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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Revelation 14:1 - 14:1
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Rev_14:1. καὶ εἰδον , καὶ ἰδού . The formula[3420] marks the unexpected, forcible contrast to the preceding vision.[3421]
τὸ ἀρνίον . Since the Lamb appears as the leader of the glorified,[3422] not only does the contrast between Christ and Satan, with his dragon-form, stand forth in startling relief; but the form of the Lamb also reminds us that the Lord himself has by his sufferings and death attained the victory,[3423] therefore his people must follow him; and that the redemption of believers (Rev_14:4), and their glorification, depend upon the blood of the Lamb.[3424]
ἑστός . With the abbreviated form of the part.,[3425] cf. the inf. ἑστάναι , 1Co_10:12.[3426]
ἐπὶ τὸ ὄρος Σιών . The failure to acknowledge the proper significance of the entire vision is connected no less with the arbitrary presumption that Mount Zion is to be regarded in heaven,[3427] than with the allegorizing interpretation, according to which Mount Zion is regarded as the Christian Church.[3428] Vitringa unites the reference of the whole to the true Church,[3429] with the correct acknowledgment[3430] that the locality represented in the vision is meant properly. Cf. similar local designations within the vision, which are to be understood with absolute literalness, Rev_14:6; Rev_14:14; Rev_13:1; Rev_13:11; Rev_12:1; Rev_7:1. The holy place named, the home of the O. T.—and, therefore, also of the N. T.[3431]
Church, is adapted like no other place for that which is displayed to the gazing John. With the Lamb there appear one hundred and forty-four thousand who have the name of the Lamb, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads. These one hundred and forty-four thousand are, according to the usual conception,[3432] identical with those mentioned in ch. Rev_7:4. The number is the same; the seal there mentioned on the foreheads may be combined with the names of God which the followers of the Lamb have written on their foreheads; also the place, Mount Zion, appears to apply especially to glorified believers from Israel. But there are weighty reasons for the distinction of the one hundred and forty-four thousand in our text from those named in Rev_7:4.[3433] [See, for the contrary, Note LIII., p 256, on ch. Rev_7:4.] 1. If John had wished here to designate those already mentioned in Rev_7:4, he would have expressed this definitely by the article. Cf. similar retrospective allusions in Rev_14:1 ( τὸ ἀρν .), Rev_14:3 ( ἐν τοῦ θρ ., τῶν τεσσ . ζ ., τῶν πρεσβ .). This was the more necessary, because here a particular description of the one hundred and forty-four χιλιάδες follows ( å ͂ χουσαι , κ . τ . λ .), which could lead to an identity with the sealed only in case it be conceived that the seal had as an inscription the twofold names here designated; a conception which in itself has no difficulty, but is remote therefrom, because the sign of the seal has a designation and significance different from this sign of the name: there the fidelity, not to be affected by the impending trouble, is sealed, while here the name of God expresses the eternal and blessed belonging of believers to their heavenly Lord,[3434] in contrast with those who have made themselves bondsmen of the beast. (Rev_14:9; Rev_14:11; Rev_13:16 sq.) 2. To this must be added the fact, which may be decisive, that the one hundred and forty-four thousand in our passage, which, according to Rev_14:3 sqq., do not appear at all as from Israel, can be identified with those mentioned in Rev_7:4, only in case one of the two false conceptions, with respect to ch. 7,[3435] be sanctioned; viz., either that the one hundred and forty-four thousand (Rev_7:4) be regarded identical with the innumerable multitude (Rev_7:9 sqq.), or this multitude be regarded as a part of the one hundred and forty-four thousand. But it is rather to be said that in this passage only the schematic number, which as a designation of a mass suits mainly believers out of Israel (cf. Rev_7:4-8), is transferred to such as have completed their course, and designates not only the definite description, Rev_14:3 sqq., but especially also the antithesis lying in the entire context to the heathen worshippers of the beast, as those springing from the heathen.[3436] This select band (cf. Rev_14:4) appears as such in the holy numerical sign of believers out of Israel; it is contained in the innumerable company, viz., as an ἀπαρχή .
[3420] Cf. Rev_14:14; Rev_6:2; Rev_6:5; Rev_6:8.
[3421] Hengstenb.
[3422] Cf. Rev_7:17.
[3423] Cf. Rev_5:5 sqq., Rev_3:21.
[3424] Cf. Rev_5:9, Rev_7:14, Rev_12:11.
[3425] Mat_24:15.
[3426] Winer, p. 75.
[3427] Grot., Eichh., Stern., Züll., Ew., Hengstenb., Ebrard, etc. Especially does Züllig explain: “The highest mountain-like vault of the firmament, which corresponded to Mount Zion, inasmuch as, according to the Israelitic idea, it lay directly beneath the same.”
[3428] Beda, C. a Lap., Calov., etc.
[3429] In Rev_14:1-5 it is stated: “That in a false, there is a true Church” (cf. Laun.).
[3430] De Wette.
[3431] Cf. Rev_12:1; Rev_12:17.
[3432] Grot., Vitr., Beng., Eichh., Heinr., Ew., Züll., De Wette, Rinck, Hengstenb., Ebrard, Gebhardt, Hilgenf., Kliefoth.
[3433] Areth., Laun., C. a Lap., Marck., Bleek, Beitr., p. 184 sqq.; Neander, History of the Planting and Training, 3d ed., II., p. 543; Volkm. Vitr., already, is vacillating: “The same, or at least those of the same kind.”
[3434] Cf. Rev_3:12.
[3435] See on that verse.
[3436] It is worthy of note, how decidedly this passage contradicts also the pretended anti-Pauline Jewish Christianity of the author of the Apocalypse.