And if any man shall take away from the prophecy of this book,.... As he may be said to do, who denies the authority of this book, which has been done by some, and which the Holy Ghost foresaw; or takes it away from, or denies the reading of it to the people, as the Papists do with respect to the whole Scripture; and who wilfully pervert the sense of it, and will not have the things in it, relating to antichrist, to belong to him.
God shall take away his part out of the book of life; by which is meant eternal election, which is the meaning of the phrase throughout this book, in which whoever are written shall certainly be saved.
The worshippers of the beast, or the antichristian party, who are chiefly regarded here, are not written in it, Re 13:8 wherefore taking away the part of such, is only taking away that which they seemed to have; see Lu 8:18 and the sense is, that such shall be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death, and will be the portion of all that are not written in the book of life, Re 20:15.
The Alexandrian copy, one of Stephens's, and the Complutensian edition, read, "the tree of life"; and so do the Syriac and Ethiopic versions; the sense is the same; see Joh 15:2 and out of the holy city; the new Jerusalem, before described, a part in which is a right to enter into it through the gates, and possess the glories of it: what is mentioned here is only a seeming one, which wicked men may flatter themselves with; and the meaning is, that such shall never enter into it, and enjoy the happiness of it, but shall ever be without, Re 21:27and from the things which are written in this book; the blessings promised to the overcomers in Re 2:7 which such as detract from this book shall have no share in.
The Alexandrian copy, with some others, and the Syriac version, leave out the copulative "and", and read "which are written", &c. connecting them with the book of life, and holy city, which are written, and spoken of, in this book.
The Ethiopic version connects the words with the holy city, only reading them, "which is written", &c. The Jews say of their Talmud, that nothing is to be added to it, or diminished from it . Ganz. Tzemach David, par.
1. fol. 34.