he enforces love, justifies the repetition of it so frequently.Doddridge. V.-7. "And these three are one." Not only agreeing in testimony, as verse 8. but in unity of nature. Though this passage has, by carelessness or design, been left out of some copies, yet it is sufficiently demonstrated, by many of the most antient ones, that it originally belonged to the sacred text.-Ostervald. For the long and intricate controversy on this passage, see Mr. Horne's Introduction, vol. iv. pp. 441. &c. V.-16. "There is a sin unto death." To constitute this sin, there must be combined in the same person knowledge and malice: when St. Peter denied his Lord, he possessed the former; and when St. Paul persecuted the Christian churches, his heart was replete with the latter; but as the two-knowledge and malice, did not meet in the same person, neither of these committed this sin. JUDE. Verse 12. "These are spots in your feasts of charity." It is commonly supposed that St. Jude here refers to the primitive christian love-feasts. But Lightfoot and Whitby apprehend the allusion is rather to a custom of the Jews, who on the evening of the sabbath had their communion, when the inhabitants of the same city met in a common place to eat together.-See Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. ii. page 386. Verse 23. "Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." In all holy worship their clothes were to be without spots or stains, loose and unbound. If they had been touched by a dead body, or struck by thunder, or any other way polluted, it was unlawful for the priest to officiate in them. The purity of the sacerdotal robes is frequently insisted on in the poets: Casta placent superis; pura cum veste venito. -See Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. ii. page 386. REVELATION. "Amen." This word is of Hebrew origin, and signifies, true; faithful; certain. Our translation often renders it verily; and especially when doubled, it approaches towards the solemnity of an oath, John iii. 3. So be it; or so let it be, Jer. xxviii. 6. Rev. i. 18. Christ is called the Amen; he is the God of truth; is the substance of revealed truth; the infallible prophet, and the faithful and true witness, Rev. iii. 14. All the promises are yea and amen in Christ: they are infallibly established by his word and oath; are irrevocably ratified by his death, and sealed by his spirit, 2 Cor. i. 20.--Brown. I.—8. “1 am Alpha and Omega." This is an expression taken from the Rabbins, who say, ab Aleph usque ad Tau. John, writing in Greek, adapted it to the Greek alphabet.— Valpy's Greek Testament. I.-9. "Was in the isle that is called Patmos." Mr. Horne, in his Introduction, vol. iii. page 142, under the article, Punishments, has the following remark. "Banishment was not a punishment enjoined by the Mosaic law; but after the captivity, both exile and forfeiture of property were introduced among the Jews: and it also existed under the Romans, by whom it was called diminutio capitis, because the person banished lost the right of a citizen, and the city of Rome thereby lost a head. But there was another kind of exile termed disportatio, which was accounted the worst kind. The party banished forfeited his estate; and being bound was put on board ship, and transported to some island specified exclusively by the emperor, there to be confined in perpetual banishment. In this manner the apostle John was exiled to the little island of Patmos, where he wrote his " Revelation." I.-10. "I was in the spirit." That is, in an ecstacy and peculiar revelation of the holy spirit, as is described in Rev. iv. 2. xvii. 3. xxi. 10. 2 Cor. xii. 2.-See Horne's Introduction, vol. ii. page 597. I.—12. "To see the voice." This is an instance of the figure catachresis, i. e. the use of a word in a sense different from the natural one. The meaning is, To consider attentively. I.-13. "And girt about the paps." Rather, girded round the breast. I.-16. "Out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword." This representation appears to correspond with the practice of some people with respect to this weapon. Thevenot has mentioned an incident which throws considerable light upon this point; he says, "The galliot being out a cruising, met with a Turkish galliot, and having laid her athwart hawse, met with a stout resistance. The Turks who were on board of her, having a naked sword between their teeth, and a musket in their hands, beat off their adversaries." How this naked sword was used in combat, does not appear, but if this ever had been part of a military custom, the figure of a sword issuing from the mouth seems as if it might be justified by matter of fact; and this expression may rank among those which occurrent circumstances may have formed.-Burder's O. Customs, vol. i. p. 391. I.-20. "The angels of the seven churches." There seems here an allusion to the Jewish church, the priests of which were styled angels or messengers, as bringing the commands of God to the people, and carrying or offering their prayers to God. The ruler of the synagogue was also called angel or bishop.-Valpy's Greek Testament. The angels or ruling ministers in the seven churches of Asia (Rev. ii. and iii.) are signified by the seven stars, because his (Christ's) ministers hold forth the word of light, and their light shines before men in this mortal state, as the stars give light to the world in the night season; of which light christians in general partake, and are therefore called children of light.Horne's Introduction, vol. ii. page 605. II.-10. "Ye shall have tribulation ten days." Many interpreters think that this refers to the persecution under Domitian, which continued about ten years, and began when John was banished into Patmos, and saw these revelations. But it may only signify a short and limited time.Doddridge. II.-10. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." An encouragement this, says Dr. Hales, peculiarly adapted to their angel or bishop, the venerable Polycarp, who suffered martyrdom rather than apostatize, A. D. 167. Fourscore and six years have I served Christ, and he never injured me: How then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour."-Valpy's Greek Testament. II.- -17. "A white stone," &c. It was the custom among the Jews to pronounce sentence of condemnation in this manner: He is guilty of death, Matt. xxvi. 66. In other countries, a person's condemnation was announced to him by giving him a black stone, and his acquittal by giving him a white stone. Ovid mentions this practice thus : Mos erat antiquus, niveis atrisque lapillis, Met. lib. xv. 41-43. A custom was of old, and still obtains, The first absolves, but fate is in the last. DRYDEN. In allusion to this custom, some critics have supposed that our Saviour (Rev. ii. 17.) promises to give the spiritual conqueror a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it; which may be supposed to signify-Well done, thou good and faithful servant. The white stones of the antients were inscribed with characters; and so is the white stone mentioned in the Apocalypse. According to Persius, the letter Theta was the token of condemnation. Et potis es nigrum vitio prefigere Theta. Sat. iv. 13. Fixing thy stigma on the brow of vice. DRUMMOND. But as there was a new name inscribed on the white stone given by our Lord, which no man knoweth but he who receiveth it, it should rather seem that the allusion in this passage is to the tessera hospitales, of which the reader will find an account infra.-Horne's Introduction, vol. iii. p. 113. From the same volume, page 445, is extracted a remark on the Tesseræ. "The antient Romans divided a tessera lengthwise, into two equal parts, as signs of hospitality, upon each of which one of the parties wrote his name, and interchanged it with the other. The production of this, when they travelled, gave a mutual claim to the contracting parties and their descendants, for reception and kind treatment at each other's houses, as occasion offered. These tessera were sometimes of stone, shaped in the form of an oblong square: and as they were carefully and privately kept, so that no one might claim |