The opening of the seventh seal is followed by half an hour's silence in heaven: “he opened” looks back to Revelation 6:12, the absence of subject showing that 7 is a parenthesis foreign to the seal-series in its original shape. Probably this series, like each of the others, was originally a separat... [ Continue Reading ]
“The seven angels who stand before God” are introduced as familiar figures (_cf._ Lueken 36 f., _R.J._ 319 f.); they belonged to pre-Christian Judaism (Tob 12:15, “I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and go in before the glory of the Holy One”), and a... [ Continue Reading ]
Between royalty and ritual the scenery of the Apocalypse fluctuates. It is assumed (as at Revelation 6:9), after Revelation 7:15 perhaps, that heaven is a temple, although this is not expressly stated till Revelation 11:19; nor is it homogeneous with the throne-description in chap. 4. λιβανωτόν (“in... [ Continue Reading ]
As an agent of God, the angel is commissioned to ratify with Divine approval the petitions of the saints for the end; this involves retribution on the impenitent and hostile world. The prophet is sure such aspirations are in harmony with God's will.... [ Continue Reading ]
The censer, having offered incense to heaven, is now used to hurl fire upon the earth (adopted from Ezekiel 10:2-7; _cf._ Leviticus 16:12). As at the close of the trumpets (Revelation 11:19) and the bowls (Revelation 16:18), physical disturbances here accompany the manifestation of God's wrath and j... [ Continue Reading ]
f. The fresh series of disasters does not advance matters any further than the previous seal-series. Both lead up to the final catastrophe, and upon the edge of it melt into a further development which practically goes over the same ground once more. This reflects of course literary artifice, not an... [ Continue Reading ]
_The first four trumpets_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Hail and fire, as in the fourth Egyptian plague, but with the added O.T. horror (see reff.) of a shower of blood instead of rain (see Chag. 12 _b_, where the sixth heaven is the storehouse of hail, storm, and noxious vapours, enclosed within gates of fire; and specially Sibyll. ver 377, πῦρ γὰρ ἀπʼ... [ Continue Reading ]
A fiery mass, huge as a mountain, is flung into the sea a description which would recall the fiery volcanic bombs familiar to inhabitants of the Egean. The catastrophe includes, as in the first Egyptian plague, the turning of water into blood and the destruction of marine animals (4 Ezra 5:7, Verg.... [ Continue Reading ]
The third part of all drinking waters is poisoned by a huge, noxious, torch-like meteor shooting down from the sky (Vergil's “de coelo lapsa per umbras Stella facem ducens multa cum luce concurrit,” Aen. ii. 693, 694). Wormwood, a bitter drug typical of divine punishment, was apparently supposed to... [ Continue Reading ]
“So as to darken a third part of them, and (_i.e._) to prevent a third of the day from shining (φάνῃ, or φάνῃ Win.) and of the night likewise”. Daylight is shortened by a third, and the brightness of an Eastern night correspondingly lessened (_cf._ the Egyptian plague of darkness). The writer either... [ Continue Reading ]
An ominous introduction to the last three trumpets. An eagle, here as in Apoc. Bar. lxxvii. 17 22, lxxxvii. 1 (_cf. Rest of Words of Bar._ 7.) a messenger and herald of catastrophe (its associations are punitive and bodeful, Deuteronomy 28:49; Hosea 8:1; Habakkuk 1:8, Eurip. _Rhes._ 528 536) flies i... [ Continue Reading ]