Ti_1:1; 1Th_1:3.
Christ appears in the midst of the seven candlesticks, not walking,[750] but rather, if any thing dare be imagined, standing. He is not named, but is infallibly designated already by the ὅμοιον υἱῷ ἀνθρώπου .[751] The ὅμοιον is incorrectly urged by those who wish to infer thence that not Christ, the Son of man himself, but “an angel representing Christ,”[752] is meant. In this expression the dogmatic thought is not present, that Christ is essentially more than a mere son of man;[753] but John had to write ὅμοιον , which does not correspond to the simple ëÌÀ , Dan_7:13 (LXX., ὡς ),[754] as the type of the form of the Son of man was to be recognized in the divine majesty of the entire manifestation.[755]
The Lord, who makes his people priests and kings (Rev_1:5), appears clad in the sublime splendor of the high priest and of kings. He wears the robe of the high priest, reaching down to his feet,[756] which, according to Wis_18:24,[757] was a symbol of the world; yet God himself also appears, as he is royally enthroned, in a similar long robe.[758] To this is added the entirely golden girdle.[759] The girdle of the high priest was only adorned with gold.[760] That Christ wears the girdle πρὸς τοῖς μαζοῖς ,[761] not about the loins,[762] is in no way to be urged in the sense of Ebrard: “The twofold nature of the unglorified body, in the nobly endowed upper part of the body, and in the lower part of the body serving the purposes of reproduction, nourishment, and discharge, vanishes in that higher girding, as it is first correctly marked by the girding above the loins.” For, is Dan_10:5 to be understood of an unglorified body? Cf., besides, Josephus, Antiqq., iii. 7, 2, as to why the priests bind their girdles κατὰ στέρνον .
[750] Ebrard, according to Rev_2:1; cf. on that passage.
[751] Dan_7:13; cf. Dan_10:16; cf. Dan_10:18.
[752] N. de Lyra, Bossuet, Grot., Marek.
[753] De Wette, Hengstenb.
[754] Ebrard.
[755] Cf. Rev_13:2.
[756] ποδήρης , sc. χιτων .
[757] Cf. Grimm on the passage.
[758] Isa_6:1.
[759] Not “girdle-buckle,” which, according to 1Ma_10:89, was peculiar to kings; Hengstenb.
[760] Exo_28:8; Exo_39:5.
[761] Cf. Rev_15:6.
[762] Dan_10:5.