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The Text of Revelation 22.14

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Stephen Goranson
Stephen Goranson
Affiliation:
706 Louise Circle 30J, Durham, NC 27705, USA
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Extract

There are two well-attested readings of Rev 22.14, the seventh and final blessing in the book. The reading accepted in the UBS 4th edition is , ‘Blessed are those who wash their robes’ (RSV). Most twentieth-century NT editions, including Nestle-Aland, and most commentators agree with the UBS. But, in my view, the original text is the other well-attested reading, , ‘Blessed are those who do his commandments’ (footnote in RSV). The manuscript attestation and versional evidence is not decisive for either reading, but patristic references, literary analysis, and consistency with the worldview in Revelation all favour the reading .

Type
Short Studies
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , January 1997 , pp. 154 - 157
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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References

1 In this century, the few exceptions to this near-consensus view include Soden, H. von, Griechisches Neues Testament (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1913)Google Scholar and Hoskier, H. C. in the introduction (1.xl–xli) to his massive 2 vol. work, Concerning the Text of the Apocalypse (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1928).Google Scholar Examples of the many twentieth-century commentators who accept the reading of ‘wash their robes’ include, e.g., Charles, R. H., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Revelation of St John (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1920) 2.370Google Scholar and J. P. M. Sweet (WPC; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1979) 316–17, which describes the ‘wash their robes’ reading as ‘less obvious but more pointed, and almost certainly original’ (316).

2 Metzger, B. M., A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (London and New York: United Bible Societies, 1971) 767.Google Scholar

3 See Schmid, J., Studien zur Geschichte des griechischen Apokalypse-Textes 2 Teil; Die Altenstämme (Miinchen: Karl Zink, 1955) 83.Google Scholar Schmid took the former position, Weiss, B. the latter, in Die Johannes-Apokalypse. Textkritische Untersuchungen und Textherstellung (TU 7/1; Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1891) 10.Google Scholar Given Schmid's deep knowledge, his discussion of Rev 22.14 is disappointingly brief.

4 De Pudicitia 19.9, beati qui ex praeceptis agunt: Dekkers, E., ed., Tertulliani Opera (CC, Series Latina, 2;Turnholt: Brepols, 1954) 1321.Google Scholar

5 By UBSGNT 3rd edition, 1983. See also Hoskier, , Concerning the Text of the Apocalypse 2.635.Google Scholar

6 Migne, PG 25, col. 512, ‘πλατνоντες’.

7 Patrology (Utrecht/Antwerp: Spectrum, 1975) 3.28.Google Scholar

8 Patrology (trans. H. Graef; New York: Herder and Herder, 1961) 315.Google Scholar

9 Explanatio Psalmorum XII, Sancti Ambrosii Opera (CSEL 64; ed. M. Petschenig; Vienna: F. Tempsky, 1919) 180.Google Scholar

10 Contrast Rom 7 on commandments.

11 My article, ‘The Exclusion of Ephraim in Rev. 22:14 and Essene Polemic Against Pharisees’, Dead Sea Discoveries 2 (1995) 80–5Google Scholar argues that echoes of intra-Jewish polemic, between Essenes and Pharisees, are evident in Revelation, with the author of Revelation favouring Essene viewpoints. I further explored this issue in a paper read at the second meeting of the International Organization of Qumran Studies (held July, 1995 in Cambridge, England), ‘Essene Polemic in the Apocalypse of John’.

12 Wordsworth, C., The New Testament (London, 1877) 276.Google Scholar

13 Apocalypse of St John (3rd ed.; London: Macmillan, 1911) 307.Google Scholar

14 Some manuscripts at Rev 22.15 also omit one or both verbs from the phrase ‘those who love and do falsehood’, as indicated in Nestle—Aland 26th edition and in Hoskier, , Concerning the Text of the Apocalypse, 2.636–7.Google Scholar

15 In sanguine agni: Biblia Sacra Vulgatae Editionis Sixti Quinti iussu recognita (Rome, 1592).Google Scholar Compare the text of Ambrose, above. See Wordsworth, J., et al. ,, Nouum Testamentum Domini nostri Iesu Christi Latine (Oxford, 1944) 3.593Google Scholar, for the textual basis of the addition, which includes Cod. Ardmachanus (9th century).

16 Text and translation from Bonner, C., The Last Chapters of Enoch in Greek (London: Christophers, 1937) 44–7 and 90Google Scholar, respectively. For other similar texts (e.g. from Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs) see Denis, A.-M., Concordance Grecque des Pseudepigraphes d'Ancien Testament (Louvain-la-Neuve: Université Catholique de Louvain, 1987).Google Scholar

17 Text from Lightfoot, J. B., The Apostolic Fathers 1Google Scholar; Clement of Rome 2 (London: Macmillan, 1890) 218.Google Scholar

18 For bibliography, see Warns, R., Untersuchungen zum 2. Clemens-Brief (Marburg: Philipps-Universität, 1985) esp. 325–8.Google Scholar Warns compares 2 Clem 4.5 with Matt 7.21 and 23, and with the Gospel of the Nazarenes. For the latter reference (Gospel of the Nazarenes from Codex Novi Testamenti 1424), see Klijn, A. F. J., Jewish-Christian Gospel Tradition (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992) 56–7.Google Scholar