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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Revelation 21
Verse Commentaries:
Chapter Level Commentary:
Rev_21:2. The addition ἐγὼ Ἰωάννης to καὶ εὶδον (Elz.) is here incorrect.
Rev_21:3. The sing. λαὸς (Beng., Tisch.) is sufficiently supported by B, 2, 4, 7, al., Verss. The plur. λαοὶ (A, à , Elz., Lach., Tisch. IX. [W. and H.]), which does not belong in the O. T. tone of description, may, indeed, have been occasioned by the preceding αὐτοὶ .
Rev_21:6. Γέγοναν . So A, Iren., Lach., Tisch. [W. and H.]. To this also leads the erroneous text-recension γέγονα ἐγὼ τὸ Α καὶ τ . Ω in B, à 1; while the γέγονε ἐγώ εἰμι , κ . τ . λ . (Rec.), originate in Rev_16:17.
Rev_21:9. Read, with A, à , Verss., Beng., Lach., Tisch., τὴν νύμφην , τὴν γυναῖκα τοῦ αρνίου . The various transpositions (Rec.: τ . νύμφ . τ . ἀρν . τ . γυν .) depend upon the purpose of combining the τ . νύμφ . with τ . ἀρν .; cf. Rev_19:7.
Rev_21:16. Undoubtedly false is the effort at interpretation, τοσοῦτόν ἐστιν before ὅσον (Elz., rejected already by Beng.).
Rev_21:23. The ἐν before αὐτῂ (Rec.) is, according to A, B, à 1, al., to be deleted (Beng., d. N.).
Rev_21:24. The Rec. καὶ τὰ ἔθνη τὼν σωζομένων ἐν τῲ φωτὶ αὐτῆς περιπατήσουσι is an interpretation. Beng. already has the correct text.
Rev_21:27. Instead of κοινοὺν (Elz.), read κοινὸν (A, B, à , al., Beng., Griesb., Lach., Tisch. [W. and H.]). The neuter ποιοὺν (B, Elz.) has been written because of the immediately preceding πᾶν κοιν . Before the correct ποιὼν (A, à 1, Beng., Lach., Tisch.), however, the article (7, 8, 13, al., Tisch.) is probably not justified (A, à 1, Beng., Lach.).
Now, finally, after all the enemies of the Lamb, and his believers, have been eternally removed, there appears (Rev_21:1 to Rev_22:5) the final and supreme goal of all Apocalyptic prophecy, the eternal completion of the promised mystery of God,[4250] that wherein all the promises which the Lord had caused to be declared to his Church are fulfilled, and to which he had directed all the hopes of his people in the midst of the afflictions of the world, and towards which, accordingly, also the deepest longing of believers extends.[4251] Augustine already[4252] remarks correctly: “When the judgment is finished, whereby he announced beforehand that the wicked are to be judged, it remains for him to speak also concerning the good.” The result of Rev_21:4, with complete clearness to him, is that the subject of treatment here is the eternal blessedness of the godly.[4253]
Nevertheless, individual expositors have ruined also the description of ch. 21. by allegorizing.[4254]
[4250] Rev_10:7.
[4251] Cf. Rev_22:17; Rev_22:20.
[4252] l. c., c. 17.
[4253] l. c., c. Revelation 14 : “Things are said with such clearness concerning the future world and immortality, and the eternity of the saints, that we ought to seek for nothing manifest in the Holy Scriptures, If we suppose these to be obscure.”
[4254] Cf., e.g., Grot., who again stops with the times after Constantine, when the first earth no longer existed, because the earth no longer drank the blood of the martyrs, etc. Even Vitr. understands “a state of the Church to be presented on earth at the last times,” which he expects even before the judgment of the world.