Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Revelation 2:10 - 2:10
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Rev_2:10. In reference to the θλῖψις which is to follow the present (Rev_2:9), an exhortation to fearless, faithful perseverance unto death, and a corresponding promise of life, are made. Troubles of many kinds ( ᾶ plural) impend; especially mentioned is imprisonment[1061] for some of the church,[1062]—the chief thing in all the persecutions in which the civil authorities were active,[1063]—and a view of the same is disclosed, even unto death for Christ’s sake.[1064] The mention of imprisonment shows, still more than that of death, that the assault of heathen magistrates who, according to Rev_2:9, were incited by the Jews, is here contemplated. The Lord therefore comprises both forms of antichrist. As the proper author of the afflictions, Ὁ ΔΙΆΒΟΛΟς is therefore mentioned,[1065] the personal first enemy of Christ and his kingdom,[1066] who uses Jews and heathen as his instruments. The significance of the name (slanderer) is not here to be emphasized:[1067] otherwise we should expect in Rev_2:9 ὁ διαβ ., and in Rev_2:10 ὁ σατ .
ἵνα πειρασθῆτε καὶ ἔχητε , κ . τ . λ . Both the temptation and the oppression[1068] belong to the intention of the Devil. Thus the ΠΕΙΡΑΣΜΌς appears not as a divine trial,[1069] but[1070] as a temptation intended on Satan’s part for their ruin,[1071] in connection with which, of course, it must be firmly maintained,[1072] that the Devil’s power is exercised only under the Divine control.[1073] Under this presumption, to the ΚΑῚ ἜΧΗΤΕ ΘΛΊΨΙΝ , which as the ΠΕΙΡΑΣΘῆΤΕ is entirely dependent on ἽΝΑ , the ἩΜΕΡῶΝ ΔΈΚΑ is added. For the Lord fixes a limit of duration to the troubles which are to come upon his believers.[1074] Only a few expositors have understood the ἩΜΕΡ . ΔΈΚΑ of ten actual days,[1075] but even these in the sense that the short period of the calamity is intended as a consolation. But the number is purely of a schematic nature,[1076] and signifies not a long[1077] but a short time.[1078] [See Note XXX., p. 156.] The entire period of the universal tribulation is schematically represented by forty-two months.[1079] The chief misinterpretations are known already by N. de Lyra: that the ten days are ten years, in which are reckoned the persecution under Domitian[1080] and that under Decius;[1081] that the ten persecutions of Christians are meant;[1082] that the ten days correspond to and signify the Ten Commandments, and that the persecution of the entire Church will continue as long as the Ten Commandments are in force, i.e., until the end of the world, etc.
Without any external combination, the admonition ΓΊΝΟΥ ΠΙΣΤΌς follows, which in the limitation ἌΧΡΙ ΘΑΝ . reaches farther than has been thus far represented by the ΘΛῖΨΙς . With reference to the still future maintenance of fidelity, the ΓΊΝΟΥ and not ἼΣΘΙ properly stands.[1083]
The promise, having its pledge in the Lord’s own life after death (Rev_2:8), has essentially no other meaning than that which is given the victor in Rev_2:11, as the victory is won only by fidelity unto death.
The ΚΑῚ which introduces the promise places it in connection with the preceding requirement.[1084]
Τ . ΣΤΈΦΑΝΟΝ Τῆς ΖΩῆς . Appositive genitive,[1085] so that life itself appears as the crown.[1086] The expression ΣΤΈΦΑΝΟς does not mean here the crown of a king, neither in the sense that the coming kingdom of the faithful is indicated,[1087] nor in this, that the king’s crown designates in general only “something exceedingly precious and glorious;”[1088] but the figure of the victor’s crown[1089] is derived from the games, and in the mouth of the author of the Apocalypse, as well as of the Apostle Paul,[1090] is open to no objection whatever.[1091]
[1061] Incorrectly, Heinr.: φυλ ., as a part for the whole, designates misery of every kind.
[1062] ἐξ ὑμῶν , Winer, p. 343.
[1063] Act_12:3; Act_16:23. Ew.
[1064] ἄχρι θανάτου , Rev_12:11; Act_22:4; Php_2:8; Heb_12:4. N. de Lyra, Calov., Heinr., Ew., De Wette, Hengstenb., Ebrard.
[1065] Cf. Rev_2:9 : συναγ . τ . σατανᾶ .
[1066] Chs. 12 and 13.
[1067] Against Züll. and Hengstenb.
[1068] See Critical Remarks on the modified var. ἕξετε . According to this, the latter was proclaimed as, in general, only impending.
[1069] “They may be tried in order, that, amidst the greatest dangers, their faith may be tested, and thus they may show their virtue to be complete” (Ew.). Cf. also Grot., Bleek, De Wette.
[1070] Cf. Eichh., Heinr.
[1071] In which the Lord preserves and delivers, Rev_3:10. Cf. Luk_22:31.
[1072] Cf. Beng., Hengstenb.
[1073] Mat_4:1.
[1074] Cf. Mat_9:22.
[1075] Grot., Herder.
[1076] Klief: “The number of systematic completeness.”
[1077] Beda, C. a Lap., etc., according to Job_19:3; Num_14:22; 1Sa_1:8.
[1078] Andr., Alcas., Calov., Heinr., Ew., De Wette. Cf. also Hengstenb., Stern; Gen_24:55; Dan_1:12 sqq.; Num_11:19.
[1079] Rev_13:5.
[1080] Cluverus, in Calov.
[1081] Vitr.
[1082] As Ebrard infers by regarding the ten days as “a symbol of ten special sections or periods in the persecution.”
[1083] Mat_10:16; Mat_24:44; Luk_12:40.
[1084] Luk_11:9; Eph_5:14; Jam_4:7. Cf. De Wette, Winer, p. 406.
[1085] Winer, p. 494 sqq.
[1086] Jam_1:12; 1Pe_5:4. De Wette, Hengstenb., etc.
[1087] Züll.
[1088] Hengstenb., according to Isa_62:3; Isa_28:3.
[1089] Cf. Rev_2:11.
[1090] 2Ti_2:5; 2Ti_4:7 sqq.; 1Co_9:24; Php_3:14.
[1091] Against Hengstenb.
XXX. Rev_2:10. ἡμερῶν δέκα