Revelation 8-9 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

948 9499.7 And the likenesses of the grasshoppers--similar to horses having been946(...continued)Latin Vulgate, some of the Old Latin witnesses and the Bohairic Coptic. Here again, the variantreading does not change the meaning of Revelation, but exchanges a present fleeing fora future fleeing, and in line with this kind of variant reading, we should interpret in terms ofpresent events along with similar future events.947The phrase èÜíáôïò ð áôí, ho thanatos ap’ auton, literally “the death fromthem,” is changed to read ð áôí èÜíáôïò, literally, “from them the death,” by the MajorityText (K). The change in word-order does not change the meaning of Revelation at all.Compare the following passages from the Jewish Bible: “Why is light given to those inmisery, and life to the bitter of soul, to those who long for death that does not come, whosearch for it more than for hidden treasure, who are filled with gladness and rejoice when theyreach the grave?” (Job 3:20-22) “Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this evil nationwill prefer death to life, declares my Lord YHWH!” (Jeremiah 8:3)Aune notes that “The desirability of death is discussed in Plato, Apology 40c, andsome Greek writers (using a theme from consolation literature) refer to death as preferable tothe troubles and suffering of life.” (P. 531)Beasley-Murray mentions that this theme of preferring death to life finds many parallelsin ancient non-Christian literature. But he agrees with Henry Alford that an even more helpfulparallel is to be found in Philippians 1:23-25a, "where death is welcomed in prospect, not asan escape, but for the riches of fellowship with Christ which it brings, but where nonethelesslife is embraced for the opportunities of service it provides." This passage states: “I am tornbetween the two [living and dying]: I desire to depart and be with (the) Christ, which is betterby far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I knowthat I will remain...”948The neuter plural adjective ìïéá, homoia, “like,” is read by Uncial Manuscript 0207,the Majority Text, the Latin Vulgate and a few Old Latin witnesses. It is changed to the masculineplural adjective o`,moioi, homoioi, “like,” by Sinaiticus and Minuscule 2344. It is changedto the neuter plural noun o`moiw,mata, homoiomata, “likenesses” (the same as the earlier nounin the first phrase of this verse) by Alexandrinus and a few other Greek manuscripts. It ischanged to the neuter singular noun o`moi,wma, homoioma, “likeness,” by Minuscule 2351 andTyconius (who died after 390 A.D.). It seems obvious from this great variety of readings thatthere must have been some problem in the primitive text of Revelation, and that later copyistsand translators have resolved the problem as seemed best to them. However, the variantreadings do not change the meaning of Revelation.949Beasley-Murray states that "The description of the locusts reads like a verbal picture,besides which Picasso pales." (P. 162) Indeed, it does--and John's vision reveals its authoras more of a surrealist artist than Picasso himself! The word surrealism is used to describe aliterary and artistic movement launched in 1924 by the French poet Andre Breton (1896-1966),(continued...)441