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Rev_13:13-14. σημεὶα μεγάλα . As, according to Mat_24:24, they belong to the seductive activity (Rev_13:14) of the false prophet.[3359]
ἽΝΑ ΚΑῚ ΠῪΡ ΠΟΙῇ ΚΑΤΑΒΑΊΝΕΙΝ ἘΚ Τ . ΟΥΡ . With Beng., Hengstenb. recognizes here a significant example of the use of the ΊΝΑ [3360] in the sense of ὬΣΤΕ peculiar to the Apostle John. But, improperly: the use of ἽΝΑ , which in this passage, in fact, explains the conception of the ΜΕΓΆΛΑ ,[3361] is very strongly distinguished from the style of the Apostle John, because in the latter[3362] the ideal statement of the purpose is actually included, while here the writer of the Apoc., in a mode widely different from the elegance of the apostle, describes something that is simply a matter of fact. In such case, the apostle infallibly writes ὭΣΤΕ [3363] or ὍΤΙ .[3364]
The words ἽΝΑ ΚΑῚ ΠῪΡ , Κ . Τ . Λ ., should not be regarded as proving that the false prophet intends to mimic Pentecost,[3365] or wishes to represent himself as a second Solomon. We are much more apt to think of an allusion to the miracles of Elijah,[3366] and thus to regard this false prophet as a forerunner of antichrist, in a way similar to that according to which the true Christ had an Elias[3367] as a forerunner. But the analogy dare not be determined more specifically than the context itself suggests. It is not the antichrist in the sense of the Apostle John,[3368] but the dragon that in the Apoc. stands opposed to Christ,[3369] and it is not the forerunner, but the accomplice, of the dragon, that is the other beast whose ungodly and antichristian nature expresses itself in the fact that in virtue of his demoniacal power he can perform miracles, which appear to be counterparts of the miracles of the true prophets.
ΚΑῚ ΠΛΑΝᾷ . The miracles are an important auxiliary[3370] of the seduction.[3371]
ΛΈΓΩΝ , without construction, as Rev_11:1.
ΠΟΙῆΣΑΙ ΕἸΚΌΝΑ Τῷ ΘΗΡΊῼ , Κ . Τ . Λ . The historical foundation of this description is indicated already in the Introduction.[3372] All images of deified emperors must have appeared to the Christian conscience as images of the beast, the more certainly as all those individual emperors were possessors of the same antichristian secular power. Hence the addition Δ ἝΧΕΙ Τ . ΠΛ ., Κ . Τ . Λ .,[3373] is also again in place here; the statues of Augustus and Caligula, erected to them as gods, were also represented by the beast which received its wound only with Nero’s death.
[3359] Victorin.: “These things the Magi do also to-day through fallen angels.”
[3360] The variation καὶ πῦρ ἱνα εκ τ . οὑρ . καταβαἱνῃ (Griesb., De Wette) would contain a turn similar to that of Rev_13:12, viz., και (sc. ποιεῖ ) πῦρ , κ . τ . λ .
[3361] Cf. Winer, p. 430.
[3362] Cf., e.g., 1Jn_3:1, with my note, vol. ii., p. 49.
[3363] Joh_3:16.
[3364] 1Jn_4:9.
[3365] Beda.
[3366] 2Ch_7:1. C. a Lap.
[3367] Cf. Rev_11:3 sqq.
[3368] Cf. Introduction, p. 65.
[3369] Rev_12:3 sqq., Rev_13:1 sqq.
[3370] διὰ τ . σ ., because of the miracles. Cf. Rev_12:11.
[3371] Mat_24:24 : ὥστε πλανήσαι .
[3372] p. 51 sq.
[3373] Cf. Rev_13:12. On the κ . ἔζησεν , cf. Rev_2:8. On the neut. ο ἔχ ., see Critical Notes.