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Eureka

AN EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE
Sixth Edition, 1915
By Dr. John Thomas (first edition written 1861)

 

 

Chapter 6

Section 2 Subsection 5

The Great Dagger


 
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"And there was given to him (the rider) a great dagger." So I render the words, kai edothe autoi machaira megale. In the English Version, machaira megale is rendered a great sword. My objection to this is, that in the symbolization of the Fourth Seal the sword is introduced in the English Version, although in the Greek the spirit has selected a different word, which, in fact, represents a weapon of a different kind. In verse 4, a machaira was given to the rider; while in verse 8, they kill with a rhomphaia. There must be a reason why two different words, both rendered sword in the English Version, are used by the Spirit in the second and fourth seals. A machaira and a rhomphaia, though both weapons of destruction, are such in the hands of different classes of destroyers. In Liddell and Scott’s Lexicon, machaira is defined "a large knife or dirk; a short sword or dagger; but still rather an assassin than a soldier’s weapon." It was worn by the emperors as a symbol of their power, as magistrates-in-chief, over life and death. It was also worn by the praefects of the imperial guard. It was the badge indicating them as the constitutional authorities whose function it was to cause the laws to be obeyed on pain of death.

As a symbol, then, adapted to the representation of events peculiar to the bloodstained condition of things in the second seal-period, a machaira was very appropriate. In this symbolization, it was the emblem of the murder or assassination, committed by them, who wielded constitutionally the power over the lives of their contemporaries, commonly termed the power of the sword. It was a great dagger -- symbolically great. It was great in the excessive and unconstitutional, or illegal use of it. Though a short, small, weapon in itself; yet in the hands of the class represented by the rider, it was great, or "dreadful and terrible." It was a weapon in the hands of imperial and military assassins of murder by wholesale in cold blood; and of bloodshedding in civil war to avenge assassination; or to retain sovereign power which had been acquired by the dagger’s use. In giving therefore to this rider "a great dagger," he had power "given to him to take away the peace of the earth," and to cause its potsherds to slay one another in civil wars. He would redden them with a fiery redness -- the redness of a brother’s blood.

 

 


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