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Rev_19:9-10. The significance of the short interlude lies in what the angel says to John (Rev_19:9), by applying in express exhortation,[4057] the reference contained already in the ascription of praise of the heavenly beings, to the goal of all the hopes of believers, and emphatically confirming the consolatory certainty of the hope thus set before believers, by the assurance that this word of God is true. Also to the prophetical declaration of this glorious hope by John, an attestation is given in Rev_19:10, which must confirm believers[4058] receiving the testimony of the prophet in the hope and patience upon which their victory depends.
λέγει -g0- μοι -g0-. The one speaking is, at all events, according to Rev_19:10, an angel; but not “an interpreting angel,” such as Ewald and Ebrard think was the constant attendant of John,[4059] but the angel who from Rev_17:1 on serves John as the communicator of the revelation.[4060] To this points also the immediately succeeding declaration of the same angel ( οὖτοι οἱ λόγοι , κ . τ . λ .).
Γράψον μακάριοι , κ . τ . λ .). Cf. Rev_14:3.
τὸ δεῖπνον τοῦ γάμ . τ . ἀρν . In a still more concrete way than Rev_19:7 ( ὁ γάμος τ . ἀρν .) is the final blessed communion with the Lord illustrated. Moreover the paracletic pertinence of the discourse brings with it also the fact that it is not the idea of the Church as the bride of the Lamb, but that of individual believers as wedding guests, which enters here.[4061] By the repetition of the formula καὶ λέγει μοι , the succeeding speech of the angel is especially separated from his preceding words, and thus receives a peculiar importance. If we suppose that the art. is to be read before ἀληθινοὶ ,[4062]—which certainly does not serve to facilitate the construction,[4063]—we must translate with Beng., Ebrard, Bleek, and Ew. ii.: “These are the true words of God.” The ingenious explanation of Hengstenb. (“These words are true, they are words of God”), even apart from the art. before ἀληθ ., is refuted by the fact that the εἰσίν , in any case, belongs not before, but after, the τοῦ θεοῦ . De Wette, who translates: “These words are the true (words) of God,”[4064] appeals, in opposition to Beng., to the parallel, Rev_21:5. But there the construction of the sentence is extremely simple, since to the subj. οὗτοι οἱ λόγοι the definition of the predicate is added, πιστοὶ καὶ ἀληθινοί εἰσιν ; but here not only the τοῦ θεοῦ , but especially the art. before ἀληθ ., effects another relation in the entire statement. By means of this art., it becomes far simpler to bring together οἱ λόγοι οἱ ἀληθινοὶ , and to understand these words combined with τοῦ θεοῦ as a predicate to the subject οὖτοι .[4065] But the sense is by no means that which Bengel’s explanation suggests to De Wette,[4066] but after the angel has afforded John the revelation of the judgment upon the harlot, and, from this beginning of the final judgment, has given an intimation concerning the blessed mystery of God, which lies back of the entire judgment, he reviews all the words of revelation, of which he had served as the interpreter to the prophet from Rev_17:1 on. These, he says, are the true, i.e., the genuine and right, words of God. The ἀληθινοί here mentions not the truth or the correctness of the contents, but the reality of the correlated statement: τοῦ θεοῦ . This explanation is afforded, on the one hand, by the plural οἱ λόγοι alone,—which Hengstenb., as well as Klief., refers to 5–8, Ebrard to 6–8 and 9, but the most do not take into further consideration,—and, on the other hand, also by what is reported in Rev_19:10. Ebrard was on the right track when he alluded to the expression οἱ λόγοι τοῦ θεοῦ , Rev_17:17; but he wanders from it again, when, just as he understands those λόγοι τοῦ θεοῦ as promises concerning the final redemption of the Church, so, in this passage, he limits the λόγοι οἱ ἀληθ . τ . θ . to Rev_19:6-9. The latter is not entirely correct; for there is no reason for excluding the songs of Rev_19:1-5, which also refer to the goal presented in Rev_19:9, in a manner precisely identical with Rev_19:6-8. But what is said from Rev_19:1 on, concerning the now-impending glorification of the Church, has to do with but one side of the subject, with only one part of the λόγοι τοῦ θεοῦ (Rev_17:17), or of the mystery of God, announced by the ancient prophets.[4067] This one point is made prominent also in the songs from Rev_19:1 on, only upon the ground of the judgment lying before the same, which is now already fulfilled in an act. As now (Rev_17:17) the λόγοι τ . θεοῦ contain both, viz., the proclamation of the Divine judgment against every thing antichristian,—the kings of the world, with the beast of the world, are to rule only until the words of God, which proclaim the destruction of these same powers, shall find their fulfilment, i.e., until the dominion of those antichristian powers shall be annihilated according to God’s declaration,—and the promise; the λόγοι οἱ ἀληθ . τ . θ ., in this passage, refer to all the revelations which the prophet has received, as the fulfilment of the promise (Rev_17:1) of the angel even now also speaking with him ( δεἰξω σοι τὸ κρίμα τῆς πόρνης τ . μεγ .), i.e., they refer to Rev_18:1 to Rev_19:9. By the expression οὐτοι οἱ λόγοι οἱ ἀληθ ., a review is made of that entire section—in which the expressions referring to the glorification of believers, Rev_19:1-9, are represented in most immediate combination with judgment upon the antichristian powers already fulfilled in one act—in a way precisely analogous to that of Rev_22:6, where, at the conclusion of the entire revelation, a confirmatory reference is made to all that was disclosed to the gazing prophet, from Rev_4:1 on, as about to happen. But in this passage, also, such a conclusion is entirely justified, because here an important part of what was to happen had already happened, viz., the judgment upon the great harlot; and therewith the fulfilment of the words,[4068] or of the mystery,[4069] of God, had already begun. Now also there is given to the prophet the direct pledge of the certainty of what he has beheld; that these words which he has received are the actual and true words of God himself. From this the explanation follows as to why it is that John (Rev_19:10)[4070] falls down before the angel in order “to worship” him. Ebrard is wrong in his attempt to attach a prophetic significance to this occurrence; viz., that the children of God are to be warned against the temptation of worshipping angels, “who have brought about the victory over antichrist.” The last is here entirely foreign. Grot., Vitr., Beng., etc., recognize in the adoring prostration an excessive token of gratitude, and therefore forbidden also by the angel.[4071] De Wette, in accordance with his exposition of 9b, finds here an expression of joyful astonishment at prophecies so confirmed (?). But partly from what precedes ( λόγ . οἱ ἀληθ . τοῦ θεοῦ ), and partly from the manner in which the angel rejects the adoration as not due him, as a fellow-servant of John, it may be first of all inferred that John regarded the angel thus addressing him, not as a fellow-servant, but as the Lord himself.[4072] At first,[4073] John had a proper estimate of the angel; but just by what was said (Rev_19:9 b), John could attain the supposition that the Lord himself spoke to him.
ὅρα μη . The aposiopesis[4074] is self-evident from what precedes: “See that thou dost it not!” Ay, do it not!
σύνδουλος . Because the angel serves the same Lord[4075] as John and all his brethren, “who have the testimony of Jesus,” i.e., all believers.[4076] The Lord is God;[4077] to him, therefore, belongs the adoration which John intended to offer to the angel ( τῷ θεῷ προσκύνησον ). The entire repulse by the angel does not therefore sound “as tender as possible, almost having the tone of intercession,”[4078] but is throughout decided.
The closing words of Rev_19:10 belong not to the address of the angel, but are a remark of John, whereby he establishes and explains ( γάρ ) what has just been said by the angel. It is incorrect to explain the gen. τοῦ Ἰησοῦ as subjective, “the testimony proceeding from Jesus;”[4079] for if, on the one hand, reference to the expression ἐχόντων τὴν μαρτ . τοῦ Ἰησοῦ require this explanation,[4080] on the other hand the declaration is intelligible only by defining the μαρτυρία τοῦ Ἰησ . as τὸ πνευμα τῆς προφητείας . This cannot mean: “He who confesses Christ as thou dost has also the spirit of prophecy,”[4081] but designates, in the sense of 1Pe_1:11, and in thorough agreement with what is indicated in Rev_1:1 and Rev_22:6; Rev_22:16, concerning the nature and the origin of prophecy, that Christ, by himself imparting his testimony of revelation to a man, fills him[4082] with the spirit of prophecy,—who now speaks from and through the prophets.[4083] As Christ, the coming One, is the goal of all Christian prophecy,[4084] so is He also its author. From the closing words of the verse, it might be inferred,[4085] that “they who have the testimony of Jesus” are not believers in general, but only the prophets, so that the angel would call himself a fellow-servant only of the prophets; as Hengstenb. also (Rev_22:6) understands by the ΔΟΎΛΟΙς ΑὐΤΟῦ only prophets. But as (Rev_22:6), on the contrary, the servants of God[4086] are distinguished from the prophets, and considered as the believers for whose instruction the prophets receive their revelations,[4087] so also in this passage.[4088] Believers do not have the testimony proceeding from Jesus without the service of the prophets, as John himself is one; but they are prophets because of the testimony communicated to them by the Lord, which testimony in them is the spirit of prophecy. Thus there is in Rev_19:10 b an attestation to the prophetical book of John, similar to that which was emphatically maintained in the beginning[4089] and at the close.[4090] [Note LXXXV., p. 461.]
[4057] Cf. Rev_14:13.
[4058] Cf. Rev_1:3, Rev_22:18 sqq.
[4059] Cf. Rev_1:1.
[4060] Beng., Züll., De Wette, Hengstenb.
[4061] Cf. Rev_3:20; Mat_22:1 sqq., Mat_25:1 sqq. Beng., Hengstenb.
[4062] See Critical Notes.
[4063] Against Hengstenb.
[4064] Cf. Züll.: “These true words are God’s words.”
[4065] Cf. Rev_20:5; Luk_24:44.
[4066] Now the truth of God’s word manifests itself, viz., in its immediate results.
[4067] Rev_10:7.
[4068] Rev_17:17.
[4069] Rev_10:7.
[4070] As also Rev_22:8.
[4071] Cf. also Hengstenb., who, however, praises the humility of John as well as of the angel.
[4072] Cf. Laun.
[4073] Rev_17:1, Rev_15:6, Rev_16:1 sqq.
[4074] Cf. Winer, p. 558.
[4075] Cf. Rev_6:11.
[4076] Cf. Rev_6:9.
[4077] Rev_22:6.
[4078] Züll.
[4079] Against Ewald: “If any one with constancy maintain faith in Christ;” De Wette; Hengstenb., Ebrard, not clear.
[4080] Cf. Rev_6:9, Rev_12:17.
[4081] De Wette, Ewald.
[4082] Vitr. paraphrases: “The same Spirit who speaks and acts through those who proclaim the testimony of Christ (which the apostles did), is the very one who speaks through me, who am sent by the Lord to declare to thee the things of the time to come. Thy affairs, therefore, are as important as my dignity, and we are accordingly called, as fellow-servants, to offices of not unequal honor.” But it would be impossible for the concluding words of Rev_19:10 to belong to the angel (cf. Rev_19:8; Rev_5:8); and the explanation of τ . ἐχόντων τὴν μαρτυρίαν τ . Ἰησ ., which forms its basis, is false.
[4083] Cf. Rev_2:7; Rev_2:11; Rev_2:17, Rev_3:22, with Rev_2:1; Rev_2:8; Rev_2:12, Rev_3:14.
[4084] Also of that of O. T., Rev_10:7.
[4085] Hengstenb.; cf. Vitr.
[4086] Cf. Rev_1:1.
[4087] Cf. Rev_22:16.
[4088] Cf., besides, Rev_22:9.
[4089] Rev_1:1 sqq.
[4090] Rev_22:6 sqq.
LXXXV. Rev_19:10. ἡ γὰρ μαρτυρία Ἰησοῦ