Monday, December 20, 2021

My Greek Text of the Day: Revelation 16:15

I've been working on Revelation 16:13-17, particularly focusing on the syntax, morphology and some lexical data. For today, I submit Revelation 16:15 as a text to ponder and analyze:

SBLGNT: Ἰδοὺ ἔρχομαι ὡς κλέπτης. μακάριος ὁ γρηγορῶν καὶ τηρῶν τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ, ἵνα μὴ γυμνὸς περιπατῇ καὶ βλέπωσιν τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην αὐτοῦ—

Vincent's Word Studies: "These words are parenthetical."

Abbott-Smith: ἰδού, [in LXX chiefly for הִנֵּה,] prop. imperat. 2 aor. mid. of ὁράω, used as a demonstrative particle, with frequency much greater in LXX and NT than in cl. (v. M, Pr., 11),

lo, behold, see: Mt 10:16 11:8 13:3, Mk 3:32, Lk 2:48, I Co 15:51, Ja 5:9, Ju 14, Re 1:7, al.; after gen. absol., Mt 1:20 2:1, 13 12:46, al.; καὶ ἰδού, Mt 2:9 (and freq.), Lk 1:20 10:25, Ac 12:7, al.; in elliptical sentences, taking the place of copula or predicate (like הִנֵּה in Heb.), Mt 3:17, Lk 5:12 22:31, 47 Ac 8:27, 36 al.

EGF: ἰδού occurs 200x in the GNT and 26x in Revelation.

Zerwick and Grosvenor:

Bill Mounce: ἀσχημοσύνη, ῆς, ἡ-pr. external indecorum; nakedness, shame, pudenda, Rev. 16:15; indecency, infamous lust or lewdness, Rom. 1:27*

A.T. Robertson's WP:

Lest he walk naked (ἵνα μὴ γυμνὸς περιπατῇ). Negative purpose clause with ἵνα μὴ and the present active subjunctive of περιπατέω, and note predicate nominative γυμνὸς (naked).

And they see his shame (καὶ βλέπωσιν τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην αὐτοῦ). Continuation of the final clause with present active subjunctive of βλέπω. ἀσχημοσύνην is old word (from άσχημων, indecent, 1 Corinthians 12:23), in N.T. only here and Romans 1:27, a euphemism for την αισχύνην (Revelation 3:18).

NET Bible: sn These lines are parenthetical, forming an aside to the narrative. The speaker here is the Lord Jesus Christ himself rather than the narrator. Many interpreters have seen this verse as so abrupt that it could not be an original part of the work, but the author has used such asides before (1:7; 14:13) and the suddenness here (on the eve of Armageddon) is completely parallel to Jesus’ warning in Mark 13:15-16 and parallels.

2 comments:

Roman said...

Nothing to add, just to say that this was in my regular daily bible reading today, and I stopped to looked ἀσχημοσύνην, so it's nice to see the notes here.

Edgar Foster said...

Glad it could be of some assistance. I didn't quote BDAG or Louw-Nida but you might find them helpful too.