Revelation 8 - Introduction

Revelation 8. The arrangement of ch. 8 has recently been subjected to critical examination by Charles (Studies in the Apocalypse, ch. 8), who arrives at the conclusion that Revelation 8:7 contains a separate Apocalypse, the insertion of which at this point causes inexplicable difficulties. He thinks the chapter was originally composed of the following elements: Revelation 8:1; Revelation 8:3; Revelation 8:2 (changing the word seven to three), Revelation 8:6 (with the same change), Revelation 8:13. This would also entail a change in the enumeration of the trumpets in ch. 9. The theory has one very important merit. It explains the silence in heaven by connecting Revelation 8:1 with Revelation 8:3. The real problem is, What is the connexion between the seventh seal and the trumpets and later on the bowls? Does the seventh seal let loose the woes of the trumpets and the bowls? Or do the trumpets and the bowls recapitulate and go over again the ground already covered by the seals? We expect the breaking of the seventh seal to be followed by a climax, but instead of a climax we get a pause. Do the trumpets and the bowls carry us forward towards the climax, or are they different ways of approaching the same end?