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Rev_14:17-20. Another angel,[3555] likewise coming from the heavenly temple, and therefore from God himself, intrusted with a work symbolizing the final judgment, has, as one like the Son of man (Rev_14:14), a sharp sickle, by which the ripened clusters in the vineyard of the earth are to be harvested. Not only does this occur at the command brought again by another angel, but the clusters are also pressed.
[3555] Cf. Rev_14:15.
καὶ αὐτός . The formula[3556] marks only that the same thing is said by this person as by the person designated in Rev_14:14; but in other respects the persons are by no means “put on the same level,”[3557] so that it does not follow from Rev_14:17 that the one like the Son of man is an angel. Still less, however, can it be inferred to the contrary, from Rev_14:14, that the ἄγγελος (Rev_14:17) is not an angel, but the Lord himself.[3558]
The other angel (Rev_14:18), who brings to the one mentioned in Rev_14:17 the command for harvesting the vineyard of the earth, is in a twofold respect significantly characterized, according to his place of starting: ἐξῆλθεν ἐκ τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου , and according to his peculiar power: ὁ ἔχων ἐξουσίαν ἐπὶ τοῦ πυρός . He came forth “out of the altar.”[3559] This idea is derived from the ἐκ , which is to be rendered here “from,”[3560] as little as the ἀπό in Rev_9:13. Its meaning is to be derived from the description (Rev_8:3 sqq.),[3561] in connection with the designation of the ἐξουσία which the angel has over fire.[3562] The same altar beneath which the souls of the martyrs lie, crying for vengeance, and from which not only the fire is taken which, cast upon the earth, gives the signal in general for the trumpet-visions announcing the beginning of the vengeance, but whence, also, in the sixth trumpet-vision especially, the voice sounds that calls forth a destructive army upon the earth, appears significantly in this passage as the proper place of an angel who transmits the command for the execution of judgment, and who, since he has power over fire,[3563] manifests himself as one whose sending brings an answer to the prayers of the martyrs, and thus, by his entire manner and appearance, recalls the blood-guilt of the enemies whose blood is now to cover the earth (Rev_14:20).
ΤΡΎΓΗΣΟΝ . Luk_6:44.
ΚΑῚ ἜΒΑΛΕΝ , Κ . Τ . Λ ., Rev_14:19. Cf. Rev_14:16. Here, however, the figure is not limited to the mere cutting-off of the clusters, but the pressing also follows: ΚΑῚ ἜΒΑΛΕΝ ΕἸς ΤῊΝ ΛΗΝῸΝ Τ . ΘΥΜ . Τ . Θ . ΤῸΝ ΜΕΓ . In reference to the remarkable combination of the masc. ΤῸΝ ΜΕΓ . with the fem. ΤῊΝ ΛΗΝ ,[3564] cf. Winer, p. 490, who explains the masc. by the fact that ὁ λην . also occurs. But a reason why this change of the gen. has happened is scarcely to be found. At all events, Pro_18:14 should be recalled, where the word øåÌç occurs first as masc. because the spirit appears in more forcible activity, and afterwards as fem., because, since it suffers from disease, it is represented in feminine weakness. So, too, the masc. τόν μέγ . could be attached to the ordinary feminine form τὴν λην ., because this form appears appropriate to the representation of the wrath of God as active in the pressing.
καὶ ἐπατήθη ἡ λην . The standing expression: cf. Joe_3:13; Isa_63:2 sq.
ἔξωθεν τῆς πόλεως . “The city,” without further designation, cannot be Rome,[3565] but only Jerusalem; yet not the heavenly Jerusalem,[3566] also not Jerusalem so far as the holy city represents the Church,[3567] but the real, earthly Jerusalem, against which, as is stated in Rev_20:9, the hosts of the world rush, but will be annihilated there before the holy city.[3568] Incorrectly, Grotius: “This did not occur in the city, because there were no Jews there.”[3569]
αἰμα . In Isa_63:3, LXX., the blood is also expressly mentioned, which is properly meant by the figure of the juice of grapes.
ἄχρι τῶν χαλινῶν τῶν ἰππων , κ . τ . λ . How fearful the bloodshed is, is illustrated by designating it as a stream of blood which is so deep as to reach to the reins of the horses wading therein, while its extent is given as sixteen hundred furlongs.[3570] In this sense, the first expression, ἄχρι τ . χαλ . τ . ἵππ ., is understood by almost all expositors;[3571] but the reference to the extent of the stream of blood is not without difficulty. Passing by purely arbitrary explanations,[3572] only two possibilities are offered: either the designation of the measure must be regarded as schematical, whether it depend upon the adoption of an hyperbole not to be urged with respect to details,[3573] or the number four[3574] be considered as a root, and then the number 1,600 reduced to 4 × 4 × 100,[3575] or 40 × 40,[3576] or 4 × 400,[3577] be taken in the sense which Victorin.[3578] and Beda already have; or the sixteen hundred furlongs must be understood accurately and properly, so that the length of Palestine is designated,—according to the statement of Jerome, who[3579] says: “From Dan to Beersheba, which is extended scarcely to the distance of clx. miles.” In accordance with this are the explanations not only of Eichh., Heinr., Züll., Ewald, etc., who[3580] maintained that the scene of Rev_14:20 is in the Holy Land, but also of C. a Lap., etc., who understand by the Holy Land the Church; and of Grot. and Beng., who, in a different respect, wanted to reach the meaning that the bloodshed occurred even beyond the boundaries of Palestine.[3581] But the entire explanation, based upon the statement of Jerome, is hardly tenable, because, if John had wished, by means of a geographical designation of length, to refer to the Holy Land, the number must have been accurate. But this is not the case; for, as a Roman mile contained eight furlongs,[3582] the one hundred and sixty Roman miles of Jerome would correspond to twelve hundred and eighty, but not to sixteen hundred stadia.[3583] It is highly probable, therefore, that the schematic number, which is intended to represent the vast extent of the stream of blood proceeding from the horns of the altar, has grown in a similar way from the number four, which refers to all four ends of the earth,[3584] to that in which, in Rev_7:4, Rev_14:1, the number one hundred and forty-four thousand has been developed from the holy radical twelve.
[3556] Cf. Rev_14:10.
[3557] De Wette.
[3558] Against Hengstenb.
[3559] Mentioned in Rev_8:3 sqq., Rev_16:7.
[3560] Ew. i., De Wette, Ebrard.
[3561] Cf. Rev_6:9, Rev_9:13, Rev_16:7.
[3562] ἐπὶ τ . πυρ ., as Rev_11:6; cf. Rev_6:8.
[3563] Viz., of that altar; cf. Grot., Vitr., Ewald; but not over fire in general (cf. Rev_16:5), for this general reference is here entirely out of place.
[3564] The MSS. allow neither τὸν λην .
τὸν μέγ ., nor τὴν λην .
την μεγ . ἡ λην . occurs also in Rev_14:20; Rev_19:15. Lücke (Einl., II., p. 464) regards it possible, even though very harsh, for the τον μἐγαν , by a construction according to the sense, to refer to τοῦ θυμοῦ τ . θ ., and to have the meaning of τοῦ μεγάλου . Yet he also recurs to Winer’s explanation.
[3565] Hammond, Wetst., Calov., Hilgenf., Kienlen, etc.
[3566] Beda, Marlorat., who recall that the lost shall suffer pain outside of heaven, viz., in hell.
[3567] Hengstenb.: “It is declared that not the members of the Church, but the world outside the Church, shall be judged.”
[3568] Cf. Eichh., Züll., Ew., De Wette, etc.
[3569] Cf. the close of the verse.
[3570] On the ἀπὸ before σταδ ., cf. Meyer on Joh_11:18.
[3571] Nevertheless, many of the older commentators have allegorized also here. Thus Victorin. found it indicated that also “the princes,” Beda that even the devil, would not be exempt. Hengstenb., incorrectly, brings in the horsemen of Rev_19:14. Cf. Ebrard.
[3572] e.g., Wetst., who referred it to the vastness of Otho’s camp on the Po.
[3573] Zeger.
[3574] Cf. Rev_7:1.
[3575] Hengstenb.
[3576] Ebrard.
[3577] Marlorat., Vitr., etc.
[3578] “Throughout all the four parts of the world.”
[3579] Ep. ad Dard. Opp., T. III., p. 46.
[3580] Cf. the ἐξ τ . πὁλεως .
[3581] Grot. refers to the fact that Trajan put to death Jews in Syria, Egypt, etc.
[3582] Cf. Winer, Rwb., II. 588. Stadium.
[3583] Another circumstance is, that the length of the Holy Land is not sixteen hundred stadia, i.e., forty German miles, but, as Jerome correctly says, scarcely one hundred and sixty Roman miles, i.e., thirty-two German miles.—Ew. ii., indeed, tries to find in the text only a large round number, by mentioning at the same time, that clusters of grapes appear, e.g., on coins, as a symbol of the Holy Land. But he errs in finding a devastation of the Holy Land here set forth,—while the subject has really to do with the inhabitants of the earth, whose place of execution, as in Rev_20:9, is outside the city, and, therefore, in the Holy Land,—and in urging the special reference of the “cluster of grapes “to the Holy Land; and thereby injures the parallelism between the “harvest,” Rev_14:15 sqq., and the “wine harvest,” Rev_14:18 sqq., which then affords only a more general significance.
[3584] Cf. Rev_4:6.
In the systematic connection of the entire Apocalyptic development, the vision (Rev_14:14-20) has the same relation to the express description of the actual final judgment (ch. 17 sqq.), as the sixth seal-vision (Rev_6:12 sqq.) has already to the fulfilment of the mystery of God,[3585] which does not occur until in the seventh seal. Both the sense and the expression[3586] show that the judgment portrayed in Rev_14:14 sqq. is the final judgment itself; this is indicated also by the appearance on the cloud of one like the Son of man (Rev_14:14), and therefore of the coming Judge himself, besides the special point in Rev_14:20 ( ἔξ . τ . πολ .) comprised in the account of Rev_20:9. But, on the other hand, it is to be observed that a complete account of the catastrophe is not yet given; in what way the various enemies (the secular power, the false prophet, even the dragon himself) are judged, is not at all described here; add to this, that the manifestation of the Judge (Rev_14:14-17) does not at all correspond with what is to be expected according to Rev_1:7,[3587] and that immediately afterwards, in Rev_14:19 sqq., it is an angel, and not the Lord himself, who appears as executor of the vengeance. From all this, it is to be inferred that the vision (Rev_14:14-20)[3588] brings, it is true, a preliminary representation of the final judgment, but, nevertheless, that the systematic introduction of the complete account is not disturbed; because of its proleptical character, the scheme of the prophetical development does not become apparent, and especially the actual end is not set before us in Rev_14:20, in the sense, as though by “recapitulating” in some way with Rev_15:1,[3589] it were again retraced.[3590]
Vitr. interprets Rev_14:14-20 of the judgment of the false (i.e., the Papal) Church.
[3585] Cf. Rev_10:7.
[3586] Rev_14:16 : ἐθερίσθη ; Rev_14:19 : ἐτρύγησε , ἔβαλεν ; Rev_14:20 : ἐπατηθη .
[3587] Cf. Rev_6:2; Rev_6:12 sqq., Rev_11:15 sqq.
[3588] Cf. also Rev_14:1-6.
[3589] Cf. Introduction, p. 13 sq.
[3590] Against Beda, etc.