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Rev_20:11-15. The judgment of the world. All the dead appear before the enthroned God as Judge. They who are not written in the book of life are cast—together with Death and Hades—into the lake of fire.
Καὶ εἰδον . Designation of a new vision.[4226]
ΘΡΌΝΟΝ ΜΈΓΑΝ ΛΕΥΚῸΝ . The greatness, as well as the whiteness, corresponding to the glory and holiness of the Judge sitting thereon, distinguishes this throne from that beheld previously (Rev_20:4).
τὸν καθήμενον ἐπʼ αὐτοῦ . The one meant is not the Messiah,[4227] but God speaking (Rev_21:5-6),[4228] and designated at Rev_4:3.[4229] Ew. ii. understands God and Christ.[4230]
ῈΦΥΓΕΝ , cf. Rev_16:20. Beng. explains the visible representation excellently: “Not from one place to another, but so that it has no longer a place.” Cf. Rev_21:1. ἈΠῊΛΘΑΝ , 2Pe_3:10.
A new part of the vision proceeding still further ( ΚΑῚ ΕἸΔΟΝ , Rev_20:12), attests the view thereof, as all the dead[4231] stand before the throne, and receive their sentence.
The ἑστῶτας ἐνώπιον τοῦ θρόνου (Rev_20:12), in the connection of the whole, has a precisely similar relation to the description Rev_20:13 ( κ . ἔδωκεν , κ . τ . λ .), as in ch. 15 Rev_20:1 has to Rev_20:6, since it is not reported more definitely (Rev_20:13) whence the dead who stand before the judgment-seat have come.[4232] Bengel improperly regards the νεκρούς (Rev_20:12) as those who live to see the day of the parousia,[4233] by understanding the νεκερούς figuratively,[4234] and distinguishing this from the resurrection of those actually dead (Rev_20:13).
καὶ βιβλία ἠνοίχθησαν . Cf. Dan_7:10. In these books the ἔργα are to be regarded as written, in accordance with which men are judged.[4235]
καὶ ἄλλο βιβλίον . This book, “the book of life,” is only one; it contains the names of all those who[4236] will be partakers of the eternal blessed life in the new Jerusalem.[4237] According to the ethical fundamental view, which is supported especially by the promises, ch. 2, 3, both kinds of books are to be received in their inner relation to one another, that always according to the works which stand indicated in the βιβλίοις , the names of men are, or are not, found in the βιβλίον τῆς ζωῆς . [See Note XCII., p. 474.] As in Rev_20:12 the entire number of the dead was designated by a natural specification referring to their personality, so in Rev_20:13 this idea is presented by a specification of another sort; every place where there are any dead, gives them back. The more manifest this is as an exhaustive designation of all places of concealment of the dead, the more perverted appears the assertion of Hengstenberg and Ebrard,[4238] that the θάλασσα means not the actual sea, but only “the sea of nations;”[4239] but from the text ( καὶ ὁ θάν . κ . ὁ ἅδης , κ . τ . λ ., cf. Rev_20:14), it does not, therefore, follow that John seriously advocated the view according to which those contained in the sea had not reached Hades.[4240] John does not indeed refer to a wandering of souls in a watery grave, but simply represents those lying dead in the sea as coming forth from the same. Thus, in Rev_20:13, that is described which, according to the analogy of Rev_20:5, may be termed the second resurrection. Since Rev_20:5 is understood as applying to all believers, this is only the resurrection of those who are to be delivered (Rev_20:15) to the second death, i.e., to eternal torture in the lake of fire. But from this it does not follow that Rev_20:12, in its clearly designated entirety of all the (risen, Rev_20:5; Rev_20:13) dead, does not comprise those saints;[4241] but in the general judgment of the world, that is expressly affirmed of those saints which was already guaranteed to them by the first resurrection and their thousand-years’ reign,[4242] because their names were found written in the book of life.[4243] But that the statement (Rev_20:15) expressly describes the fate only of the unbelieving, is natural for the reason that in this passage the entire judgment of condemnation is concluded, in connection with which, then, the description of the eternal glory of believers, to which the entire Apocalypse is directed,[4244] may be given the more fully for their consolation and encouragement.
ΚΑῚ Ὁ ΘΆΝΑΤΟς ΚΑῚ Ὁ ᾍΔΗς ἘΒΛΉΘΗΣΑΝ , Κ . Τ . Λ . Death and Hades, which (Rev_20:13)[4245] are locally represented here,[4246] appear personified as demoniacal powers, whose eternal removal[4247] is a presupposition to the eternal life of the glorified[4248] [See Note XCIII., p. 474.] ΟὙΤΟς Ὁ ΘΆΝΑΤΟς Ὁ ΔΕΎΤΕΡΟς ἘΣΤΙΝ . “This death is the second” (death). Thus the correct reading is to be translated.[4249] The apposition Ἡ ΛΊΜΝΗ ΤΟῦ ΠΥΡΌς , construed according to sense, declares that the second death—which is followed by no resurrection—consists in the ΒΛΗΘῆΝΑΙ ΕἸς Τ . ΛΊΜΝ . Τ . ΠΥΡ . (Rev_21:8). The first death is easily understood as the end of the earthly life.
[4226] Rev_20:1; Rev_20:4; Rev_19:11; Rev_17:18.
[4227] Mat_26:31. Beng, Eichh., Ew. i., etc.
[4228] Cf. Rev_1:8.
[4229] Cf. also Dan_7:9. Züll., De Wette, Hengstenb.
[4230] “One of two in complete undividedness” (?).
[4231] Concerning the exhaustive specification τ . νεκρ . τοὺς μεγάλους καὶ τοὺς μικροὐς , cf. Rev_11:18, Rev_13:16.
[4232] Züll., De Wette.
[4233] Cf. also Hengstenb.
[4234] Mat_8:22.
[4235] Rev_20:12 b, Rev_20:13. Cf. Rev_2:1; Rev_2:5; Rev_2:19; Rev_3:1; Rev_3:8; Rev_3:15.
[4236] Rev_20:15. Cf. Rev_3:5.
[4237] Rev_21:1 sqq.
[4238] Cf. Augustine, etc.
[4239] Hengstenb.
[4240] Cf. Achilles, Tat., V. 313: λἐγουσι δὲ τὰς ἐν ὕδασι ἀνῃρημένας μηδὲ εἰς ᾄδου καταβαίνειν ὅλως , ἀλλʼ αὐτοῦ περὶ τὸ ὑδωρ ἔχειν τὴν πλάνην [“They say that those swallowed up in the waters do not entirely descend to Hades, but wander there about the water”]. Wetst., De Wette.
[4241] Against Hengstenb., etc.
[4242] Cf. Rev_20:6 with Rev_20:14 sq.
[4243] Cf. Rev_21:21.
[4244] Rev_21:1 sqq.
[4245] Cf. Rev_1:18.
[4246] Cf. Rev_6:8.
[4247] Cf. Isa_25:8; 1Co_15:26.
[4248] Cf. Rev_21:4.
[4249] Cf. the Critical Notes. The à gives: This is the second death.
XCII. Rev_20:12. βιβλία
ἄλλο βιβλίον
XCIII. Rev_20:14. καὶ ὁ θάνατος καὶ ὁ ἅδῃς , κ . τ . λ .