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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Revelation 14:2 - 14:3
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Rev_14:2-3. ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ . Cf. Rev_10:4; Rev_10:8. Many of the expositors who have transferred Mount Zion, Rev_14:1, to heaven, have[3437] ascribed the voice from heaven to the one hundred and forty-four thousand themselves. Ew. ii., as in Rev_12:10 sqq., Rev_19:1 sqq., understands the voices as those of the martyrs, Rev_7:9 sqq.
ὡς φων . ὑδύτων πολλ . Cf. Rev_1:15.
ὡς φων . βροντῆς μεγ . Cf. Rev_6:1. The strength of the heavenly voice does not prevent its sounding at the same time charmingly, like the melody of players on the harp: ὡς κιθαρῳδῶν , κ . τ . λ .[3438] The ἐν , which designates the instrument, is here still easier than in Rev_6:8.
ᾠδὴν καινήν . Cf. Rev_5:9. The conception καινἡν has nothing to do with the ἀπαρχή ,[3439] Rev_14:4; for the one hundred and forty-four thousand do not sing this song. In this passage, also, the relation of the καινήν , as to how this song is to be called because of its contents, is to be understood from the connection. The general reference to the work of redemption is not sufficient;[3440] but the subject has reference to that which is displayed to the gazing prophet, through the vision presented to him, and therefore to the faithfulness of God and the Lamb, whereby believers, upon the ground of the redemption accomplished by Christ, are preserved amid all the enticements or persecutions, on the part of the antichristian secular power, and brought to victory and eternal glory.[3441]
ἐνώπιον τοῦ θρόνου , κ . τ . λ . There the song, according to its most inner relation, belongs, because it describes the blessed goal of God’s ways, whose attainment was of itself pledged by the significant glory of the heavenly scene, ch. 4, upon which the entire arrangement of God’s ways rests.
καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐδύνατο μαθεῖν τ . ᾀδ ., κ . τ . λ . The one hundred and forty-four thousand, however, could learn this new song, i.e., not merely understand,[3442] but also appropriate it so as to afterwards sing it,[3443] because they alone have the experience of that which is celebrated in the song.[3444]
οἱ ἠγορασμένοι ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς . On the thought, cf. 4, Rev_5:9. The construction of the masc., with αἱ χιλιάδες , is according to the sense, as Rev_5:13.
[3437] As C. a Lap., Vitr., Beng., Hengstenb.
[3438] Cf. Rev_5:8.
[3439] Against Beng.: “A new song suits well these first fruits.”
[3440] De Wette.
[3441] Cf. Hengstenb.
[3442] Grot., who besides evades: “No one could understand the cause of such joy.”
[3443] Ew., De Wette.
[3444] Cf. Rev_2:17, also Rev_19:12.