As I write these words America
is at war. In the wake of the September 11 tragedy in New York
City and Washington DC, America has embarked on a war against
terrorism and against the state sponsors of terrorism. At the
moment our warfare is focused on Afghanistan, where bombs have
been falling and where U.S. special forces have been active.
In this context it is natural to think of
another world leader who will make war on his enemies. Unlike
our current President, however, the enemies of this man will be
the servants of God, the people of God, and the Son of God Himself.
The record of his career is a major element in the book of Revelation.
He is, of course, the world ruler called the Beast. He is described
for us in Rev. 13:1-10.
There is no doubt that the Beast is presented
in Revelation as a man of war. His first appearance in the book
is in Revelation 11:7 where we are told that he will make war
against the two prophets of that chapter. He will succeed in killing
them despite the total failure of everyone else who has tried
to do so (11:5). Subsequently, however, we are told, it was granted
to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them (11:7).
All this is familiar to us from the English
text. However, virtually every English translation misses a pivotal
use of the phrase found in Revelation 13:5. The familiar KJV states
of this man that power was given unto him to continue for forty-two
months. The NKJV has a similar rendering ( he was given authority
to continue& ), while the NIV has & and to exercise his
authority for forty-two months.
Despite their verbal differences all three
of these translations are using precisely the same Greek text.
That text is: kai edothh autw exousia poihsai (+ for forty-two
months ). The English reader has no clue to a very important fact:
this form of the text is quite strange. The combination edothh&
poihsai (= was given& to do ) has no parallel that I am aware
of in the NT writings. One would normally expect an object for
poihsai to clarify what exactly the Beast was given authority
to do. (The verb poiew, of course, is the basic Greek verb for
to do , to make , etc.) Naturally, some will be tempted to ascribe
this awkward construction to the so-called rough Greek style of
the author. But that explanation would be a form of special pleading.
A far better (and more obvious) solution
lies at hand. The Hodges-Farstad edition of The Greek New Testament.
The Majority Text preserves the original reading in Rev. 13:5.
This text stresses the role of the Beast as one who has power to
make war, but that role is delimited by the very brief period of
forty-two months.
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According to the Majority Text (2nd ed., Thomas
Nelson Publishers, 1985) prints the following text: kai edothh
autw exousia polemon poihsai. This should be translated, and he
was given authority to make war (= for forty-two months ). As
our technical apparatus indicates, and as can be easily verified
in the apparatus of H.C. Hoskier's Concerning the Text of the
Apocalypse (vol. 2, Bernard Quaritch, 1929), the reading to make
war is clearly the reading of a substantial majority of the surviving
Greek manuscripts.
The reading on which the KJV, NKJV, and NIV
are based (i.e., omitting polemon) is found in the standard critical
editions of the Greek New Testament. Its manuscript support includes
the third century papyrus manuscript P47, the 5th century uncial
manuscripts A and C, and two minuscule families closely associated
with the widely circulated commentary on Revelation written by
Andreas (= Andrew) of Caesarea. This alignment of witnesses would
be regarded as conclusive by a large majority of textual specialists,
and as a result the variant does not even appear in the apparatus
of the United Bible Societies volume, The Greek New Testament
(4th ed. revised, 1993). It does, however, find a place in the
apparatus of the Nestle-Aland Greek NT (27th ed., 1993), where
it is said to be supported by Mk (defined in the introduction
as the koine tradition proper ).
The famous uncial codex known as Aleph, however,
contains a reading that in all likelihood originated due to the
apparent difficulty of the reading found in P47, A and C. Aleph
reads here: edothh autw poihsai ho thelei (i.e., omitting exousia
and adding ho thelei). This would be translated: it was granted
to him to do what he wishes. As all careful observers of the textual
data for Revelation will know, Aleph though dating from the 4th
century is very idiosyncratic and is regarded as containing a
text inferior to that of A and C. Evidently, however, the Jerusalem
Bible follows Aleph in Rev. 13:5 where it translates: For forty-two
months the beast was allowed& to do whatever it wanted.
Majority text proponents believe that the
text of Rev. 13:5 in P47, Aleph A and C is corrupt. The source
of the corruption is extremely simple. In the phrase polemonpoisai
(no word divisions in the earliest manuscripts), the eye of the
copyist passed from the first boldface letters po to the second.
The result was the omission of the word polemon by the well-known
scribal error called homoioarcton (= similar beginnings ). In
this fashion was created the text now found in the oldest uncial
(Aleph, A and C) and in P47. Aleph s text was subsequently revised
to the form we noticed above.
The Majority text preserves the original
reading in Rev. 13:5. This text, therefore, stresses the role
of the Beast as one who has power to make war, but that role is
delimited by the very brief period of forty-two months (=3 1/2
years). Although he is successful in his war against the two prophets
(11:7) and against the people of God (13:7), his final war will
be against the Son of God Himself. In Rev. 19:19 we are told:
And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies,
gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse
and His army (NKJV; italics added). Of course, in this war he
suffers catastrophic and final defeat (Rev. 19:20-21).
Revelation 13:5, therefore, when read as
the Apostle John originally wrote it, gives us a focused perspective
on the career of the Beast as a war-maker, as well as another
of the Bible s reminders that the triumphing of the wicked is
short (Job 20:5)!
The Majority text preserves the original reading
in Rev. 13:5. This text, stresses the role of the Beast as one
who has power to make war, but that role is delimited by the very
brief period of forty-two months.
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