| 8-16-08 - DREAM - I was at home in my bedroom on the 2nd floor. I
was laying on the bed reading. It was noontime and I was taking a
break from work which was on the first floor of our house downstairs.
I saw a UPS truck go past the front window and stop. The truck was as
tall as the second floor. I could clearly
see that the driver was a black man.
I just kept on reading and all of a sudden a white-skinned,
blonde-haired UPS driver appeared at my bedroom door with a package.
I was surprised, but I acknowledged his presence and wondered maybe
if he was a trainee or something, riding along with the black driver.
I didn't open the package, but took it downstairs to the office
where my husband was working.
He said to me, loud enough for all the male workers to hear, "Why
don't you make a reservation for 8 at the bar in honor of my Dad's
birthday! Do you want to go along?" and I shook my head, "No!"
I said, "Okay! to making the reservation and he handed me his keys
on a ring - three of which looked like golden tubes with a semi-circle in
the center that looked like a sharp beer can and bottle opener.
He took one of the bottle opener keys off the ring and handed it to
me.
I assumed that the object was meant to be used to dial the telephone
so I wouldn't break my fingernails or damage my nail polish.
(Communication?)
I asked him what time he wanted the reservation for, and he said "8
p.m.
[Editors note: 8 men at 8 p.m.]
I looked over toward where the men were seated at a table and
suggested that he go earlier, right from work and take them for dinner as
well.
He thought for a moment and said, "Okay! We'll have dinner
reservations as well."
So, I asked him, "Where do you want to go?" and he answered,
"Red Berries."
He handed me the yellow pages phone book which was thin and looked
to be all bars and restaurants.
I started paging through the book and saw "Red Cherries", and
thought that the number for "Red Berries" should be close by.
I then looked through a window and saw the waitresses for "Red
Cherries" which was next door to where were worked and all the waitresses
were female deer with 4 deer legs, a deer body, a long neck with human
arms and human heads, each one with different colored hair including one
with white hair.
There were quite a few waitresses like that - all deer, and then I
saw my own reflection in the mirror, and saw that I was a red-haired young
deer myself.
A voice in my ear said, "Why don't you ask Zechariah Sitchen what
the word "Homie" means! NOTE: Zechariach Sitchen -
through his studies learned that the Bible's Nephilim are the Anunnaki and
that they came from Nibiru. See:
http://www.greatdreams.com/nibiru.htm They
were the giants of the Bible.
You can see his whole interview explaining this here: "A Talk From
The Heart"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMr49GMFoFw&feature=related
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ YOUR PRIMEVAL
FOREST
(Written as a birthday gift for her daughter Imy in
the 1940s)
By Zora Henry Curry
Down the isles of your forest primeval, I have woven
a pathway of gold,
As a guide for your feet, like the lights in the
street, in this forest so dark and so old,
Through the pale green haze of the Willow trees, that
border the brooks and rivers,
The gold glints through like moonbeams, that shimmer
and shake and quiver,
Through the murmuring pines and the hemlocks, the
gold twinkles bright, like a star,
Like fireflies that shine in the darkness, like
candle lights seen from afar.
Combining the moonlight and sunlight, and the greens
in this forest so old,
And I trust this will give you much pleasure, as you
rest 'neath the sheltering boughs,
Camouflaged, like a deer, when the hunter is near,
While you watch all the wild creatures browse.
In the heart of this forest primeval, you can rest at
your ease through the day,
And at night you can wander in safety, for the gold
will light up all your way,
It is not that I feel that I owe you, anything in the
world but my love,
The same rule goes for you, your love is my due, it's
what we have plenty of.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
6-8-03 - DREAM - I was in a house somewhere. I looked out the window
and saw my Father wrestling with a cow right up against the house. (I
would call it a steer) I got scared and ran to the opposite side of the
room to call my sons so they could help my Father. I saw my sons out the
window on the lawn and saw them struggling to subdue a two-pronged red
deer with a jacket over its horns and eyes.
That really scared me, so I ran outside and saw some people opening
up an old house that had been boarded up for many years. They looked like
a friendly family but they had a big red dog with them and they lost
control of it and it started running towards me. I was already backing up,
running toward me. I was already backing up around the corner of the house
and ran inside and shut the door.
Inside the kitchen, I discovered I had cooked way too much meat for
dinner. I had a huge roasted turkey in one oven and a roasted duck in
another oven.
We didn't need all that food for one meal no matter how good it was.
But because of all the excitement, I wasn't ready for dinner and saw there
were dishes all over the kitchen that had to be washed first before we
could sit down to eat.
As I woke up, but still in the dream, a low pitched male voice said,
"Don't worry, the triple threat of Montauk is 55 miles away from Long
Island." and I had the a vision of Montauk along the coast of the land
across the gap of water between it and Long Island.
NOTE: As I told Joe about this dream, on TV - a commercial came on
showing the fear of a man running from the ghosts of the past
MONTAUK ON THIS SITE
The Florentine Codex, Chapter One
FROM:
http://www.theaha.org/tl/LessonPlans/ca/Fitch/aztec1.htm
Ten years before the Spaniards first came here, a frightening omen
appeared in the sky. It was like a large glowing blaze. It seemed to
pierce the sky itself, very wide at the base and narrow at the top. It
extended to the very middle of the sky, to the very heart of the heavens.
When it shone in the east in the middle of the night, it burned so bright
one could believe it was dawn. The blaze appeared at midnight and burned
till the break of day, then it disappeared from view. When the day broke,
the sun effaced it. This omen was visible each night for a year, beginning
the year 12-House. When it appeared at midnight, everyone shouted and hit
their hands against their mouths; they were frightened and asked
themselves what it could mean.
The second omen which appeared was that the temple of
Huitzilopochtli burst into flames of its own accord and flared greatly.
When the fire appeared, the squared, wooden pillars were already in
flames; from within them emerged tongues and tassels of flames that
speedily consumed all of the building's beams. When the fire appeared,
people shouted: "Mexicanos, hasten here, come and extinguish the flames,
bring your water jugs!" They came, but when they threw water on the blaze
it only exploded more. They could not put it out, and the temple burned to
the ground.
The third omen was that a temple was struck by a lightning-bolt. It
was only a straw hut, the temple of Xiuhtecuhtli in the place known as
Tzumulco. It was believed to be an omen because the sum was shining and it
was not raining hard that day, only a drizzle, and no thunder was heard.
The fourth omen was that while the sun was still shining. a comet
fell divided into three parts. It flashed out from the west and raced
straight to the east, looking like a shower of sprinkling, glowing coals,
and its tail reached a far distance. When the people saw it, there was a
great outcry, like the sound of rattles.
The fifth omen was that the water of the lake boiled up; the wind
had nothing to do with it. It was as if it were boiling with rage and made
exploding sounds and rose high in the air and reached the foundations of
the houses until the houses collapsed. This was the great lake [Lake
Texcoco] which surrounded us here in Mexico.
The sixth omen was that often a woman was heard weeping and
shouting. She cried out loudly at night, saying "Oh, my children, we are
about to go.” At other times she cried: " Oh my children, where shall I
take you?"
The seventh omen came when water people were hunting or snaring and
captured an ash-covered bird, like a crane. They went to the Tlillan
calmecac to show it to Moctezuma; it was past noon, but still daytime. On
top of its head was something like a strange mirror, round, circular, and
it appeared to be pierced in the center, where one could see the sky, the
stars, and the Firedrill [mamalhuaztli or Caster and Pollux
constellation]. Moctezuma took it as a great and evil omen when he saw the
stars and the mamalhuaztli. And when he looked at the bird's head a second
time a little further, he saw a crowd of people coming, armed for war on
the backs of deer. Then he called for the soothsayers and sages, and asked
them: "Do you not know what I have seen? a crowd of people coming." But
when they began to answer him, all had vanished, and they could tell him
nothing more.
The eighth omen was that monstrous beings appeared, deformed men
with two heads but only one body. They took them to the Tlillan calmecac
and showed them to Moctezuma; but when he looked at them, they
disappeared.
FROM:
http://www.greatdreams.com/4th-world.htm
NOTE: In searching for Red Berries, I found that Christmas symbolism
- the birth of Jesus contains the Christmas wreath made of Holly which has
red berries on it.
 Druids
believed the holly or ilex was sacred. They thought this plant stayed
green year round because it was especially favored by the sun. Christian
legend says one winter night, the holly miraculously grew leaves out of
season in order to hide the Holy Family from Herod's soldiers. Since then,
it has been an evergreen as a token of Christ's gratitude.
Holly is one of the trees said to be the tree of Christ's cross.
Legend tells us that the trees of the forests refused the defilement of
the cross, splintering into tiny fragments at the touch of the ax. Only
the holly behaved like an ordinary tree, allowing itself to be cut and
formed into a cross. It is as a Passion symbol that holly is found in
pictures of various saints. It's presence indicates that the saint is
either reflecting upon Christ's Passion or foretelling it.
In Germany, holly is called Christdorn in memory of Christ's crown
of thorns. According to legend, the holly's branches were woven into a
painful crown and placed on Christ's head while the soldiers mocked him
saying, "Hail, King of the Jews." The holly's berries used to be white but
Christ's blood left them with a permanent crimson stain.
Another legend about this Christmas plant says that a little orphan
boy was living with the shepherds when the angels came to announce the
birth of the newborn king. Having no gift for the baby, the child wove a
crown of holly branches for its head. But when he lay it before Christ, he
became ashamed of it's poverty and began to cry. Miraculously, Jesus
touched the crown and it began to sparkle while the orphan's tears turned
into beautiful scarlet berries.
Many superstitions surround the holly. It is a man's plant and is
believed to bring good luck and protection to men while ivy brings the
same to women. It is thought that whoever brings the first sprig of
Christmas holly into the home will wear the pants that year. It was hung
about the doors and windows to keep away witches, spells, evil spirits,
goblins, and lightning. On Christmas eve, English virgins hung holly on
their beds to protect their virtue from Christmas goblins. However, elves
and fairies were welcome in British households, and sprigs of holly were
hung as hiding places for them. Romans gave gifts of holly to their
friends during Saturnalia as good luck charms and protection against evil.
Because of all these superstitions, early Christians were forbidden to
decorate with this plant, especially during Saturnalia.
The Holly and the Ivy
The holly and the ivy,
When they are both full grown,
Of all the trees that are in the wood,
The holly bears the crown.
The rising of the sun
And the running of the deer,
The playing of the merry organ,
Sweet singing in the choir.
The holly bears a blossom
As white as the lily flower,
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
To be our sweet savior.
The holly bears a berry
As red as any blood,
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
To do poor sinners good.
The holly bears a prickle
As sharp as any thorn
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
On Christmas day in the morn.
The holly bears a bark
As bitter as any gall,
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ
For to redeem us all.
The holly and the ivy,
When they are both full grown,
Of all the trees that are in the wood
The holly bears the crown.
- Old English Christmas Carol -
FROM:
http://ww2.netnitco.net/users/legend01/holly.htm
. |
| NOTE: It came to me that 8:8 referenced a Bible verse.
In the dream, my husband was taking 7 men to the Red Berries bar in honor
of his Dad's birthday.
I started at the end of the Bible - Revelation which means
'communication' - the can opener, which was given to me by my
husband to make the 'call'.
So, lets take a look at Rev. 8 - starting at verse 1, and we find
the seven angels blowing the seven trumpets: In the dream, the trumpets could have
arrived in the package by UPS which I hadn't looked at but gave to my
husband:
1. The seventh seal and the seven Trumpets REVELATION: (8:1)
1.1. Introduction to the seven
trumpets:
The seven seals summarise human history from the
viewpoint of heaven and the church. There is war, famine and
pestilence in general and on the church in particular there is
persecution, then the end will come, this probably accounts for the
silence of the seventh seal. What is described is similar to the signs
of the end of the age as described by Jesus in Matthew 24. The seven
trumpets however follow on from the persecution of the seals and are
God's warnings to unbelievers, they do not affect the eternal
spiritual security of the believer which is why he is sealed first,
although they may affect him physically. The seven trumpets are God's
response to the prayers of his people as the first section (8:1-5)
shows. A number of authors point out that in Lev 26 Israel is warned
that their calamities will be multiplied seven times if they do not
heed God's voice and continue in their apostasy. Beasley-Murray points
out that by tripling this with the seven seals, trumpets and bowls it
builds up to the advent of Christ in an awe-inspiring climax. We
should also note that Jesus voice sounded like a trumpet, 1:10.
The trumpets are modelled on the plagues on the
Egyptians, the plague of blood on the Nile however is split into two,
one affecting the sea and the other the drinking water (rivers and
springs), this is a good example of Farrar's 'Rebirth of Images'.
Using the Exodus as our model when these disaster afflict the world it
is a sign to the saints that they will soon be free of their
persecutors. The effects of the trumpets are world wide because the
persecution of God's people is world wide (Beasley-Murray). God's word
to Pharaoh through Moses were 'let my people go that they may worship
me' Exo 8:1; Pharaoh refused and the plagues resulted. The trumpets
come to the world because of their refusal to allow God's people to
worship him (by persecuting them) and their refusal to worship God
themselves, they prefer idolatry instead (9:20).
The trumpets like the seals form a group of
four, two and one. The last three trumpets which affect mankind
directly are also called the three woe's, a build up in severity is
clearly intended. The first four trumpets bring disaster onto the
world (vegetation burned, sea, rivers and springs; i.e. man's
environment) and universe (sun, moon and stars). The fifth and sixth
trumpets affect mankind directly, the demonic locusts torment mankind
and the two hundred million horsemen kill a third of mankind. The
statement after the sixth trumpet that mankind still did not repent
indicates that the purpose of these judgements is to bring mankind to
repentance. Despite these disasters mankind refuses to repent and
hence the witness of the church occurs in the interlude between the
sixth and seventh trumpet. When they have finished their witness the
seventh trumpet ushers in the end of the world and the kingdom of the
world becomes the kingdom of Christ and there is the judgement day.
The trumpets are warnings because they only affect a third of mankind.
The seven bowls that occur later in Revelation are similar and
complimentary to the seven trumpets except that they are final
outpourings of wrath and affect all mankind who once again refuse to
repent.
The main question is how to interpret the seven
trumpets. To the literalist they must be some future event because
they clearly have not yet occurred, Mounce considers them to be
eschatological. Beasley-Murray considers the seals, trumpets and bowls
to be parallel and to describe a single short period in history,
namely, the time of the end which precedes the coming of Christ's
kingdom. Hendriksen considers them to be the disasters and afflictions
of men throughout the ages. Caird comments that John likens the
disasters of his own time to the plagues of Egypt. Wilcock argues that
the trumpets are parallel to the seals, showing what happens
throughout history until the second coming with particular reference
to the suffering of the church. The trumpets cover the same time
period but are warnings to the world. Lenski considers the seals to be
manmade while the trumpets are miraculous. Walvoord, as well as Ladd,
argues that the trumpets do not recapitulate the seven seals but that
the seven trumpets are the seventh seal, and that the rest of the book
is contained in the seventh seal and that the seven bowls are
contained in the seventh trumpet. This looks reasonable because after
the sixth seal we find the 144,000 who are sealed in readiness for the
seven trumpets, then comes the vision of the great multitude and then
the seventh seal after which follows the seven trumpets. However this
puts most of the book after sixth seal which has every appearance of
the second coming of Christ, indeed the second coming appears again
and again throughout the book. Also the mighty angel announces that
'in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the
mystery of God will be accomplished' (10:7) and there hardly seems
time for the seven bowls to occur within the seventh trumpet. Since
the two witnesses, which occur after the sixth trumpet, prophecy
throughout the church age and the church is cared for throughout the
same time and the beast has authority for the same time, the trumpets
must sound throughout the gospel age. However it must be admitted that
the latter two arguments are weak because they do not take into
account the literary style of the book, the two witnesses form an
interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpet but that does not mean
that in a time sequence they only prophecy between the sixth and
seventh trumpet. The question is whether the interlude is literary or
literal?
God is always calling men to repentance
throughout history and natural disasters are only one of his means of
doing this. God shakes the nations to awake men out of their self
sufficiency and complacency. However one would expect these disasters
to become more frequent and intense as the birth pangs of Christ's
coming intensify. Jesus clearly predicts a time of great distress at
the end before he comes. Earlier in Mat 24:8 and Mark 13:8 he uses the
term 'beginning of birth pains' when speaking about false prophets,
wars, famines and earthquakes, this indicates that these will become
more intense and more frequent as his coming draws nearer and nearer.
While demonic oppression of men has been with us for thousands of
years, at the end, a massive onslaught by the enemy as indicated by
the fifth trumpet is to be expected as Satan realises that his time is
coming to an end. As with the beast who can be seen as the antichrist
but who also represents ungodly tyrannical regimes throughout the ages
the seven trumpets can be seen in purely eschatological terms but they
can also be seen as disasters sent by God throughout history calling
men to repentance. However the sixth trumpet does seem to be purely
eschatological and refers to a single event in history (9:15) and it
is most likely to refer to the last great battle just prior to the
second coming. If one compares the sixth seal, sixth trumpet and sixth
bowl they all refer to either the last battle, the second coming or
both. When interpreting the seven trumpets it is important to remind
ourselves that John is writing in the apocalyptic style with which we
are not familiar.
To those who say that it is absurd for the
waters to become blood as in the second trumpet we have to answer that
it has occurred once when Moses turned the Nile to blood; although it
is more likely that John is referring to death rather than literal
blood. The first four trumpets affect mans environment and could
therefore refer to natural disasters, the blood being a sign
indicating death. Remember that only a third of the sea turned into
blood which would seem strange if taken literally. The symbolism of
these events is seen in the occurrence of the phrase 'one third' for
the destruction involved in each of the first four trumpets, in the
fourth trumpet the symbolism is extreme in that a third of sun, moon
and stars are struck so that a third of them turned dark. If we
compare the seven trumpets to the seven bowls which also fall into
groups of four, two and one and which are the complete outpouring of
God's wrath, the first four bowls are complimentary to the first four
trumpets. Then since the bowls are said to be signs (15:1) and
therefore symbolic, then the trumpets are also symbolic but they are
still symbolic of something real. The last three trumpets are called
the three woes and are much worse than the first three. The fifth
trumpet is likely to refer to an outbreak of demonic attacks upon
mankind and could indicate a future period of unprecedented demonic
attack. If one compares the fifth seal, the fifth trumpet and the
fifth bowl they represent persecution of the church, tribulation for
men who are not sealed and tribulation for those with the mark of the
beast. The sixth trumpet seems to be a specific eschatological event
in history in which a third of men are killed, which seems to be in
the future. The seventh trumpet refers to the end of the age when the
kingdom of the world is handed over to Christ.
The sixth seal clearly depicts the second coming
of Christ in wrath on the world. This is followed by the sealing of
the 144,000, followed by a glimpse of a great multitude who have come
out of the great tribulation which ends in a description of their
blessedness in terms very similar to 21:3-7. Then the seventh seal is
opened followed by silence for half an hour. A crucial question here
is having opened the seven seals and therefore allowing the contents
of the book to be revealed, do the contents of the book occur in time
after the seventh seal is opened or does it reveal in more detail what
the seven seals have already told us? I would suggest that it allows
the plan of God for the world and His people to be revealed in more
detail. The rest of the book shows us the enemies of the church and
God's judgments upon mankind in greater detail. More specifically the
seven trumpets are God's judgments upon mankind in response the
prayer of his suffering people. While the first five seals reveal
man's suffering in general, the first four seals are not God's
judgments upon mankind because most originate with man himself.
The first six of the seven trumpets are followed
by the vision of the mighty angel and the two witnesses. That the two
witnesses occur between the six and seventh trumpet is significant
because the warnings of the first six trumpets need to be complimented
and completed by the witness of the church before the seventh trumpet
ushers in the end of the age when further repentance is impossible.
The purpose of the first six trumpets is to bring men to repentance,
however on their own they fail in this task. If the first four
trumpets are taken as natural disasters then it is the church who must
explain these, preach the gospel and urge people to repent and turn to
God. In the OT drought and famine was a consequence of the sin of
God's people (Deu 11:17, 1Ki 17:1). Then follows the seventh trumpet
in which the kingdom is handed to Christ, his wrath has come and the
time for the judgement occurs. It seems that the sixth seal and the
seventh trumpet both usher in the second coming. Therefore while the
seven trumpets follow the seven seals in John's vision they do not
necessarily follow in historical time. Michael Wilcock deals with this
issue more fully, p85-89. The first four seals deal with mankind's
history in general, the fifth seal concerns church history, the sixth
seal deals with the end of man's history. The trumpets deal with the
same time frame but give God's reaction to the persecution of His
people that the fifth seal has revealed. Mankind's history ends with
the seventh trumpet. That there is recapitulation of history in the
book ought to be evident from further mentions of the second coming:
- Two witnesses raptured 11:12,
- Harvest of the earth 14:14,
- Sixth bowl, 'Behold, I come like a thief!' 16:15,
- The rider on the white horse in Rev 19:11.
- Conclusion of Revelation 22:7, 22:12, 22:20.
The seven trumpets are also modelled on the fall
of Jericho (Josh 6): In Josh 6:8 there are seven priests with seven
trumpets encircling Jericho with the arc of the covenant following
them. They marched around the city for six days and on the seventh day
they marched around it seven times with the priests blowing the
trumpets. They carried the arc of the covenant behind the trumpets
which signifies the presence of God. At the seventh time around the
priests blew long blasts on their trumpets, the people shouted and the
walls fell down and everyone was slaughtered except for Rahab the
harlot. The pattern is to march around the city and blow the trumpets
for six days, on the seventh day march around the city six times and
on the seventh time a long trumpet blast spells destruction for the
city. The march seven times around the walls with trumpets blowing
warns of destruction for those within the city, which on the long
blast is destroyed. Compare with 11:13 when a tenth of the city
collapsed and 16:19 when the cities of the nations collapsed, the
seventh trumpet of Revelation ushers in the kingdom of God and the
judgement (11:15). This should be compared with the walls of the New
Jerusalem which do not collapse (21:12 ff.). Let us be thankful that
we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, while created things
are shaken (Heb 12:27-28). When the world hears the seven trumpets it
spells impending disaster as when the wall fall down, but to the
church they sound impending victory over their enemies. In case we
find God's judgements harsh we must remind ourselves of Jesus words
concerning those Galileans Pilate had killed or those who died when
the tower in Siloam fell on them: 'But unless you repent, you too will
perish' (Luke 13:1-5).
The seven trumpets and the ten plagues
on Egypt:
The seven trumpets are in answer to the prayers
of God's people seen earlier in Rev 8:3. The trumpets are warnings to
mankind, the last three (woes) are worst than the first four. The
first four trumpets affect the world (earth, sea, rivers, light), the
last three affect mans spiritual life (locusts, horses). They only
affect a third of the land unlike the bowls later which affect all the
land and unlike the seals that affect a quarter of the land. They can
be likened to the plagues of Egypt. These plagues were also given in
answer to the prayers of God's people and because Pharaoh would not
let God's people leave and worship him, Exo 9:13. In the same way the
trumpets can be viewed as warnings to those who persecute God's people
to let them go and worship God (Caird), if they continue to persecute
God's people then worse plagues will befall mankind, Exo 9:14. The
Exodus narrative is a thread that runs throughout the book of
Revelation.
The only place it did not hail was Goshen where
the plague did not harm them, Exo 9:26. The trumpets do not harm God's
people who are sealed, 7:2, 9:4. Similarly the Passover, in which when
the destroying angel saw the blood he passed over the people of God
and did not kill the firstborn.
The indictment against man after the sixth
trumpet is given in Rev 9:20, because they still did not repent of
worshipping demons and idols and other sins murder, magic arts, sexual
immorality and thefts. Men loved darkness rather than light, John
3:19, Rom 1:21.
The ten Plagues on Egypt:
- Exo 7:17-18 the water of the Nile, and it will be changed
into blood.
- Exo 8:2. Plague of frogs.
- Exo 8:16 Plague of gnats.
- Exo 8:21 Swarm of flies.
- Exo 9:3 Plague on livestock.
- Exo 9:9 Festering boils on men and animals.
- Exo 9:17-18 Plague of hail.
- Exo 10:4-5 Plague of locusts.
- Exo 10:21-22 Three days of darkness.
- Exo 11:4-5 Firstborn will die.
The trumpets and the bowls are also similar and again remind us
of the Egyptian plagues.
The Trumpets and Bowls Compared
| |
Trumpets |
Bowls |
| First |
hail fire mixed with
blood hurled to earth, third of the earth, trees and green grass
burned up. |
Ugly and painful
sores on those who had the mark of the beast and worship his image |
| Second |
third of sea turned
to blood, third of living creatures in sea died, third of ships
destroyed. |
Sea turned to blood,
everything in the sea died |
| Third |
Third of waters
turned bitter, many people died |
Rivers and springs
became blood |
| Fourth |
A third of the day
and night was without light |
Sun scorches people
with fire |
| Fifth |
Locusts out of the
Abyss torture mankind for five months |
Kingdom plunged into
darkness, men gnawed their tongues in agony |
| Sixth |
Third of mankind
killed by fire, smoke and sulphur i.e. war |
Three evil spirits
(frogs) gather kings of the earth for battle on the great day of
God Almighty. |
| Seventh |
End of the age, time
of the judgment, lightening, thunder, earthquake, hailstorm. |
The end of the age,
flashes of lightening, thunder, a great earthquake and plague of
hail |
The trumpets, seals and bowls come in groups of
four first, followed by a more severe group of three. Notice below the
constant repetition of a third with the trumpets, i.e. not complete
destruction, because these are warnings to mankind. The first four
trumpets and bowls affect the creation (earth, sea, rivers and
universe) cf. 14:7, Lk 21:25, Acts 14:15.
First trumpet (affects the earth):
Rev 8:7 The first angel sounded his
trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was
hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a
third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was
burned up.
Second trumpet (affects the sea):
Rev 8:8 The second angel sounded his
trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown
into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood,
Third trumpet (affects the rivers):
Rev 8:10 The third angel sounded his
trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky
on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water--
Fourth trumpet (affects the universe):
Rev 8:12 The fourth angel sounded his
trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and
a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third
of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.
1.2. The seventh seal and the prelude
to the seven trumpets:
8:1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in
heaven for about half an hour.
2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to
them were given seven trumpets.
3 Another angel, who had a golden censer,
came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer,
with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the
throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the
saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. 5 Then the angel
took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it
on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of
lightning and an earthquake.
Rev 8:6 Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets
prepared to sound them.
v1 - When he opened the seventh seal, there
was silence in heaven for about half an hour. - The silence
indicates the solemnity of the moments, it could also be so that the
prayers of the saints can be heard. It could connect the seventh seal
with the seven trumpets but it is more likely to be a dramatic pause
in which the trumpets break the silence. The silence could also be
because the Day of the Lord has come, Zep 1:7, Hab 2:20, the silence
of death Psa 115:17. Once the seven seals are opened the scroll can be
read and more details follow. See also comments on 8:1 at the end of
the previous section on the great multitude.
v2 - And I saw the seven angels who stand
before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. - Note the
phrase 'I saw' which in this case indicates the beginning of a new
vision. Again the phrase 'were given' indicating that the seven
trumpets come with divine approval and authority. The description of
the angels who stand before God is similar to that given by the
archangel Gabriel when he visited Mary: 'I am Gabriel, who stands in
the presence of God', Luke 1:19. Archangels and trumpets are also
linked to the second coming, 1 Thess 4:16.
v3 - Another angel, who had a golden censer,
came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with
the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne.
- The censer contained fire and incense which sanctified the
prayer of all (note the all) the saints, see Rev 5:8. This is
the first reference to the golden altar, there is another reference in
connection with the sixth trumpet (9:13), when a voice comes from the
golden altar commanding the release of the four angels bound at the
river Euphrates, it is probably the same altar under which are the
martyrs, 6:9. In Exo 30:7 we find that incense was burned day and
night upon the altar. The golden altar was before the throne and in
Heb 9:3 we find that the earthly altar of incense was in the most holy
place next to the ark of the covenant which we find revealed later in
Rev 11:19 after the seventh trumpet is sounded. Notice the references
to the golden censer and golden altar, gold reflects purity and value,
thus the value of the prayers of the saints.
v4 - The smoke of the incense, together with
the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand.
- Again as in the scroll and the Lamb (Rev 5:8) in which the
golden bowls full of incense are the prayers of the saints, the
prayers of the saints are one of the keys to the fulfilment of God's
plan, see verse 5, compare with the power of the prayers of the two
witnesses in 11:6. The incense is symbolic of the prayers of the
saints, Psa 141:2. The phrase 'went up before God' indicates that God
heard the prayers of his saints. Compare this with God hearing the cry
of the Israelites when they were in slavery in Egypt, Exo 2:23, 3:9.
This is just one of the analogies with the Exodus story used in
Revelation, many of the trumpets are also similar to the plagues on
Egypt. The incense can represent the intercessions of Christ (Rom
8:34) or those of the Spirit (Rom 8:26-27).
v5 - Then the angel took the censer, filled
it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth - After
the prayers went up before God, the angel takes the same censer
that contained the incense and fills it with fire from the altar and
hurls it to earth. The same golden censer that contained incense
together with the prayers of the saints is used to hurl fire to the
earth. The seven trumpets that follow are therefore God's response to
the prayers of the saints, as are also the seven golden bowls
containing wrath of God (15:7). They also answer the cry of the
martyrs for their blood to be avenged, see the third bowl. In the
first exodus God heard the cry of his people and rescued them from
their slave drivers, Exo 3:7-8, in order to do this he had to bring
the plagues upon the Egyptians. This reminds us of the Lord's words in
Luke 12:49, 'I have come to cast fire upon the earth'. In Ezek 10:2-7
a man is told to take burning coals from the cherubim and scatter them
over the city. The fire hurled to earth finds its fulfilment in the
first trumpet in which hail and fire mixed with blood was hurled to
earth, 8:7, in fact fire is a feature of the first six trumpets.
- First trumpet: there came hail and fire mixed with blood,
- Second trumpet: something like a huge mountain, all ablaze,
was thrown into the sea.
- Third trumpet: a great star, blazing like a torch,
- Fourth trumpet: a third of the sun was struck,
- Fifth trumpet: smoke rose from it like the smoke from a
gigantic furnace.
- Sixth trumpet: A third of mankind was killed by the three
plagues of fire, smoke and sulphur that came out of their mouths.
v5 - and there came peals of thunder,
rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake. - These are a
manifestation of God's presence, for example when God descended to the
top of mount Sinai (Exo 19:16) this was accompanied by thunder and
lightening, see also the throne in heaven Rev 4:5, the seventh trumpet
11:19, the seventh bowl 16:18, this is the result of the prayers of
the saints. The seventh plague on the Egyptians was a storm
manifesting thunder and hail, and lightning (Exo 9:23,24). The purpose
of the plague was so that God's name might be proclaimed in all the
earth and to persuade Pharaoh to let God's people go so that they
might worship Him (Exo 9:13-18).
These manifestations of God's presence (theophany), thunder,
lightening and earthquakes all come from the throne:
- i. The vision of the throne in heaven 4:5.
- ii. The seventh seal 8:5.
- iii. After two witnesses go to heaven in a cloud 11:13.
- iv. After the seventh trumpet is sounded 11:19.
- v. The seventh bowl 16:18.
- vi. See also Isa 29:6.
- vii. The Lord's presence at Sinai Exo 20:18.
v6 - Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets
prepared to sound them. - In scripture trumpets are used at the
following occasions:
- i. To announce the coming of God to Mt. Sinai, Exo 19:16
- ii. To announce the coronation of the king (Solomon), 1 King
1:34.
- iii. To announce the winning of a battle, 1 Sam 13:3
- iv. When the Israelites entered Jericho, Josh 6:3-9
- v. To announce the second coming, 1 Thess 4:16, Zep 1:14-18,
Mat 24:31, 1 Cor 15:51-52.
- vi. Warning of the second coming, Joel 2:1
- vii. Calling the people together and having the camp move on,
Num 10:2.
- viii. Dedication of the temple, 2 Chr 5:12-13.
- ix. To announce the day of atonement, Lev 25:9 and feast days
Num 10:10
- x. To announce the start of a battle, and feast days, Num
10:9-10.
- xi. To announce the arrival of the ark of the covenant into
Jerusalem, 1 Chr 15:24.
- xii. To announce disaster because of sin, Isa 58:1, Jer
4:4-6, Jer 6:1,16-19, 51:25-29, Ezek 33:1-8, Hosea 7:16, 8:1, Amos
3:6.
- xiii. The Lord's voice, Rev 1:10.
In Rev 1:10 John heard a voice like a trumpet so
the seven trumpets should be understood as God's warning voice to
mankind. The trumpet is sounded to call the attention of those within
hearing distance. The seven trumpets should be considered as God's
voice to warn the world that God is Holy and will judge man for his
sin, it is a call for repentance, see Rev 9:20, in which after the
sixth trumpet mankind still refused to repent of breaking the first
and second tablets of the law. Seven is the completeness of their
announcement. There are plenty of scriptures that show that a trumpet
is used to announce a disaster that comes because of peoples sin. The
first six trumpets are also God's preliminary warning to mankind of
the imminent arrival of Christ with the seventh trumpet. The second
coming of Christ will be accompanied by the voice of the archangel and
with the trumpet call of God, 1 Thess 4:16.
8:7 The first angel sounded his trumpet,
and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled
down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of
the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
v7 - The first angel sounded his trumpet, and
there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon
the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees
were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. - In 7:2-3
we saw the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and
sea, they were prevented from harming the land or the sea or the trees
until God's servants are sealed, here we see the first angel sound his
trumpet and hail and fire mixed with blood was hurled down upon the
earth. The passage does not indicate that the angel hurled the hail
and fire upon the earth, but that they had the power over these
elements and were its herald. Lenski points out that a mixture of fire
and hail (ice) is not natural, it is beyond nature. In verse 5 we saw
that as a result of the prayers of the saints fire from the altar was
hurled to the earth, here we now see the results as the first angels
sounds the first trumpet in a seven fold series of warnings. A third
of the earth was burned up and a third of the trees because of the
fire that was hurled to earth; 'a third' indicating partial
destruction. The unnatural nature of this judgement is indicated in
that only a third of the earth and trees were burned but all the green
grass was burned up (Lenski).
The blood should be understood as indicating
death although there is no indication here of human death as in the
fourth trumpet, but unlike the second and third trumpets in which
people died. Hailey makes the point that since man had shed the blood
of the saints, as indicated by the fifth seal, then God is avenging
the martyrs shed blood upon their heads (see Gen 9:6, Num 35:33, Isa
26:21, Joel 3:19, Ps 79:10). Notice the similarity with the judgement
on Gog, Ezek 38:22, which involved a plague and bloodshed, torrents of
rain, hailstones and burning sulphur on him and his troops. Notice
that all the green grass was burned up but only a third of the earth
and a third of the trees were burned up. First the land is devastated
by disaster, mans environment was affected. The first four trumpets
depict 'natural' disasters, but these are not natural they are acts of
God, they warn man of his short life. Hail is used to indicate God's
warnings and judgement, to make men hear, this is reminiscent of the
seventh plague on Egypt (Exo 9:18). Compare the first trumpet with the
first bowl which is poured out on the land, 16:2, but there it affects
the people who worship the beast, the first trumpet only affects the
land. Isa 30:30 indicates that the Lord speaks to men using fire,
cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail, chapter 11 shows that God also
speaks to the world through his church. One of the results of a third
of the earth being burned up is famine, cf. the third seal.
1.4. The second trumpet (8:8)
Rev 8:8 The second angel sounded his
trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown
into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, 9 a third of the
living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were
destroyed.
v8 - The second angel sounded his trumpet,
and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the
sea - Again fire is involved in the second trumpets as it was in
the first trumpet. The mountain all ablaze should remind us of mount
Sinai (Exo 19:18, Heb 12:18), Mount Sinai was covered in smoke because
the Lord descended on it in fire. The mountain was God's judgement on
men who broke the law, John may also have had in mind the Eruption of
Vesuvius in AD 79. There could also be a subtle reference to the
destruction of Babylon here (Caird, Sweet), in Jer 51:63 the
destruction of Babylon is likened to a stone thrown into the Euphrates
and in 18:17 we find the sea captains wailing over the destruction of
Babylon and their loss of trade, in Jer 51:25 Babylon is likened to a
burned out mountain.
v8 - A third of the sea turned into blood
9 a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of
the ships were destroyed.- After the land then the sea is
affected, the blood indicates death, only a third is affected because
it is a warning, compare this with the first plague on Egypt in which
the Nile changed into blood (Exo 7:17). The two witnesses also have
the power to turn the waters into blood, 11:6. Compare the second
trumpet with the second bowl (16:3) in which all the sea turned into
blood and every living thing in the sea died. Compare with John's use
of blood in 16:6 and 17:6. The second trumpet affects both living
creatures and manmade ships at sea, this depicts natural disasters at
sea. There could be a link here with the distress that will come upon
mankind in the last days, Luke 21:25 refers to the fact that the
'nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing
of the sea'.
Rev 8:10 The third angel sounded his
trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky
on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water-- 11 the name
of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and
many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
v10 - The third angel sounded his trumpet,
and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third
of the rivers and on the springs of water-- As with the first two
trumpets fire is again involved in the great star blazing like a
torch. After the land and sea the rivers are affected and the star
fell from the sky. Again it is mans' environment that is affected.
Sweet likens the star to the king of Babylon in Isa 14:12 who has
fallen from heaven. Jesus said that he saw Satan fall like lightening
from heaven (Luke 10:18), with the fifth trumpet a star has fallen to
earth (9:1) who is more clearly identifiable as Satan and finally in
12:8 Satan loses his place in heaven and is cast down to the earth and
sea (12:12). If this interpretation is correct then Satan has come
down to poison men's minds against God and thus destroy them, compare
with the river of lies coming from the mouth of the dragon (12:15) and
other satanic deception (13:14, 20:8,10). However this may be to over
spiritualise the symbol, John may just be depicting natural disaster
such as disease caused by dirty water which may cause men to repent.
v11 - the name of the star is Wormwood. A
third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the
waters that had become bitter. - In the case of the first plague,
Exo 7:17, on Egypt firstly all the fish died and secondly the water
became undrinkable. John has taken these two effects of the plague and
divided them into the second and third trumpets (Caird). In the first
plague (Exo 7:17-19) all drinking water in ponds, reservoirs and even
water in wooden buckets or stone jars was affected. Wormwood is a very
bitter substance (Jer 9:15, Lam 3:19) and indicates affliction and
misery. John may have had in mind the water at Marah, which was bitter
but which the Lord made sweet, there the Lord promised not to bring
any of the diseases that he brought onto the Egyptians provided they
obey the laws of God (Exo 15:22). The bitter waters from which many
people died therefore probably means diseased water, it could include
floods. Compare the third trumpet with the third bowl in which the
rivers and springs become blood, Rev 16:4, there is no mention of
death although it is implied by the use of the term blood.
1.6. The fourth trumpet (8:12)
Rev 8:12 The fourth angel sounded his
trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and
a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third
of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.
13 As I watched, I heard an eagle that was
flying in mid-air call out in a loud voice: "Woe! Woe! Woe to the
inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be
sounded by the other three angels!"
v12 - The fourth angel sounded his trumpet,
and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of
the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was
without light, and also a third of the night. - First the earth
and vegetation, then the sea, then the rivers and springs and finally
the rest of the universe is affected, this is similar to the plague of
darkness on the Egyptians (Exo 10:21) and the fifth bowl which is
total darkness (Rev 16:10). Constant allusion to the Egyptian plagues
is a way of saying that in the last days God will again bring
punishment upon those hostile powers which oppress his people. They
are the prelude to that greater and final Exodus in which the church
is taken out of the world and enters into the eternal presence of God
(Mounce). Compare the fourth trumpet with the fourth bowl in which the
sun was given power to scorch people with fire, 16:8.
- Darkness is also associated with the Day of the Lord when he
comes again (Amos 5:18, Joel 2:2, Mark 13:24, Isa 13:10).
- Darkness is also associated with the demonic (Col 1:13) and
prepares us for the next two demonic plagues.
- Darkness is associated with the theophany of God in judgement
cf. Isa 13:10, Ezek 32:78, Joel 2:10, 3:15, Mat 24:29 and especially
with the crucifixion of Christ, Mat 27:45 (Johnson).
v13 - As I watched, I heard an eagle that was
flying in mid-air call out in a loud voice: "Woe! Woe! Woe to the
inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be
sounded by the other three angels!" - The eagle (or vulture) calls
out the three Woe's to mankind because of the next three trumpets
which are more intense than the first four. He is in mid-air to be
seen by all and cries out in a loud voice to be heard by all (xxxx).
There is a distinction between the first four trumpets which act on
the earth, sea, rivers, sun, moon and stars, i.e. the physical
universe and the remaining three trumpets which affect mankind
directly, hence the three Woe's. The first two woe's are clearly
demonic, the locust torture mankind, the four angels kill a third of
mankind, the seventh trumpet announces that the time has come for
judging the dead. If the flying creature is a vulture then he is
hovering over a dying beast which is a symbol of gloom (Luke 17:37).
This is a warning of things to come when the birds flying in mid-air
gather for the great supper of God (19:17-18, 21), but before that an
angel in mid-air proclaims an eternal gospel to those who live on the
earth (14:6). It should also be noted that a loud voice in 12:12
proclaims woe to the earth and sea 'because the devil has gone down to
you ! He is filled with fury because he knows his time is short.' The
star in 9:1 that falls to the earth seems clearly Satanic. |
1.7. The fifth trumpet, the first Woe!
(9:1)
9:1 The fifth angel sounded his trumpet,
and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star
was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2 When he opened the
Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace.
The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 3 And out
of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power
like that of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm
the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people
who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were not
given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months.
And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion
when it strikes a man. 6 During those days men will seek death, but
will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
Rev 9:7 The locusts looked like horses
prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns
of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. 8 Their hair was
like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth. 9 They
had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their
wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing
into battle. 10 They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in
their tails they had power to torment people for five months. 11
They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in
Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.
12 The first woe is past; two other woes
are yet to come.
v1 - The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and
I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was
given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. - Sweet notes the hint of
Satanic parody: 'the key of the pit is given to
the fallen one; the keys of Death and Hades are held
by the risen one (1:18)'. Various interpretations are given of
this star, this is similar to Rev 20:1 in which an angel from heaven
has the keys to the Abyss. In this case the star had fallen from
heaven to the earth, this reminds us of 12:9 in which Satan was hurled
to earth with his angels, in which case the star is Satan. In Isa
14:12 the morning star is cast to the earth, this is usually seen as a
reference to Satan who has fallen to the earth. Jesus saw Satan fall
like lightening from heaven (Luke 10:18). He should probably be
identified with the angel of the Abyss who is identified in v 11 as
the destroyer, stars are sometimes a reference to angels (see Rev
1:20), the angel of the Abyss is also called Destroyer which would
again fit Satan. In 12:4 the dragon swept a third of the stars out of
the sky and flung them to earth, this is likely to be a reference to
the angels who followed Satan. The Abyss is also where the beast comes
out of (Rev 11:7, 17:8, 18:8), it is where Satan is bound (Rev 20:3).
In Luke 8:3 the evil spirits beg Jesus not to send them into the
abyss, which is a place of torment (Mat 8:29), in Romans 10:7 it seems
to be the abode of the dead. The star 'was given' the key to the shaft
of the Abyss which again indicates the sovereignty of God. If the
fifth trumpet is interpreted as a demonic attack upon mankind then it
would seem natural for the star to be their master, that is Satan.
v2 - When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose
from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were
darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. - There are similarities to
the sixth seal Rev 6:12 in which the sun turned black like sackcloth
made of goat hair, see Joel 2:10. Darkness can be a symbol of the
demonic, in this case it certainly is, Satan's kingdom is a kingdom of
darkness (Col 1:13). If the Abyss is a place of torment for demons
(Mat 8:29, Luke 8:31) then if it is opened we would expect a stream of
demons to come out together with smoke from the fire, here John has
mixed the smoke from the furnace with the stream of demonic hordes.
Compare the smoke from the Abyss with the dense smoke from the burning
of Sodom and Gomorrah that looked like 'smoke from a furnace', Gen
19:28, and the presence of the Lord on Mount Sinai, Exo 19:18.
v3 - And out of the smoke locusts came down
upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the
earth. - This brings into mind Joel's vision of the locusts in
Joel 1 and 2. The locusts are not ordinary locusts but are demonic
powers to bring misery and darkness into the lives of men. The
characteristic of locusts is that they devour everything, they destroy
everything in their path, see v11, in which their king is called
Abaddon which means destroyer. They also indicate a judgement of God
as in the eighth plague of locusts upon Egypt (Exo 10:4), see also 2
Chr 7:13, Amos 4:9. Notice that they were given (indicating
divine permission) power like that of a scorpion of the earth. For the
use of scorpions to indicate the demonic see Luke 10:19 where Jesus
gives his disciples 'authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and
to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you'.
v4 - They were told not to harm the grass of
the earth or any plant or tree but only those people who did
not have the seal of God on their foreheads - They were told not
to harm their normal food, they are still under the sovereignty of
God. Compare this with God's command to the angels before the seven
trumpets, Rev 7:3, not to 'harm the land or the sea or the trees until
we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God'. Compare
this with the first trumpet in which the earth, trees and grass was
burnt up, now the locusts are told not to harm the grass or any plant
or tree. Instead of vegetation they must harm mankind v 4b. They could
only harm the ungodly, they can not harm the saints, see Luke 10:19 in
which the disciples are given power over snakes, scorpions and over
all the power of the enemy, and nothing will harm them (note
that snakes and scorpions refers to the demonic). Yet again the
limited power of the locusts is a sign of God's Sovereignty. They
could not harm the sealed, who were sealed before the trumpets
sounded, thus the church who is still on the earth is not hurt by this
plague as were the Israelites (cf. Exo 8:22, 9:4, 26, 10:23 and 11:7).
This seems to be a massive onslaught by demonic powers upon all
mankind in the last days. Here there is no mention of one third as
with the first four and indeed the sixth trumpet, it seems to be a
universal affliction upon mankind. Perhaps it is connected to the
fifth seal which indicates the martyrs that have died. Hailey points
out that the distinction made here between the sealed and those not
sealed is further proof that the number one hundred and forty-four
thousand represents the saints on earth at any point in time, and not
a special group of saved persons in the final day.
v5 - They were not given power to kill them,
but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered
was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. -
They could not kill them but only torture them for a limited time,
that is limited power and duration because five months is about the
locust lifetime, these trumpets are warnings to mankind and not final
judgements as are the seven bowls. The effect of the locust in Joel
1:12 is to take away joy. The effect of evil spirits on mankind is to
torment, Acts 5:16, and trouble people, Luke 6:18, in Luke 9:39 the
demon tries to destroy the child. Luke 10:19 indicates the demonic
nature of the scorpions. This reminds us of Job, Satan could do what
he wanted to Job but had to spare his life; they torment but do not
kill those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. In
verse 3 we saw that the locusts had been given power to sting like a
scorpion, here we see the resulting agony which was like that of a
scorpions sting. The scripture teaches that in the last days there
will be an outbreak of demonic doctrines, deceiving spirits,
counterfeit signs and wonders that deceives those who are perishing (1
Tim 4:1-3, 2 Thess 2:9-12). There is further evidence of this in
Revelation in the counterfeit Christ and miracles of the beast out of
the earth (13:11-15), and the three evil spirits that come out of the
mouth of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet (16:13-14).
v6 - During those days men will seek death,
but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude
them. - Men will seek death, men meaning mankind, because of the
pain caused by the sting. The sting is not fatal, like a scorpions
sting. It is difficult to interpret this verse, it looks
eschatological, 'those days' may refer to a time right near the end.
This torment of the locust sting is limited to this life only where
there is at least the possibility of death, otherwise they would not
wish to die. Contrast this desire to die with Paul's desire to die and
be with the Lord (Phil 1:23, Morris). Their situation is like Job's
who longed to die (Job 3:21).
v7 - The locusts looked like horses prepared
for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold,
and their faces resembled human faces. - This begins a description
of the locusts. The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle,
see Joel 2:4, this is true in nature. Something 'like' but not crowns
of gold, these are also worn by the twenty four elders (Rev 4:4) and
by Jesus (Rev 14:14). Their faces resemble human faces, they had the
cunning, cruelty and intelligence of men, (Mounce) this could also
indicate the personal nature of the attack.
v8 - Their hair was like women's hair, and
their teeth were like lions' teeth. - The long hair may be a
symbol of vitality, like Absalom and Samson. Like their faces their
hair makes them look almost human but their cruelty is demonic. Lions'
teeth emphasises their power, Joel 1:6.
v9 - They had breastplates like breastplates
of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many
horses and chariots rushing into battle. - Breast plates of iron
emphasises their impregnability. The sound of their wings heightens
their terror. Chariots rushing into battle sounds like Joel's
description of an army of locusts, Joel 2:5.
v10 - They had tails and stings like
scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for
five months. - This enlarges on the description of scorpions in
verses 3 and 5. The most likely interpretation is that this refers to
demonic oppression on the minds of men. The purpose was to bring men
to repentance (v 20). Once again their power is of limited duration, 5
months, it is a warning to mankind. God uses even the schemes of Satan
for his own designs.
v11 - They had as king over them the angel of
the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.
- Abaddon=Destroyer=Sheol or Hades, the land of death,
darkness, silence. Locusts destroy every living thing in their path as
does Abaddon. The Greek Apollyon also means destroyer. There
could be a link with the Greek god Apollo and could be a link with the
emperor Domitian who liked to be regarded as Apollo incarnate was in
reality a manifestation of the powers of the underworld (Mounce). The
locust was one of the symbols of the god Apollo (Mounce). The angel of
the Abyss from verse 1 is here identified as the Destroyer, this
description best fits Satan, who is called the destroyer in John
10:10, he is king of these demonic hordes. This seems to be an
unprecedented demonic attack upon mankind during the last days,
possibly associated with the antichrist whose miraculous powers are
demonic, Rev 16:14.
v12 - The first woe is past; two other woes
are yet to come. - This ends the first woe and introduces the
remaining two, and worse Woes. This indicates that there is a time
sequence in that the sixth trumpet follows the fifth trumpet.
1.8. The sixth trumpet, the second
Woe! (9:13)
Rev 9:13 The sixth angel sounded his
trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden
altar that is before God. 14 It said to the sixth angel who had the
trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river
Euphrates." 15 And the four angels who had been kept ready for this
very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third
of mankind. 16 The number of the mounted troops was two hundred
million. I heard their number. 17 The horses and riders I saw in my
vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark
blue, and yellow as sulphur. The heads of the horses resembled the
heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and
sulphur. 18 A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of
fire, smoke and sulphur that came out of their mouths. 19 The power
of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their
tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.
20 The rest of mankind that were not killed
by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands;
they did not stop worshipping demons, and idols of gold, silver,
bronze, stone and wood--idols that cannot see or hear or walk. 21
Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual
immorality or their thefts.
v13 - The sixth angel sounded his trumpet,
and I heard a voice coming from the horns of the golden altar that is
before God. - The golden altar is connected to the prayers of the
saints (Rev 8:3). The sixth trumpet is in response to the prayers of
the saints. For horn, see Lev 8:15, when Moses slaughtered the bull he
took some of the blood with his finger and touched the horns of the
altar to purify the altar.
v14 - It said to the sixth angel who had the
trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river
Euphrates" - The four angels are bound so they must evil, they are
released at God's command, whose purpose is to get men to repent, see
verses 20-21. The four angels cover each direction of the compass, the
idea being that they are released to affect the whole earth. Compare
these angels with the first four angels standing at the four corners
of the earth, 7:1. The Euphrates marks the boundary between Israel and
her enemies (Gen 15:18, Deu 1:7, Jos 1:4), Babylon which is on the
Euphrates would be to the North of Israel and it is from the North
that her enemies came (Jer 25:9, Ezek 26:7, 39:2). Compare this with
the sixth bowl (Rev 16:12) in which the great river Euphrates, and its
water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the East.
Compare also with the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
v15 - And the four angels who had been kept
ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to
kill a third of mankind. - The precise timing of their
release indicates that they are under the divine control of God. Their
purpose is to kill a third of mankind, no more no less, that is a
limited number, because this is a warning to mankind. From the precise
timing of their release this seems to be a specific event in history,
and is therefore probably eschatological, in the light of the
discussion in the next verse this event corresponds to the second
coming (compare with Mat 24:36, Acts 1:7, Gen 7:11) or at least the
final battle associated with it. Compare the sixth seal, sixth trumpet
and sixth bowl, they all seem to refer to either the last battle or
the second coming.
v16 - The number of the mounted troops was
two hundred million. I heard their number. - The troops are
mounted, meaning that they are prepared for war. Two hundred million
is a large number which he could not count, but he heard their number.
Compare the description here with the chariots of God in Psa 68:17,
the horses like a swarm of locusts in Jer 51:27 and the horses that
fly like a vulture swooping to devour of Hab 1:8. In Joel the army
invades mankind on the day of the Lord (Joel 2:11-11) as this is the
sixth trumpet and the seventh trumpet depicts the handing over of the
world to Christ, his eternal reign and the judgement, this vision
corresponds to the last great battle (see Joel 3:1-2, 9-16). The last
great battle is also found in Rev 16:14, 17:14, 19:17, 20:7. Note that
the sixth seal also corresponds to the second coming (Rev 6:12). The
sixth bowl refers to the battle on the great day of God Almighty (Rev
16:14) and the second coming is mentioned in the next verse (16:15).
This is another example of the parallelism of the book.
v17 - The horses and riders I saw in my
vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue,
and yellow as sulphur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of
lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulphur. -
Here is the only place in which John indicates that what he saw was in
a vision. The breastplates had the same colours as the fire, smoke and
sulphur which came out of the horses' mouths, see v18, this indicates
the unified purpose of both horse and rider. Compare the lions' heads
here with the lions' teeth of the locusts, this indicates strength.
v18 - A third of mankind was killed by the
three plagues of fire, smoke and sulphur that came out of their
mouths.- This imagery seems to refers to war. The imagery like the
locusts is similar to Joel 2:4-5, 'They have the appearance of horses;
they gallop along like cavalry. With a noise like that of chariots
they leap over the mountain tops, like a crackling fire consuming
stubble, like a mighty army drawn up for battle.' Once again it is a
limited number that is killed, a third of mankind is killed. Fire and
sulphur remind us of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24, Luke 17:29), this
was God's judgement on wickedness, a foretaste of hell (Jude 1:7 cf.
Rev 14:10-11).
v19 - The power of the horses was in their
mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having
heads with which they inflict injury. - The snakes indicate their
demonic origin, Luke 10:19. The three plagues of fire, smoke and
sulphur came out of their mouths, v17, 18. Their tails also inflict
injury. The word for snake (ophis) is the same word used to
describe Satan in 12:9 (see also 12:14, 15, 20:2 cf. John 3:14, 2 Cor
11:3)
v20 - The rest of mankind that were not
killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their
hands they did not stop worshipping demons, and idols of gold, silver,
bronze, stone and wood--idols that cannot see or hear or walk. -
Mankind is here accused of worshipping demons and in the fifth trumpet
they are plagued by demons and possibly also in the sixth trumpet, the
warning fits the sin. Later we find mankind worshipping the dragon and
the beast (13:4) and his image (13:15) that is idolatry. The plagues
are directed at unrepentant mankind, not at God's people, those who
survive these plagues still did not repent. Some are killed by these
plagues but to the rest they are warnings to man to repent. Consider
Jesus reaction to the persecution of the Jews by Pilate or to those
who died when the tower fell on those in Siloam (Luke 13:1-5) his
reaction was to say to the people 'do you think they were more guilty
than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless
you repent, you too will all perish.' Despite the warning plagues from
God, some natural some not, man refuses to worship God and give him
the glory as Creator, Amos 4:10.
First man is guilty of idolatry, worshipping
created things not the Creator, Rom 1:23. He breaks the first tablet
of the law (Ex 20:3-11, Deu 5:7, 2 King 17:35-39) rather than worship
the creator (Rev 14:7). The stupidity of idolatry is emphasised by the
phase 'idols that cannot see or hear or walk' in contrast to the
living creator God, Dan 5:23, Psa 115:4-5, Jer 10:5. This hammers home
the point that despite these plagues mankind prefers to worship
created things rather than God, the message of Revelation is that
mankind is to worship God and Him alone. Consider the worship of the
living creatures and the elders of the Creator God, 4:8-11; the
worship of the Lamb, 5:8 ff.; all the inhabitants of the earth worship
the beast, 13:8 (compare the worship of demons and idols here with the
worship of the beast and his image in 13:8, 15).
Consider also the message of the first angel
flying in mid-air proclaiming the eternal gospel which is to fear God
and give him glory and to worship him as Creator, 14:6-7; consider the
dire warning to those who worship the beast and his image in 14:9-11.
Twice John is rebuked because he worshipped an angel (19:10, 22:8) and
is told to worship God. In the case of the church at Pergamum and
Thyatira eating food offered to idols is condemned (2:14, 20). Note
that in 21:8 the place of idolaters is in the fiery lake of burning
sulphur, we should therefore see the trumpets as agents of God's mercy
rather than wrath, despite the fact that people do not repent. Notice
the response of those at Ephesus who practised sorcery, they publicly
burned their books on sorcery; it is better to burn ones books on the
occult than to burn in the lake of fire. God's decree in Deu 7:5, 12:3
is to break down the altars, smash the sacred stones and burn the
idols in the fire, see Josiah's response in 2 Kings 23 who did as
described in Deuteronomy.
v21 - Nor did they repent of their murders,
their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts - This
is the first indictment against mankind, they did not repent, see
also: Rev 11:18, Rev 14:7, Rev 14:9-11, Rev 16:5-6, Rev 16:8-11.
Having rejected God as creator mankind now inevitably breaks the
second tablet of the law (Deu 5:17 and Rom 1:24, 28). The punishment
is indicated in Rev 21:8, their (murderers, the sexually immoral,
those who practice magic arts) lot will be in the lake of burning
sulphur.
The seventh trumpet does not occur until after
the Two Witnesses (Rev 11:14). There is an interlude of two visions
similar to the interlude between the sixth and seventh seals.
|
2. The Mighty Angel and the little
scroll (10:1)
10:1 Then I saw another mighty angel coming
down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his
head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery
pillars. 2 He was holding a little scroll, which lay open in his
hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the
land, 3 and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he
shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke. 4 And when the
seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from
heaven say,
"Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write
it down."
Rev 10:5 Then the angel I had seen standing
on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. 6 And he
swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens
and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the
sea and all that is in it, and said,
"There will be no more delay!
7 But in the days when the seventh angel is
about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished,
just as he announced to his servants the prophets."
8 Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me
once more:
"Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the
angel who is standing on the sea and on the land."
9 So I went to the angel and asked him to
give me the little scroll. He said to me, "Take it and eat it. It
will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet
as honey." 10 I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and ate
it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten
it, my stomach turned sour. 11 Then I was told, "You must prophesy
again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings."
There is now an interlude between the sixth and
seventh trumpets as there was between the sixth and seventh seals,
this should not be considered to be chronological because the two
witnesses, described after the mighty angel, preach for the whole
gospel age, Rev 11:3. The seventh trumpet announces the end of
history. There is now the vision of the mighty angel with the little
scroll which is followed by the two witnesses. The vision of the
mighty angel with the little scroll is taken from Ezekiel chapters 1
to 3 which describes Ezekiel's call as a prophet to Israel. He was
given a little scroll to eat which tasted as sweet as honey which is
the word of God. Caird compares the great scroll opened by the Lamb to
this little scroll: the great scroll contains the redemptive purposes
of God as it was to be made effective by Christ; the little scroll
contains the same purpose but to be made effective through the martyr
witness of the church. However I see the little scroll to be the rest
of the prophecy of Revelation that was revealed to John by the angel.
The next section following this one is about the two witnesses, that
is the witness of the church.
v1 - Then I saw another mighty angel coming
down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his
head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars.
- Notice a change of the author's standpoint, he saw the mighty angel
come down from heaven so John is now on the earth. This is a another
mighty angel (c.f. 5:2 "Who is worthy to break the seals and open the
scroll?"). His description is similar to the description of Christ,
whose feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace (1:15), and whose
face was like the sun shining in its brilliance (1:16), in 1:7 and
14:14 he will come again in the clouds, the angel has a rainbow above
his head so he must be very close to God (4:3); in verse 3 he gave a
loud shout like the roar of a lion which is another allusion to Christ
the Lion of Judah. Swete says that the rainbow is due to the effect of
the sunshine from the angel's face. He is similar to the angel of the
Lord who guided the children of Israel as a pillar of cloud by day and
a pillar of fire by night (Exo 13:21, Num 12:5) he now guides John to
the next part of the vision. He is similar to the one speaking to
Ezekiel, Ezek 1:26, this whole passage is based on Ezek 1-3 in which
Ezekiel is given a little scroll to eat at the start of his ministry.
The mighty angel is similar to Christ because he is Christ's
angel sent by Christ to give John the rest of this prophecy, see
Rev 1:1 and 22:6, 'I, Jesus have sent my angel to give you this
testimony for the churches', italics added.
v2 - He was holding a little scroll, which
lay open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his
left foot on the land, - This emphasises the angel's might in
contrast to the little scroll which contained the word of God that
John was to prophecy (verses 10-11). The little scroll is open in
contrast to the sealed scroll of 5:1 so that anyone can read it, it is
not the same scroll because it is a little scroll. We should
note that he has his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the
land, his authority covers both, i.e. the whole world, both the sea
and land are parts of God's creation (see verse 6). This is in
contrast to the dragon who was thrown down to the earth and sea
(12:12) and stood by the seashore (13:1) while the two beasts came out
of the sea and from the earth (13:11), the prophecy that the angel
gave John concerns these three. Lenski considers the little scroll to
be the gospel which is to be proclaimed to the whole world (10:11,
11:10, 14:6). Note that John also uses the sea and land to represent
the whole world when dealing with the merchants and seamen who mourn
over Babylon in Ch 18.
v3 - and he gave a loud shout like the roar
of a lion. When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke.
- The voice of the seven thunders was probably that of Christ or
God, God's voice is frequently compared to thunder, especially when
God spoke to Jesus before his crucifixion (John 12:29), although the
first living creature also sounded like thunder (6:1). The roar of a
lion is another allusion to Christ, who is the lion of the tribe of
Judah. In Rev 1:1 and 22:16 Jesus sent His angel to John, the angel
comes from the presence of Jesus and hence the similarity of the angel
to Jesus.
v4 - And when the seven thunders spoke, I was
about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, "Seal up what the
seven thunders have said and do not write it down." - He was about
to write as he was commanded, 1:19, but this he was not permitted to
write down. The seven thunders are sealed, we are not permitted to
know all God's mysteries, there are other forces working as well as
those described here (xxxx). Contrast this with the rest of the book
which is an unveiling of God's plan for the church and her
enemies, it is not sealed, 'Do not seal up the words of the prophecy
of this book, because the time is near' (22:10). There are some things
which man is not permitted to know (Deu 29:29, 2 Cor 12:4 cf. Dan
8:26, 12:4).
v5 - Then the angel I had seen standing on
the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. - To
raise the right hand and swear was quite common (Dan 12:6, Gen 14:22,
Deu 32:40). See comments on verse 2 for sea and land.
v6 - And he swore by him who lives for ever
and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth
and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said,
"There will be no more delay! - He swore by the eternal creator
God (Rev 4:11, Dan 12:7) that there will be no more delay (Hab 2:3,
Heb 10:37), when the seventh trumpet is about to sound, in fulfilling
God's plan. In describing the creation the angel uses three couplets
which are similar to the Genesis narrative in which in the first three
days God made the heavens, earth, land and sea and in the next three
days he fills them.
- Day 1: Created the heavens and earth, light and darkness.(Gen
1:1-5)
- Day 2: Made the sky to separate the waters above and below.
(Gen 1:6-8)
- Day 3: Made land and sea, vegetation, trees. (Gen 1:9-13)
- Day 4: Sun, moon and stars. (Gen 1:14-19), heavens filled.
- Day 5: Fish and creatures in the sea, Birds. (Gen 1:20-23),
sea filled.
- Day 6: Living creatures on the land, man. (Gen 1:24-31), land
filled.
cf. Exo 20:11, Psa 146:6. Compare this with the
first angels proclamation to 'worship him who made the heavens, the
earth, the sea and the springs of water' (14:7). The first four
trumpets and bowls affect the earth, sea and the heavens (8:7 ff. 16:2
ff.).
v7 - But in the days when the seventh angel
is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be
accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets."
- It is significant that the last, seventh, trumpet (Rev 11:15)
coincides with the accomplishment of the mystery of God. For when the
last trumpet sounds Christ will come again (Mat 24:31, 1 Cor 15:52, 1
Thess 4:16). The mystery of God is Christ (Col 2:2) this mystery is
accomplished when Christ returns and establishes his kingdom and
reign, see Rev 11:15-18 in which the seventh angel sounded his
trumpet, this also coincides with the judgement. God tells his
prophets his plans before they are enacted (Amos 3:7) God has revealed
to Paul the mystery of God namely Christ. Note that because the
mystery of God will be accomplished when the seventh angel is about to
sound his trumpet, it makes it unlikely that the seven bowls are the
seventh trumpet.
v8 - Then the voice that I had heard from
heaven spoke to me once more: "Go, take the scroll that lies open in
the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land."
- The same voice as in v4, 'but I heard a voice from heaven say, "Seal
up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down"'. The
scroll lies open it is not sealed, it is to be read. This is a similar
occurrence to when the Lamb took the scroll from the hand of God. Is
this the same scroll that was sealed with seven seals but is now open?
Probably not because in verse 2 it is described as a little
scroll (biblaridion) .
v9 - So I went to the angel and asked him to
give me the little scroll. He said to me, "Take it and eat it. It will
turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as
honey." - The little scroll is the Word of God, see Ezek 2:7, Jer
15:16 and Psa 19:9. John must prophesy some more, about many peoples,
nations, languages and kings, see v11.
v10 - I took the little scroll from the
angel's hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but
when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. - This is taken
directly from Ezekiel's experience (Ezek 3:3), he was charged to warn
the wicked to turn from their sin (Ezek 3:17). It is sweet because
God's word tastes sweet (Psa 19:10) but bitter because it also tells
of God's judgement. Those who speak God's word will also be persecuted
(Rev 11:7).
v11 - Then I was told, "You must prophesy
again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings." - This is
similar to Jeremiah's commission in which God says to Jeremiah 'I
appointed you as a prophet to the nations' (Jer 1:5) and 'Now, I have
put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and
kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build
and to plant' (Jer 1:9,10). Having digested God's word John must
prophesy again, we have only reached the halfway stage in Revelation
and there is much more to be said about the world and its inhabitants,
notice the four-fold description which encompasses all of mankind,
'peoples, nations, languages and kings', compare with Rev 17:15, Dan
3:4, 7:14. The nations are a major topic of the rest of the book and
references to the nations occur 17 times more before the end of the
book. In 11:18 after the seventh trumpet the twenty four elders say
'the nations were angry but God's wrath has come to them', in 12:5 and
19:15 there is a reference to Christ who will rule the nations with an
iron sceptre. In 14:8, 16:19, 17:15, 18:3, 18:23 the nations are
mentioned in connection with Babylon. In 20:3 and 20:8 the deception
of the nations by Satan is mentioned, and in 15:4, 21:24, 21:26 and
22:2 the nations worship and glorify God. However as well as nations
he must prophesy about peoples, languages and kings, kings occurs
frequently throughout the rest of Revelation, there are references to
the kings of the earth five times (17:2, 18, 18:3, 9, 19:19).
Lenski considers the little book to be the
gospel and that John was to prophesy before rather than over
many peoples and nations and tongues and kings (cf. 5:9, 7:9, 11:9).
He is here representative of all the OT and NT prophets and apostles
and the next section shows the gospel preached in the world by the two
witnesses. It is to be preached in the whole world as indicated by the
angel whose feet are planted in both the earth and sea (10:2), that
is, the devil's territory as indicated by 12:12, cf. the beasts out of
the sea and the earth in Ch 13.
This verse prepares us for the Two witnesses
described next, they are to preach the Word of God to the world (see
11:9). This is still the interlude between the sixth and seventh
trumpet, they must witness to the world in order to complete and
compliment God's warnings from the first six trumpets, then the end
can come when the seventh trumpet is sounded. But the end can only
come when the gospel has been preached in the whole world as a
testimony to all nations, Mat 24:14. Hence the next section
concerns God's two witnesses. |
3. The two witnesses (11:1)
NOTE: 11:11 in this section
11:1 I was given a reed like a measuring
rod and was told, "Go and measure the temple of God and the altar,
and count the worshipers there. 2 But exclude the outer court; do
not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will
trample on the holy city for 42 months.
11:3 And I will give power to my two
witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in
sackcloth." 4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands
that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 If anyone tries to harm
them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This
is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. 6 These men have
power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time
they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into
blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as
they want.
11:7 Now when they have finished their
testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them,
and overpower and kill them. 8 Their bodies will lie in the street
of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt,
where also their Lord was crucified. 9 For three and a half days men
from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their
bodies and refuse them burial. 10 The inhabitants of the earth will
gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts,
because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the
earth.
11:11 But after the three and a half days a
breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet,
and terror struck those who saw them. 12 Then they heard a loud
voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up
to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.
11:13 At that very hour there was a severe
earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people
were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and
gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.
This section intervenes between the sixth
warning trumpet of God and the seventh trumpet when Christ returns at
which repentance is no longer possible. Just as there was an interlude
between the sixth and seventh seal which featured the sealing of the
144,000 and the vision of the great multitude who both represent the
church, so now we get another interlude between the sixth and seventh
trumpets which features the church in its witness. The purpose is to
show that as well as the disasters and pains caused by these trumpets
which are designed to bring people to repentance, but failed, the
witness of the church is also required in addition. God speaks to man
through earthly disasters and pain but also through his church, only
after the witness of the church is complete can the seventh trumpet,
that is the end, come. This section, although not chronological,
describes the witness of the church to the world from the ascension to
the second coming. The church is the temple of God and is first
measured i.e. protected spiritually from the power of the enemy. The
witness of the church to the world is her great work as commissioned
by Christ (Mat 28:18, Mar 16:15, Luke 24:45, John 10:21, Acts 1:8) and
until it is finished he will not return (Mat 24:14). The two witnesses
refer to the fact that Jesus sent his disciples out two by two and two
witnesses are required to establish the veracity of their testimony.
The church is empowered by God and filled with the spirit, she goes
forth in the power of Elijah and Moses. When she has finished
witnessing she is overpowered by the beast for a short time but then
comes to life again and is raptured to be with the Lord. There then
follows the seventh trumpet which ushers in God's kingdom.
Rev 10:11 - Then I was told, "You must
prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings." -
This verse from the previous chapter actually introduces this section.
Notice the fourfold description indicating that the people come from
the four corners of the earth (see 11:9).
The two witnesses represent the witnessing church rather than
two individuals:
- The church received power to witness at Pentecost, see verse
3 'I will give power to my two witnesses and they will prophecy...'
cf. Acts 1:8 and 2:18.
- Two is the number to establish a witness, testimony (Deu
17:6, John 8:17, 2 Cor 13:1), for example our Lord sent his disciple
out in twos, Mark 6:7.
- They are described as 'the two olive trees and the two
lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth' 11:4. We have
already seen that the church is symbolised by lampstands in 1:20.
The olive trees represent the power of the Holy Spirit with which
the witnesses had received (Acts 1:5, 1:8, 2:17).
- They prophecy for the same period (1,260 days) as the
worshippers, temple of God and holy city is trampled on by the
Gentiles (42 months). These three designations are all indicative of
the church.
- They rise from the dead and are raptured as is the church
(11:11-12).
- 11:7 indicates that '...the beast that comes up from the
Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them' i.e. the two
witnesses this parallels the warning in 13:7 that the beast 'was
given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them' see
also the warning in 13:10. If the two events are indeed parallel
then the two witnesses are the saints.
v1 - I was given a reed like a measuring rod
and was told, "Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and
count the worshipers there. - The old testament background is Ezek
40:2-5, 45:3-4 and Zech 2:1-10 compare this also with the measuring of
the new Jerusalem (Rev 21:15-17), in the next verse the temple is
called the holy city. He is told to measure the temple and the altar,
the temple of God is the church and under the altar are the souls of
the martyrs, Rev 6:9. He is to count the worshippers there, this can
only be the church which worships God in spirit and in truth. It is
implicit that these are worshippers of God because it is God's temple
that is being measured, these are in contrast to those who worship the
beast and emphasises the theme of worship found in the book. Note this
is another census 'count the number of worshippers', the first census
in Revelation was also of the redeemed Rev 7:4. The temple probably
refers to those on earth and the altar to those in heaven, he counts
all the redeemed who are God's witnesses. The measuring in this case
should be regarded as similar to the sealing of the 144,000 (cf.
21:15-17), that is it is preservation (measuring in scripture can be
symbolic of preparation either for destruction or preservation cf. Num
35:5, Ps 60:6, Isa 65:7 Horton), but note that it does not protect
them from death (see 11:7). John himself is told to measure the
temple, only the priests were allowed to enter the holy of Holies but
now all believers are allowed in, hence this is a picture of the new
temple, the people of God, 1 Cor 3:16.
John is given a reed to measure the temple,
Lenski considers this to be the Word or the gospel in its function of
determining who is in the church and who is outside its bounds. It
fixes the boundary, the line of demarcation between what is inside of
and belongs to the Sanctuary of God and what is outside of it and is
profane. In chapter 11 we see the church in its relationship to the
world, first, as being separate, then, however, also as serving God's
purposes in the world (Lenski). The inner courtyard is measured
because it contains the church, just as the New Jerusalem is measured
in Rev 21:15, the New Jerusalem is also the church. There were four
courts in the temple, the outer court was for the Gentile, the next
court was for Jewish women, then one for Jewish men then one for
priests and finally the holy of Holies into which the high priest
could enter once a year. The barrier between the priests and the holy
of Holies was drawn aside at the death of Christ (Mat 27:51) and now
all Christians are priests and can enter the holy of Holies. Note that
the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the time John wrote this.
v2 - But exclude the outer court; do not
measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will
trample on the holy city for 42 months. - The church, the Israel
of God, has been measured to preserve it but not those 'Gentiles'
outside the church, they do not belong to God's people and are
therefore not measured (cf. 21:27, 22:15). The outer court of the
temple belongs to the Gentiles. In Luke 21:23 Jesus said that
Jerusalem, the holy city, will be trampled on by the Gentiles until
the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, following this there will be
signs on the earth and in the heavens and then comes the return of
Christ to the earth. Gentiles here means the world because they are
outside the inner court which is the Holies of Holies where God and
the church dwell (Ezek 43:5-7). They trample on the holy city, meaning
that they persecute the church which is the holy city, the new
Jerusalem (21:2), until Christ returns. Just as the Gentiles trample
on the holy city for 42 months, the church is persecuted during the
gospel age by the world. Contrast this with God trampling on the
heathen in his winepress, Rev 14:20, 19:15 (the same Greek word is
used, pateo). The heathen will experience the wrath of God in
vengeance and judgement. They trample on the holy city, meaning they
desecrate it (Dan 11:31) and also the saints will be persecuted by the
beast for a time, time and half a time (three and a half years or 42
months), Dan 7:25, 12:7, John has in mind persecution rather than just
desecration. We see later that they kill the two witnesses, when they
have finished their testimony, and they leave their bodies lying in
the street without burying them, which is a mark of contempt. Just as
the church is trampled upon by the Gentiles so Jesus was handed over
to the Gentiles to be crucified (Mat 20:19), we should note that both
the Gentiles and Jews played a part in the crucifixion of Jesus. Both
the chief priests and their officials representative of the apostate
church (see John 19:6 and compare to 'where also their Lord was
crucified' of Rev 11:8) and Pilate representative of the Gentile world
were responsible for the crucifixion. Johnson notes that the word
'Gentiles' (Gk ethnos) is everywhere else in Revelation
translated as 'nations' in the NIV, Gentiles should best be taken then
as heathen or unbelievers (see also Lenski).
It may also be noted that in the tabernacle (the
forerunner of the temple, see verse 1) the lampstand was placed in the
Holy Place (Heb 9:2) next to the Most Holy Place, just as a lampstand
is used as a symbol of the church (1:20 cf. 11:4) and here the figure
of a holy city is used for the church, the point being that the church
is holy. The word 'saints' (Gk. hagios ) has its root in the
word holy, meaning holy ones or consecrated ones.
v2 - They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. -
This is the same time as:
- The two witnesses prophesy for 1,260 days, (42*30=1260).
- Elijah prayed that it would not rain, three and a half years,
see v6, he is cared for by God supernaturally.
- The woman's stay in the wilderness (Rev 12:6 1,260 days and
Rev 12:14 time, times and half a time).
- The beasts exercise of authority (Rev 13:5, 42 months). This
assumes 30 days in a month and that a time, times and half a time is
three and a half years
Note: 42 months is the same time that the
Gentiles trample on the holy city and the period that the beast
exercises his authority. The woman's stay in the wilderness is a time,
times and half a time which is the same period mentioned by Daniel
(Dan 7:25 and 12:7). The woman's stay in the wilderness 1,260 days is
also the time that the two witness's prophecy. Thus chapters 11, 12
and 13 are synchronous, our interpretation of these chapters will
depend on what this time period represents. We should not take this
time period as a literal number because this would enable us to
precisely date the day of our Lords return. A superficial reading
would indicate that this represents three and a half literal years.
These time periods are all the same period, what does this represent?
Let us examine each occurrence of this time period in Revelation and
the rest of the bible.
i. Rev 11:2 - they will trample on the holy
city for 42 months - Jerusalem was trampled upon by the Gentiles
historically from AD 70 to AD 1967 when Jerusalem was once more in
the hands of the Jews. The persecution of the church started when
Stephen was martyred which was a little earlier, in either
interpretation of the holy city being earthly Jerusalem or the
church the period of 42 months starts shortly after Pentecost. The
holy city is most likely a reference to the church. There were 42
encampments of Israel in the wilderness Num 33:5 ff. which is a
possible reference to the churches stay in the desert, see iii and
iv below.
ii. Rev 11:3 - And I will give power to my
two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1260 days, - The
disciples received power to witness at Pentecost. Note that at the
end of their witness they are killed for three and a half days
before being raptured, 11:12.
iii. In Rev 12:6 the 1,260 days of the woman's stay in the
desert starts after the ascension.
iv. In Rev 12:13 the time, times and half a
time of the woman's stay in the desert begins when the dragon is
hurled to the earth and after the woman had given birth to the male
child. The dragon lost his place in heaven when Jesus was crucified
because the basis of his accusation was no longer valid, Jesus had
paid the price for sin. In fact Jesus saw Satan Fall to the earth
during his ministry.
v. In Rev 13:5 the beast exercises his
authority for forty two months, the beast can certainly be
identified with the Roman empire of John's day, he finds his
complete fulfilment when the antichrist appears. Johns primary goal
is to strengthen God's people for a time of persecution, it was
written to show God's people what will soon take place, Rev
1:1. The word soon covering the entire gospel age to the
coming again of Christ.
From the above it is clear that the time period
begins with the ascension and lasts until the second coming and
therefore it cannot be equated with a three and a half year period of
persecution right at the end, although there is a short period at the
end of three and half days when the beast appears to triumph over the
church and its witness is silenced for three and a half days, 11:7
ff., (this is more likely to equate with the second half of Daniel's
week in Dan 9:27). This is the same time that Daniel allows for
Antiochus Epiphanes to tyrannise Jerusalem, a period of great horror
to the Jews but nevertheless a fixed period of time, the term time,
times and half a time appears twice in Daniel: firstly in Dan 7:25
when another king will arise different from the others;
'He will speak against the Most High and
oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The
saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time'
and secondly in Dan 12:6-7;
'"How long will it be before these
astonishing things are fulfilled?" The man clothed in linen, who was
above the waters of the river, lifted his right hand and his left
hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by him who lives forever,
saying, "It will be for a time, times and half a time. When the
power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things
will be completed."'
This has been related by some to the first or
second half of Daniel's week of seven years, Dan 9:27, see also
discussion on 11:9. We should see it as the time of the Churches
witness and persecution throughout the gospel era. The use in Daniel
indicates an intense period of suffering at the end times when the
antichrist arises, in the two Daniel passages cited the first period
of a time, times and half a time, appears short (Dan 7:25) the second
period appears long (Dan 12:7). In both cases the saints appear
defeated but will be delivered, Dan 7:26-7, 12:1.
We should also note that this period of three
and a half years is also the same time of drought that Elijah prayed
for (1 King 17:1, Jam 5:17) and the time that he was miraculously
cared for by Ravens and the widow with her flour and oil which were
not used up (1 Ki 17:4-16). Thus this time period indicates both
persecution and divine care.
Our interpretation of this time period is
clearly a subject of debate and of importance because the
interpretation of chapter 11, 12 and 13, in which this time occurs 5
times, will depend on our interpretation of this time period. Does
this period of time indicate a short period of persecution at the end
times when the antichrist appears or does it signify all the
persecution throughout the gospel age? Just as we look for the
antichrist to come (1 John 2:18) we also know that many antichrists
have come. Just as we look for the man of lawlessness to be revealed
(2 Thess 2:3), we know that the secret power of lawlessness is already
at work. I would therefore propose that this time period refers to the
gospel age in general and the coming of the antichrist in particular.
The book of Revelation should be a blessing to Christians of all
ages and not just the last generation. Thus, for example, Nero and
Domitian were types of the antichrist but were not the
antichrist. It is generally agreed that the last days start with the
ascension reaching their climax with the second coming. In the section
here, the churches witness started at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit
came upon them and they started to prophecy, this will continue until
the churches witness is silenced by the antichrist.
v3 - And I will give power to my two
witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1260 days, clothed in
sackcloth." - The inner temple is measured and separated and as
such testifies to the world (Lenski). There are two witnesses because
two witnesses are required to establish the truth of testimony (Deu
17:6, John 8:17, 2 Cor 13:1). The disciples were sent out by Jesus in
two's, Mark 6:7. The two witnesses prophesy during the same period as
the Gentiles trample on the holy city, 1260 days=42 months (verse 2),
and the same period that the beast exercises his authority (42 months,
Rev 13:5). Verse 4 alludes to Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest
who represent the kingly and priestly function of the church (cf. 1:6)
as well as witnessing in the power of the Holy Spirit (Zec 4 ff.).
Verse 6 alludes to Elijah and Moses who represent the prophetic
function of the church (Deu 18:15, 34:10), verse 10 calls them two
prophets. The word power is not in the Greek but it is implied,
it say's 'I will give (didomi) to my two two witnesses and they
will prophesy...' however their power (exousia) is mentioned in
verse 6.
The time period is given as 1260 days which
emphasises the day by day witness of the church (Hailey). The church
is a witness to Jesus Christ, initially they were eye witnesses (Acts
2:32, 13:30, 26:15). The church will witness to the world during the
gospel age until Christ comes again, v12, when the dead in Christ will
meet Him in the air. They received power to witness and prophesy when
the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost, Jesus told them 'you
will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be
my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the
ends of the earth' (Acts 1:8), see also (Mark 13:9). According to
Peter's speech in Acts 2:16-21 the last days prophesied by Joel
started at Pentecost when the disciples began to speak in other
tongues declaring the wonders of God.
The two witnesses are not two individuals but
the witnessing church, in verse 10 they are also two prophets because
the church witnesses in the power of Elijah and Moses. When they have
finished their testimony they are killed (their testimony is sealed
with their blood) followed after three and a half days by their
resurrection and rapture. Their power is illustrated in verse 6:
These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain
during the time they are prophesying; they have power to turn the
waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as
often as they want. On a closer examination, this power is the
power of the prayers' of God's people, see comments on verse 6.
We are told that they are prophets: in verse 3
'they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth'; in verse 6
we are told that they have the same power as the prophet Elijah and in
verse 10 we are told that 'these two prophets had tormented those who
live on the earth'. Their prophecy is forth telling God's word rather
than foretelling. The prophecy will be a message of repentance and
hence they are clothed in sackcloth, which usually symbolises humility
and mourning, Jonah 3:8, Mat 4:17, Zech 13:4, Jer 4:8, Mat 11:21. See
Peters message at Pentecost (Acts 2:38) 'Repent and be baptised'.
Compare with John the Baptist went before the Lord in the spirit and
power of Elijah (Luk 1:17), who wore clothes of camel's hair and
preached 'Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near' (Mat 3:1, 4).
Antipas in 2:13 was a faithful witness to his faith in Christ
when he was martyred in the city where Satan lives. The two witnesses
testify to the world and when they have finished they are killed. They
belong to a group who are said to testify in Revelation and especially
the martyrs. We have as examples, Jesus whose testimony is the
book of Revelation, John who was on Patmos because of the testimony
of Jesus (1:9), the fifth seal discloses the martyrs who had been
slain because of the testimony they had maintained (6:9), there
are those who overcome Satan by the word of their testimony
(12:11), there are the offspring of the woman that Satan makes war
against who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony
of Jesus (12:17), the woman is drunk with the blood of the saints, the
blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus (17:6), John's
brothers are those who hold to the testimony of Jesus (19:10),
John sees the souls of those beheaded because of their testimony
for Jesus and because of the word of God (20:4).
v4 - These are the two olive trees and the
two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. - The two
olive trees, meaning a plenteous supply of oil for the lamps, i.e. the
Spirit, this image comes from Zech 4:2. The two witnesses are to
witness in the power of the Holy Spirit, the famous phrase 'Not by
might nor by power, but by my Spirit' comes from Zech 4:6. Notice also
the seven lamps of the Holy Spirit mentioned in 4:5, these are the
seven lamps on the lampstand opposite to the table with the bread on
it, Exo 40:22. The image of a lampstand is in Zech 4:2 and also in Rev
1:20, where the lampstand is the church, the church is the light of
the world (Mat 5:14) and the church is a light in the darkness of the
world (Acts 13:47). There are two olive tress and two lampstands
because two are required to establish the truth of a testimony, it
does not mean that only two sevenths of the church will testify, it is
part of the symbolism of the passage. God will pour out his Spirit
upon the church and it will prophesy, Acts 2:16-21, this was first
fulfilled at Pentecost and is being fulfilled throughout the church
age and will be fulfilled again before the antichrist appears. The two
anointed ones who serve the Lord are Zerubbabel and Joshua who stand
for the kingly and priestly function of the ministry (Hag 1:1, Zech
4), in Rev 1:6 the saints are referred to as a 'kingdom and priests to
serve God'. Elijah and Moses later refer to the prophetic ministry
(verses 5 & 6). Rev 1:6, 5:10 and 20:6 all refer to the priestly
ministry of the saints while verses 3, 6, and 10 here refer to the
prophetic ministry (see also 11:18, 16:16, 18:20, 18:24, 22:9).
v5 - If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes
from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who
wants to harm them must die. - The fire refers to the word of God,
Jer 5:14, 'I will make my words in your mouth a fire and these people
the wood it consumes', see also Jer 23:29, thus the two witnesses
testify in the power of the Spirit with the word of God, the Spirit
and the word go together because the Spirit is the Spirit of truth and
the word of God is the truth (see also Eph 6:17). When the church in
Acts was filled with the Spirit they spoke the word of God boldly
(Acts 4:31). The beast out of the earth has a counterfeit to the fire
(Rev 13:13). Nothing can harm them while they are witnessing because
they have the authority of Christ (Luke 10:19). This is also a
reference to the prophet Elijah (2 Kings 1:10) in which Elijah caused
fire to come down from heaven and consume his enemies. Note that Jesus
rebuked his disciples when they wanted to call fire down from heaven
to destroy those who did not welcome him so we are not to take this
literally. Luke 21:12-19 shows that the saints will be persecuted but
that this will result in them being witnesses to their persecutors and
that they will be given words and wisdom which they will not be able
to resist or contradict. Those who try to harm them are those who
reject their testimony and therefore they reject Christ and God (Luke
10:16). It is these words which will condemn their unrepentant
persecutors (John 12:48), whoever rejects the Son remains under the
wrath of God (John 3:36). We see at the start of the trumpet sequence
that in response to the prayers of the saints fire from the altar was
hurled to the earth (8:5). Those who reject the testimony of the
church will die in the lake of fire. Note: while fire comes out of the
mouths of the two witnesses, water comes out of the mouth of the
dragon (12:15), blasphemy out of the mouth of the beast (13:6), frogs
out of the mouths of the dragon, beast and false prophet (16:13).
v6a - These men have power to shut up the sky
so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; -
In 11:3 it says that these witnesses will be given power, here it is
described. They have the power to prevent rain - they have the same
prophetic power as Elijah, 1 King 17:1, Jam 5:16-18, who had the power
to prevent rain for three and a half years. They prophesy for 1260
days (v3), i.e. 42 months (v2) the same time that the Gentiles trample
on the holy city and 42 months is the same as the three and a half
years that Elijah prayed that it would not rain. James comments that
the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective and then gives
the example of Elijah. We have already seen the power of the prayers
of the saints in the prelude to the seven trumpets. This power then is
the power of the prayers of the church which we saw together with the
incense ascending before God (8:4). This period represents the time
from the ascension to the second coming, that is also the great
tribulation or persecution. This is the same time that God cares for
the church. During the three and a half years of drought Elijah was
cared for miraculously by God the Ravens brought him food and the
widows flour and oil was not used up, 1 Ki 17:4-16. Note that they
have this power only during the time they are prophesying, when they
have finished prophesying they are killed, v7. Compare this with the
ministry of John the Baptist who went before the Lord 'in the spirit
and power of Elijah' (Luke 1:17), his message was 'repent for the
kingdom of heaven is near' (Mat 3:2), and was imprisoned and then
beheaded (Mat 14:3 ff.).
v6b - they have power to turn the waters into
blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as
they want. - We see here the results of the prayers of the church
manifested to the world through, for example, the seven trumpets. They
have the power (exousia) to turn water into blood (compare with
the second trumpet Rev 8:8), and to strike the earth with every kind
of plague (second bowl Rev 16:3), they have the same power as Moses,
to strike the earth with every kind of plague, Ex 7:19, consider the
ten plagues on Egypt that Moses was instrumental in bringing forth. In
Deu 34:10 Moses is called a prophet. Their power extends over the land
and sea which therefore covers the whole earth, see comments on 10:2,
their witness is to the whole earth (see verses 9, 10) even to the
merchants and seamen of Ch. 18. We have seen earlier that the seven
trumpets are God's answer to the prayers of the saints (Rev 8:5) as
are the seven bowls or plagues. How awesome are the results of the
prayers of God's children, Jam 5:16-18. The Lord was working with
their witness which he confirmed by signs and wonders, Mark 16:20,
Acts 14:3. When the church is acting in its official capacity its
power is real, see Mat 16:18-19, 18:18-20, John 20:23 (Hendriksen)
because it is acting under the authority of Christ himself, cf. Luke
10:16-19. See Mat 16:19 for the power to loose and bind.
Moses and Elijah appeared at the
transfiguration, Mat 17:3, Luke 9:29. They represent the priestly and
the prophetic ministries of the church. The two olive trees allude to
Joshua and Zerubbabel who represent the priestly and kingly ministry
of the church. We have already seen the church described by John as
having been made by Jesus to be a kingdom and priests to serve God
(1:6). We see here the church serving God in her delegated authority.
Note: Elijah was transported into heaven at the end of his ministry, 2
Kings 2:11 cf. 11:12.
Pink points out that there were two witnesses
before Pharaoh, Aaron and Moses (priest and prophet), who performed
the miraculous signs. Pharaoh is one of the OT types of the
antichrist. Pink gives the following as OT types of the antichrist:
Cain, Lamech, Nimrod (Gen 10:8-9, 1 Chr 1:10, Micah 5:6), Kedorlaomer
(Gen 14), Pharaoh, Abimalech (Gen 20:2-21:32, 26:1-26, Judg 9:1-10:1,
2 Sam 11:21, Psa 34:1), Saul, Goliath, Absalom, Herod. To these I
would add Nebuchadnezzar who is used as a type in Revelation; consider
that he was turned into a beast, the golden stature and the raging
furnace.
v7 - Now when they have finished their
testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them,
and overpower and kill them. - Until they have finished their
testimony they are inviolate, see v5. The preceding verses show that
the witness of the church will be a powerful one in the last days, the
gospel will be preached to all nations, tribes, peoples and languages,
there will be converts (7:9), although it may not be numerically
strong, but the Gospel must be preached in the whole world as a
testimony to all nations, and then the end will come, Mat 24:14. Here
we find that when they have finished their testimony the beast will
arise out of the Abyss (hell) and kill the witness of the church,
their witness is sealed by their blood. The death of the witnessing
church is likely to be what was spoken to Daniel in answer to the
question "How long will it be before these astonishing things are
fulfilled?": "It will be for a time, times and half a time. When the
power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things
will be completed." Dan 12:7. More detail of this verse is given with
the beast out of the sea (abyss) in Ch 13 who makes war on the saints
and conquers them (13:7 cf. Dan 7:3, 7:21) and the beast out of the
earth who caused all who refused to worship the image to be killed
(13:15). Their ministry parallels that of Christ who could not be
touched until his time came, who was betrayed by Judas when Satan
entered him (Luk 22:3, Jn 13:27).
This is the first mention of the beast from the
abyss who is described in more detail later, Rev 13 & 17. Persecution
will follow the preaching of the word, but during the preaching of it
there is divine protection. See Jesus warning about persecution when
he sends out the twelve in Mat 10:22 'All men will hate you because of
me'. Jesus teaches us not to be surprised by persecution, this is the
message of Revelation. This is the same beast as the one in Rev 17:8
who will come out of the Abyss and go to his destruction, who is also
the same beast as the one that comes out of the sea in Rev 13:1 and
makes war against the saints and conquers them Rev 13:7. The words
'attack' used here and 'make war' in 13:7 are the same in the original
Greek. Compare also the time that the two witnesses prophecy for of
1,260 days (11:3) and the time that the beast exercises authority for
forty-two months (13:5).
We should not be surprised that the beast
overpowers and kills the witnesses, this is one of the main warnings
of the book, the saints must be prepared and expect to die for the
faith. Just as Christ died in obedience to the Father but in doing so
he obtained victory over sin and death. However it also shows us the
end result which is defeat of the enemy and bliss for the saints.
Another view on this verse is that it represents the finish of the
proclamation of the gospel on the earth and then the antichrist will
arise for a short time, during which there will be no preaching and
then Christ will return and vindicate his elect, Mat 24:14. It is
clear from the context that this event occurs shortly before Christ
comes again, however throughout church history the beast from hell has
been coming and persecuting God's people. In Daniel those who will not
worship a false god are either thrown into a furnace or thrown to the
lions, Dan 3:1 ff., 6:1 ff. however Revelation makes clear that there
is a far worse furnace for those who worship the beast (14:9 ff.,
20:15, 21:8).
v8 - Their bodies will lie in the street of
the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where
also their Lord was crucified. - The street of the great city is
in obvious contrast to the great street of the New Jerusalem along
which grows the tree of life, Rev 22:1-2, the great city is the world,
see verse 9. Figuratively the great city is called Sodom (that is
wickedness), Egypt (that is oppression), Jerusalem (that is
persecution). Jerusalem as well as crucifying Jesus was also the city
that stoned the prophets, Mat 23:37. This is a composite city depicted
by Babylon the Great later in Revelation (Rev 17, 18). This is also
where God's people must preach the Gospel, where there is wickedness,
oppression and persecution i.e. the same world that Jesus was sent
(John 17:18). Think of Russia or China. The great city is Babylon, in
16:19 we see the great city split into three parts as a result of the
seventh bowl, the kings of the earth mourn her destruction in 18:10.
Nineveh is also an example of a great city (Gen 10:12, Jonah 1:2).
Babylon (the world system) is found drunk with the blood of the
saints, 17:6, she plays a large role in persecuting the saints, as
does the beast and false prophet, Rev 13. The reference to the city
'where also their Lord was crucified' is a reminder that his disciples
must also take up their cross and follow him even if it leads to
death. It is also indicative of false religion, cf. Gal 4:25-26,
because it was the religious officials who wanted Jesus crucified (Mat
26:3-4, John 19:6, 19:15).
v9 - For three and a half days men from every
people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and
refuse them burial - Notice the four fold description indicating
that they come from the four corners of the earth, that is the people
of the whole world, this confirms the universality of the great city.
These are the very people they are to preach to. The three and a half
day's contrasts to the 1260 days in v3, (i.e. three and a half years),
it is a short time, compare this with the ten days of Rev 2:10. This
can be compared to the three days Jesus spent in the tomb following
his three years of ministry (Wilcock). Refusal of burial is a sign of
contempt. Note that the redeemed also come from these groups of
people, some of them get converted, praise God. see Rev 5:9, 7:9,
13:7, 14:6.
The description every people, tribe, language and nation
is also used of:
- Descriptions of the universal origin of the saved, 5:9, 7:9.
- It is the same group to whom the angel has an eternal gospel
to proclaim, 14:6.
- It is the same group that the beast has authority over, 13:7.
In other words those eventually saved will come out from every
people group of the earth.
The three and a half days is also half a week
and could have a connection with the half week of Dan 9:27 'He will
confirm a covenant with many for one seven. In the middle of the
'seven' he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of
the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until
the end that is decreed is poured out on him'. The weeks of Daniel
(see Dan 9:24) are usually interpreted as years, thus half a week is
three and a half years (cf. the 1,260 days that the two witnesses
prophesy for). Thus the two witnesses prophesy for half a week of
years and are dead for half a week of days. If we take this
interpretation then the three and a half days could correspond to the
forty-two months, or half week of years, when the beast exercises his
authority (13:5). It could also explain why 1,260 days are mentioned
in 12:6 where the woman fled into the desert to be taken care of by
God and then later when the dragon had been hurled to the earth the
woman again flies to the desert to be taken care of by God for a time,
times and half a time out of the serpent's reach.
| First half week |
Second half week |
| 11:2 holy city trampled on by
Gentiles for 42 months. |
13:5 Beast exercises his
authority for forty-two months. |
| 11:3 Two witnesses prophesy for
1,260 days. |
11:9 Two witnesses lie dead in
the street of the great city for three and a half days. |
| 12:6 woman taken care of by God
for 1,260 days. |
12:14 woman taken care of for a
time, times and half a time. |
v10 - The inhabitants of the earth will gloat
over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because
these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. -
Sending each other gifts is a parody of Purim in which the Jews
celebrated relief from their enemies who tried to have all Jews
killed, see Est 9:22 ff. After the children of Israel left Egypt, they
were glad because the dread of Israel had fallen on them (Ps 105:38).
In common with other passages there appears to be a great outbreak of
persecution before the end when the witness of the church will be
silenced (xxxx). Here the two witnesses are called prophets (Moses and
Elijah), that is the prophetic witness of the church which tormented
the inhabitants of the earth, see verses 5 and 6. This verse shows the
anger of the nations, the prophets are rewarded in 11:18. It is their
hour, just as the authorities had their hour when they crucified
Jesus, Luke 22:53, and the world rejoiced over him (John 16:20). At
this point the power of darkness seems to have triumphed just as Satan
appeared to triumph when Jesus was crucified.
v11 - But after the three and a half days a
breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet,
and terror struck those who saw them. - When Christ returns the
dead in Christ will rise first, 1 Thess 4:16, 1 Cor 15:51. The wicked,
who are the enemies of the saints, will be filled with terror when God
vindicates his elect by raising them from the dead. The triumph of
wickedness is short lived, just as Satan's triumph over Jesus at the
cross was turned into defeat when God raised him from the dead and
proved Satan downfall. In 13:7 we also find that the beast was given
power to make war against the saints and to conquer them, but in 15:2
we find those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and
over the number of his name, their victory was in being faithful even
to death, Satan has no answer to that. How often has the world
rejoiced that it has destroyed the witness of the church until the
Spirit of God breaths new life into the church which rediscovers the
great gospel truths and like a Phoenix out of the ashes arises to the
terror of their persecutors. 'The blood of the martyrs is the seedbed
of the church' to use Tertullian's great phrase. Compare this to
Ezekiel's prophecy to the valley of dry bones 'I will put breath in
you, and you will come to life' (Ezek 37:6), 'This is what the
Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe
into these slain, that they may live.' So I prophesied as he commanded
me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their
feet--a vast army (Ezek 37:9-10).
v12 - Then they heard a loud voice from
heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a
cloud, while their enemies looked on - This is a clear reference
to the Rapture which coincides with the second coming, 1 Thess
4:15-17, the dead in Christ will rise first, 'this is no secret
rapture' (Hendriksen). The key word is cloud, clouds are nearly always
associated with God's presence or the second coming, Rev 1:7, 14:14,
Ezek 30:3, Dan 7:13, Joel 2:2, Zep 1:15, Mat 24:14. After the
preaching of the gospel to all nations, that is the church has
finished her witness (see verse 7), then the end will come, Mat 24:14.
Elijah upon whom the witnesses are modelled was taken up to heaven in
a whirlwind, 2 King 2:11. This section clarifies one of Johns main
points, even though the saints are required to be faithful to the
point of death like their master (2:10, c.f. 2:13), but they will also
rise again as he did. This parodies the life of Christ, they died but
were not buried for three and a half days, they came to life and
ascended to heaven. Notice the similarity of their ascension with the
Lords (Acts 1:9). They seal their testimony by their blood and the
Lord confirms their testimony by raising them from the dead.
v13 - At that very hour there was a severe
earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people
were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and
gave glory to the God of heaven. - Seven thousand is symbolic and
is intended to indicate a complete number. In 16:19 the great city was
split into three parts. The survivors were terrified when the two
witnesses came to life again and because of the earthquake, they are
terrified into giving glory to God. This recalls the terror of the
sixth seal, 6:12-17 which also includes an earthquake. But by then
when God displays his awesome power it is too late for repentance, the
time for judgement has begun. There are OT references connecting
earthquakes with the day of the Lord (Isa 29:6, Ezek 38:19, Zec 14:5)
for other references to earthquakes in Rev see 6:12, 8:5, 11:19,
16:18.
v14 - The second woe has passed; the third
woe is coming soon. - Most translators translate soon as quickly.
This sentence has been placed here to show that the witness of the
church lasts until the seventh trumpet which ushers in the time of
God's wrath and the judgement when repentance is no longer possible,
Rev 11:18. The section about the two witnesses lies between the sixth
and seventh trumpet. This verse also introduces the third Woe, that is
the seventh trumpet that announces the reign of Christ and the
judgement. The third woe comes quickly after the second woe. There is
a play on words here, the third woe is coming soon just as Jesus is
coming soon, the two coincide. Compare this verse here with 10:7 'But
in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the
mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his
servants the prophets.' The days spoken of here will include the
death, resurrection and ascension of the two witnesses, especially the
last three and a half days (compared to the 1260 days of their
prophecy).
4. The seventh trumpet, the third
Woe! (11:15)
Rev 11:15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there
were loud voices in heaven, which said:
"The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our
Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever."
11:16 And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their
thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshipped God, 17
saying:
"We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
the One who is and who was, because you have taken your great power
and have begun to reign. 18 The nations were angry; and your wrath
has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding
your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence
your name, both small and great-- and for destroying those who
destroy the earth."
11:19 Then God's temple in heaven was
opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And
there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an
earthquake and a great hailstorm.
v15 - The seventh angel sounded his trumpet,
and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: "The kingdom of the
world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he
will reign for ever and ever." - This is the third and worst Woe
for the world, Christ has come to judge the world, it is the end of
history, the time for repentance is past and it is now time for
judgement to begin. Now that the witness of the church is complete
(Rev 11:7) the seventh trumpet can be sounded which ushers in the end
of the age, Mat 24:31. The seventh trumpet announces the fulfilment of
God's mystery as indicated by the mighty angel in 10:7, and the reign
of Christ, (God's anointed one) Dan 7:14, Luke 1:33, 1 Cor 15:24. The
mystery of God is Christ (Col 2:2) this mystery is accomplished when
Christ returns and establishes his kingdom and reign (Dan 7:27). The
dead in Christ will be raised, 'then the end will come, when he hands
over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all
dominion, authority and power', 1 Cor 15:24. The seventh trumpet is a
reference to the last trumpet which announces the coming of Christ and
his holy angels, and the dead in Christ will arise, Mat 24:31, 1 Cor
15:52, 1 Thess 4:16. The kingdom that once belonged to devil now
belongs to God, Luke 4:5, and He will reign for ever and ever, Exo
15:18.
v16 - And the twenty-four elders, who were
seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshipped
God, 17 saying "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who
is and who was, you have taken your great power and have begun to
reign. - God is now worshipped as the One who is and who was and
not as the one who is to come because he has now already come
and he has taken his great power and begun to reign. Notice that God
is the only proper person of worship. This is the end of human
history.
v18 - The nations were angry; and your wrath
has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding
your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence
your name, both small and great-- and for destroying those who destroy
the earth." - Walvoord points out that the same Greek word (Gr.
verb form of orge) is used for angry and wrath, the wrath of
men is wicked, the wrath of God is holy. 'The nations were angry' is
once more a reference to that messianic psalm 2, therefore his wrath
has come, Isa 34:2. This is the climactic third woe, this also hints
at the battles later in Revelation (16:14, 19:19). The time has come
for judging the dead, that is, the judgement, here we have a preview
of the judgement of Rev 20:12. We see here a distinction between God's
servants the prophets, and saints (see also Rev 16:6, 18:20, 18:24),
in the NT the prophet is ministry of the church and is probably
emphasised in Revelation because it is a prophetic book and John was a
prophet.
The time for rewarding God's servants has come;
this idea of rewards is present throughout the scripture (Ps 115:13,
Jer 17:10, Dan 12:13, Mat 5:12, Rev 22:12). Those who were persecuted
now receive their allotted reward, Mat 5:12. In contrast to the
rewards is retribution (i.e. destruction) on those who destroy the
earth, the punishment fits the crime. Caird sees those who destroy the
earth as a reference to the angel of the abyss whose name is
Destroyer, the beast and Babylon (destroyer of the whole earth, Jer
51:25). Hailey points out that the word destroy (diaphtheiro)
means to corrupt which makes the most sense, cf. Gen 6:11-13 in which
God also destroyed those who corrupted the earth by sending a flood on
them, mankind ruins the earth and brings ruin upon himself.
The prophets and saints are described as those
who reverence God's name, compare with those who cursed God's name as
the result of the forth, fifth and seventh bowls, Rev 16:9, 11, 21.
Also the Devil and the beast out of the sea blasphemed God, 13:1,
13:5, 17:3. It is worth noting that there is no mention here of the
millennial reign which is ushered in at the second coming.
v19a - Then God's temple in heaven was
opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. -
The covenant with his people has been fulfilled. The ark of the
covenant contain the stone tablets which were given to Moses at Sinai
with the law on them, Heb 9:4. The ark was in the Holy of Holies and
signified God's presence, 1 Chr 13:6, Heb 9:3-4. Some see this as
introducing a new heavenly perspective for the next section about the
woman and dragon (Wilcock). In connection with the previous verse its
significance has probably more to do with the judgement of mankind
according to the law of God. God's temple is opened manifesting the
arc containing his law. The judgement scene is found in its fullness
in 20:11 ff.
In Heb 9:3 we find that the altar of incense was
in the most holy place next to the ark of the covenant, in 8:5 it is
this same altar that the angel took the fire from to hurl to the
earth. In Josh 6:8 there are seven priests with seven trumpets
encircling Jericho with the arc of the covenant following them. They
marched around the city for six days and on the seventh day they
marched around it seven times with the priests blowing the trumpets.
As the priests blew long blasts on their trumpets the walls fell down
and everyone was slaughtered except for Rahab the harlot. The march
seven times around the walls with trumpets blowing warns of
destruction for those within the city, which on the long blast it is
destroyed. In 1 Chr 15:24 seven priests were to blow trumpets before
the arc as it was brought into Jerusalem. The seven trumpets therefore
announce the coming presence of God along with destruction. Arc of the
covenant speaks of his presence and indicates that these judgement
came from God.
v19b - And there came flashes of lightning,
rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm.
- Hail, lightening and an earthquake are common manifestations of
God's presence and of the end. See the prelude to the seven trumpets,
Rev 8:5, and the seventh bowl, Rev 16:21, in which God's wrath was
finished and the cities of the nations collapsed. Some of these
manifestations also appeared when God gave the law at Sinai see Exo
19:16. |
The next chapter (12) and all other chapters are accessible from
this link:
http://www.apocalipsis.org/rev-12.htm
|
|
A gilded wooden figurine of a deer from the
Pazyryk
burials,
5th century BC.
This deer is from the Scythian culture
Deer in mythology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Deer have significant roles in the
mythology of various peoples.
In
paleolithic
cave paintings the figure of a
shaman wears antlers as the deer-spirit, notably the figure
being called
"The Sorcerer" in the Cave
Trois-Frères in southern France.
Abrahamic religion
Judaism
In
Jewish mythology - as discussed in the Talmud (חולין נט ע"ב) -
exists a giant kind of stag by the name "Keresh".
He is said to live in a mythical forest called "Divei Ilai".
'Ayyal and
its feminine forms are regularly in English
Versions of the Bible rendered "hart" and
"hind," terms which are more commonly
applied to the male and female of the red
deer, Cervus elaphus, which inhabits Great
Britain, the continent of Europe, the
Caucasus and Asia Minor, but which has never
been reported as far south as Syria or
Palestine. The roe deer, Capreolus caprea,
however, which inhabits the British Isles,
the greater part of Europe, the Caucasus and
Persia, is certainly found in Palestine. The
museum of the Syrian Protestant College at
Beirut possesses the skeleton of a roe deer
which was shot in the mountains near Tyre.
As late as 1890 it was fairly common in
southern Lebanon and Carmel, but has now
(1912) become very scarce. The fallow deer,
Cervus dama, is a native of Northern Africa
and countries about the Mediterranean. It is
found in central Europe and Great Britain,
where it has been introduced from its more
southern habitat. A variety of the fallow
deer, sometimes counted as a separate
species under the name of Cervus
Mesopotamicus, inhabits northeastern
Mesopotamia and Persia. It may in former
times have been found in Palestine, and
Tristram reports having seen the fallow deer
in Galilee (Fauna and Flora of Pal), but
while Tristram was a remarkably acute
observer, he appears sometimes to have been
too readily satisfied, and his observations,
when unaccompanied, as in this case, by
specimens, are to be accepted with caution.
Now 'ayyal (and its feminine forms) occurs
in the Bible 22 times, while yachmur occurs
only twice, i.e. in the list of clean
animals in
Deuteronomy 14:5, and in
1 Kings 4:23, in the list of animals
provided for Solomon's table. In both places
the King James Version has "fallow deer" and
the Revised Version (British and American)
"roebuck." In view of the fact that the roe
deer has within recent years been common in
Palestine, while the occurrence of the
fallow deer must be considered doubtful, it
seems fair to render 'ayyal "roe deer" or
"roebuck," leaving yachmur for fallow deer.
The Arabs call the roe deer both 'ayyal
and wa`l. Wa`l is the proper name of the
Persian wild goat, Capra aegagrus, and is
also often used for the Arabic or Sinaitic
ibex, Capra beden, though only by those who
do not live within its range. Where the ibex
is at home it is always called beden. This
looseness of nomenclature must be taken into
account, and we have no reason to suppose
that the Hebrews were more exact than are
the Arabs. There are many examples of this
in English, e. g. panther, coney, rabbit (in
America), locust, adder and many others.
Ya`el (including ya`alah) occurs 4 times.
In
Job 39:1;
Psalms 104:18;
1 Samuel 24:2, English Versions of the
Bible render ya`el by "wild goat." For
ya`alah in
Proverbs 5:19, the King James Version
has "roe," while the Revised Version
(British and American) has "doe," which is
non-committal, since the name, "doe," may be
applied to the female of a deer or of an
ibex. Since the Arabic, wa`l, which is
etymologically closely akin to ya`el, means
the Persian wild goat, it might be supposed
that that animal was meant, were it not that
it inhabits the plains of the Syrian desert,
and not the mountains of Southern Palestine,
where the ibex lives. At least two of the
passages clearly indicate the latter
locality, i.e.
Psalms 104:18:
"The high mountains
are for the wild
goats," and
1 Samuel 24:2:
"Saul .... went to
seek David and his men
upon the rocks of the
wild goats." The
conclusion then seems
irresistible that
ya`el, and
consequently ya`alah,
is the ibex.
Tsebhi (including
tsebhiyah) is
uniformly rendered
"roe" or "roebuck" in
the King James
Version, while the
Revised Version
(British and
American), either in
the text or in the
margin, has in most
cases "gazelle." In
two places "roe" is
retained in the
Revised Version
(British and American)
without comment, i.e.
2 Samuel 2:18:
"Asahel was as
light of foot as a
wild roe," and
1 Chronicles 12:8:
"were as swift as the
roes upon the
mountains." 'Ayyal and
tsebhi occur together
in
Deuteronomy 12:15,22;
14:5;
15:22;
1 Kings 4:23;
Song of Solomon 2:9,17,
i.e. in 7 of the 16
passages in which we
find tsebhi. If
therefore it be
accepted that 'ayyal
is the roe deer, it
follows that tsebhi
must be something
else. Now the gazelle
is common in Palestine
and satisfies
perfectly every
passage in which we
find tsebhi. Further,
one of the Arabic
names of the gazelle
is zabi, a word which
is etymologically much
nearer to tsebhi than
appears in this
transliteration.
'Opher is akin to `aphar,
"dust," and has
reference to the color
of the young of the
deer or gazelle, to
both of which it is
applied. In
Song of Solomon 2:9,17
and 8:14, we have `opher
ha- 'ayyalim, English
Versions of the Bible
"young hart,"
literally, "fawn of
the roe deer." In
Song of Solomon 4:5
and 7:3, we have `opharim
te'ome tsebhiyah, the
King James Version
"young roes that are
twins," the Revised
Version (British and
American) "fawns that
are twins of a roe,"
the Revised Version,
margin "gazelle" (for
"roe"). For further
reference to these
questions, see
ZOOLOGY.
With the exception
of mere lists of
animals, as in
Deuteronomy 14 and
1 Kings 4, the
treatment of these
animals is highly
poetical, and shows
much appreciation of
their grace and
beauty.
Alfred Ely Day
Christianity
Diana worship is mentioned in the
book of Acts in the
Bible (Chapter 19, verses 21-41).
The Acts of the Apostles (Greek Praxeis
Apostolon) is a book of the Bible, which now
stands fifth in the New Testament. ...
This Gutenberg
Bible is displayed by the United States Library.
...
Saint Giles, a Catholic saint especially revered in the south
of France, is reported to have lived for many years as a hermit in
the forest near
Nîmes,
where in the greatest solitude he spent many years, his sole
companion being a deer, or
hind,
who in some stories sustained him on her milk. In art, he is often
depicted together with that hind.
In the founding legend of
Le Puy-en-Velay, where a Christian church replaced a healing a
megalithic
dolmen. A local tradition had rededicated the curative virtue
of the sacred site to Mary, who cured ailments by contact with the
standing stone. When the founding bishop Vosy climbed the hill, he
found that it was snow-covered in July; in the snowfall the tracks
of a deer round the dolmen outlined the foundations of the future
church.
Celtic paganism
The Insular
Celts held deer as supernatural animals, "fairy cattle" that
were herded and milked by a localised and benevolent fairy
giantess (a
bean sìdhe) in each district, who could shift shape to
that of a red deer;[1]
in the West Highlands, she selected the individual deer that would
be slain in the next day's hunt.[2]
In Ireland, An Chailleach Bhéarach, "The Old Woman of
Beare", an island off the coast of County Cork, takes the form of
a deer to avoid capture; to Beare come characters from the Land of
the Dead to visit Ireland.[3]
Other
Celtic mythological figures such as
Oisin,
Flidais and
Sadb were given connections to deer.
The Continental Celtic
Cernunnos is depicted with deer antlers in votive artwork and
upon altars, and is possibly the horned figure on the
Gundestrup cauldron. Cernunnos is most likely one of the
multiple sources from which
Wiccans synthesized the figure of their
Horned God.
| There are three
species of deer in Prydain and Eriu; the Red Deer, the Roe Deer
and the Reindeer, although the Reindeer lives only in Alba. The
male of the species bears antlers (shed yearly), which are used
to fight other males. The deer's primary defence is flight.
Deer will occasionally fight by kicking or trampling (1d
crushing damage), or by butting with the antlers (1d impaling
damage). Attack is most likely in the mating season, or if the
deer is brought to bay during a hunt. Their meat is highly
prized.
RED DEER are a reddish brown in colour, and stand four
feet high at the shoulder. They are often found in open moorland
and mountains. For most of the year the males and females live
in separate groups, but in the mating season (July-October) the
males will gather large harems of females about them, and defend
them against other males with their antlers.
ROE DEER are smaller, standing only three feet high at the
shoulder. They live in woodlands, where their pale brown colour
helps them hide easily in the undergrowth. They live in small
family groups and their mating season is July to mid-August.
REINDEER are found only in Alba. They stand four feet high at
the shoulder, and are unusual in that both males and females
have antlers. They travel in large herds of 100 or more and
their mating season is October.
People in Celtic stories are often turned into deer.
Finn's wife in Celtic mythology is turned into a deer while
pregnant, and later gives birth to a human child (Oisin, Finn's
son) while living in deer form in the forest. Gwydion and
Gilfaethwy spend a year as a stag and a hind and have a faun,
which when it is turned into a child is known as Hyddwn "good
deer."
A common theme in Celtic stories is the white, red-eared
stag (see Otherworldly creatures, below) which leads hunters
into the Otherworld. They are often sent for this purpose by
Sidhe requiring help from human adventurers. |
Germanic paganism
In
Germanic paganism, deer appear in surviving sources. In the
Poetic Edda poem
Grímnismál the
four stags of Yggdrasil are described as feeding on the world
tree,
Yggdrasil and the poem further relates that the stag
Eikþyrnir lives on top of
Valhalla. In the
Prose Edda book
Gylfaginning, the god
Freyr
is described as killing
Beli with an antler. In
Þiðrekssaga,
Sigurd is presented as having been nursed by a doe.
An
Anglo-Saxon royal scepter found at the
Sutton Hoo burial site in
England features a depiction of an upright, antlered stag. In
the
Old English language poem
Beowulf, much of the first portion of the story focuses on
events surrounding a great
mead hall called
Heorot, meaning "Hall of the
Hart".
ROMAN Mythology
Hunting goddess
Diana was the hunting goddess, associated
with wild animals and woodlands. She also later
became a
moon goddess, supplanting
Luna, and was an emblem of
chastity.
Oak groves were especially sacred to her.
She was praised in poetry for her strength,
athletic grace, distinct beauty and hunting
skill. In practice she made up a trinity with
two other Roman deities:
Egeria the water nymph, her servant and
assistant midwife; and
Virbius, the woodland god. In her etymology,
"Diana" is simply :"the Goddess", with a Greek
parallel in the name — though not the cult
practice — of
Dione at
Dodona.She was goddess of fertility and
quick to anger.
In the study of mythology, a lunar deity is a
god or goddess associated with or symbolizing
the Moon: see Moon (mythology). ...
This page is on
the Greek goddess. ...
Allegory of chastity by Hans Memling. ...
Species See List
of Quercus species The term oak can be used as
part of the common name of any of several
hundred species of trees and shrubs in the genus
Quercus (from Latin oak tree), and some related
genera, notably Cyclobalanopsis and Lithocarpus.
... In
Roman mythology, the goddess Egeria (of the
black poplar) was a goddess of childbirth,
wisdom and prophecy and was one of the Camenae.
... In
Roman mythology, Virbius was the name of the
reborn Hippolytus. ...
Dione in Greek mythology is a vague goddess
presence who has her most concrete form in Book
V of Homers Iliad as the mother of Aphrodite:
Aphrodite journeys to Diones side after she has
been wounded in battle while protecting her
favorite son Aeneas. ...
For other uses, see Dodona (disambiguation). ...
Diana was worshipped at a festival on
August 13,[1]
when King
Servius Tullius, himself born a slave,
dedicated her shrine on the
Aventine Hill in the mid-sixth century BCE.
Being placed on the Aventine, and thus outside
the
pomerium, meant that Diana's cult
essentially remained a 'foreign' one, like that
of
Bacchus; she was never officially
'transferred' to Rome as
Juno was after the sack of
Veii. It seems that her cult originated in
Aricia,[2]
where her priest, the
Rex Nemorensis remained. There the simple
open-air fane was held in common by the Latin
tribes,[3]
which Rome aspired to weld into a league and
direct. Diana of the wood was soon thoroughly
Hellenized,[4]
"a process which culminated with the appearance
of Diana beside Apollo in the first
lectisternium at Rome".[5]
Diana was regarded with great reverence by
lower-class citizens and
slaves; slaves could receive asylum in her
temples. is the
225th day of the year (226th in leap years) in
the Gregorian calendar. ...
Servius Tullius was the sixth legendary king of
ancient Rome, and the second king of the
Etruscan dynasty. ...
The Aventine Hill is one of the seven hills on
which ancient Rome was built. ...
The pomerium (or
pomoerium) was the sacred boundary of the city
of Rome. ...
This article is
about the ancient deity. ...
IVNO REGINA
(Queen Juno) on a coin celebrating Julia
Soaemias. ...
Veii - or Veius
- was in ancient times, an important Etrurian
city 18 km NNW of Rome, Italy. ...
Aricia was,
according to Greek mythology, niece of Aegeus.
...
The rex Nemorensis, (Latin: the king of Nemi or
the king of the grove) was a sort of sacred king
who served as priest of the goddess Diana at
Aricia in Italy, by the shores of lake Nemi. ...
Lectisternium (from Lat.
Though some Roman patrons ordered marble
replicas of the specifically Anatolian "Diana"
of Ephesus, where the
Temple of Artemis stood, Diana was usually
depicted for educated Romans in her Greek guise.
If she is accompanied by a deer, as in the
Diana of Versailles (illustration,
above right) this is because Diana was the
patroness of hunting. The deer may also offer a
covert reference to the myth of
Acteon (or Actaeon), who saw her bathing
naked. Diana transformed Acteon into a stag and
set his own hunting dogs to kill him.
Diane huntress,
Louvre Jean-Antoine Houdon July 15, 1828) was a French neoclassical
sculptor. ...
The site of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in
Turkey. ...
The Diana of
Versailles in the Louvre Galerie des Caryatides
that was designed for it The Diana of Versailles
is a slightly over lifesize[1] marble statue of
the Greek goddess Artemis (latin: Diana), with a
deer, located in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
...
Actaeon, sculpture group in the cascade at
Caserta In Greek mythology, Actaeon (or
Aktaion), son of Aristaeus and Autonoe in
Boeotia, was a famous Theban hero, trained by
the centaur Cheiron, who suffered the fatal
wrath of Artemis (or her Roman counterpart
Diana). ...
Greek mythology
In
Greek mythology, the deer is particularly associated with
Artemis in her role as virginal huntress.
Actaeon, after witnessing the nude figure of Artemis bathing
in a pool, was transformed by Artemis into a stag that his own
hounds tore to pieces.
Callimachus, in his archly knowledgeable "Hymn III to
Artemis", mentions the deer that drew the chariot of Artemis:
- in golden armor and belt, you yoked a golden chariot,
bridled deer in gold.
One of the Labors of
Heracles was to capture the
Cerynian Hind sacred to Artemis and deliver it briefly to his
patron, then rededicate it to Artemis. His son
Telephos was exposed as an infant on the slopes of Tegea but
nurtured by a doe.
In Greek mythology, the Ceryneian hind
was a deer sacred to
Artemis,
the virgin goddess of the hunt. The hind served Artemis,
pulling her chariot and performing other tasks for her. Most
notably, the Ceryneian hind was briefly kidnapped by
Hercules as part of his 12 labors. Several Greek vases and
sculptures depict the Ceryneian hind, often with her
mistress Artemis, or Diana as she was called by the Romans.
The hind's most distinct feature was a
set of golden horns, a rather unusual feature on a female
deer, as horns are usually only present on stags. The animal
was also said to have metal hooves, made from either
bronze
or brass.
On these hooves, the Ceryneian hind could travel faster than
an arrow could fly. This trait made the creature a useful
servant for Artemis, since she could travel at high speeds.
The speed of the hind proved to be a problem for Hercules
when he attempted to capture her, however.
The decision to order Hercules to go
after the Ceryneian hind was rather clever. The 12 labors of
Hercules were imposed by Eurystheus as part of a punishment,
and because Eurystheus was a rival of Hercules, they were
extremely difficult, with the goal of getting Hercules
injured or killed. The first two tasks involved slaughtering
vicious monsters, allowing Hercules to prove himself as a
hero who could match even the most terrible of foes.
Eurystheus hoped that by asking Hercules to go after the
hind, he could invoke the wrath of Artemis, who would kill
or at least severely punish Hercules in retribution for the
theft.
According to myth, Hercules chased the
Ceryneian hind for a year, before the hind finally tired,
allowing the hero to capture it. In some stories, Hercules
shot the hind in the leg to slow it down. As Hercules
carried the hind back to Eurystheus, he encountered Artemis
and Apollo, and explained the situation to the gods. Artemis
ended up forgiving Hercules for the theft, on the condition
that the hind be returned.
In Greek mythology, all deer are sacred
to Artemis because of their connection with the Ceryneian
hind. Artemis also protected
cypress trees, which may explain why so many ancient
specimens exist in Greece. The concept of a female hunting
god accompanied by an animal such as a deer is actually
quite old, and it certainly pre-dates Greek culture,
although the Ceryneian hind appears to be a unique twist on
the traditional animal companion for the goddess of the
hunt.
Hinduism
In
Hindu
mythology, the goddess
Saraswati takes the form of a red deer called Rohit according
to the
Aitareya Upanishad. Saraswati is the goddess of learning so
learned men use deer skin as clothing and mats to sit upon. A
golden deer plays an important role in the epic
Ramayana. While in exile in the forest,
Rama's
wife Sita
sees a golden deer and asks Rama and
Lakshmana to get it for her. The deer is actually a
rakshasa called
Maricha in disguise. Maricha takes this form to lure Rama and
Lakshmana away from Sita so his brother
Ravana can kidnap her.
In this ancient tradition the constellation,
Orion, is the god Prajapati, one of the creator gods. In an
interesting parallel with one of the Greek myths about Orion,
Prajapati has a relationship with the dawn or in some versions the
sky. There is a twist however. She is his daughter. The
relationship is incestuous.Dawn took the form of a doe,
so Prajapati took the form of a stag to seduce her. The other gods
did not approve of this incestuous relationship. They assembled a
malevolent deity, Rudra, and told him to shoot the incestuous stag
with an arrow. The deer or the deer's head is the modern
constellation, Capricorn. Sirius, the brightest star in the sky
and now thought of as one of Orion's hunting dogs, was the deer
piercer who shot the arrow.
Hittite culture
The stag was revered alongside the
bull at
Alaca Höyük and continued in the
Hittite mythology as the protective deity whose name is
recorded as dKAL. Other Hittite gods were often
depicted standing on the backs of stags.
The Hittites knew and highly esteemed which god
Runda, in a science usually call "God-on-the stag", or it is simple
"deer god" like Cernunnos. Runda is known from many texts and images.
The deer images are found in the tombs belonging to the Hittites and
dated 2 thousand B.D. But especially cult of the God-on-the stag has
increased in the epoch which has followed after falling Hittite empire
and formations of fine Hittite princedoms in Northern Syria (the
beginning 1 thousand B.D.). Its title was "Patronizing spirit". It was
esteemed as the guarding god of a wood and hunting, "... In one of
texts it is described as "the Child of fields". Its sacred animal the
deer was, and it is represented worth on a deer with a hare and a
falcon in a hand " (Herny, 1987, 123). We can see images Runda on a
number rocky relieves. A relief from Karasu (ill. 21.á), being a part
of a water temple shows the man's figure armed with a bow, holding a
staff and worth on a deer. The deer has huge branch horns. Above a
head of the man a winged disk. It agrees to data Hellenkemper and
Wagner, the footwear with the socks bent up in late Hittite period is
found almost exclusively in connection with images of gods. Human
beings, on contrast, were represented with naked legs (Hellenkemper
H., Wagner J, 1977, 167 - 173). However, Hellenkemper and Wagner mark,
that presence winged solar disk can assume the image of king in a
manner of the god, and that the god on a relief is interpreted not
only as the guarding god of a wood and hunting, but also as the
guarding god of this late Hittite settlement on the river Karasu (in
the same place). We shall recollect, that Celtic Lugh also was
considered as the patron of cities. The type of the image of the deity
worth on a back of an animal reminds symbolics Hurrities religion, but
idea of deer god belongs to the Indo-Europeans. Ardzinba supposes
existence a special holiday of a deer for the cult purposes in Hittite
culture. (Ardzinba, 1982, 16).
Other monuments supplement Runda's iconography.
There is on Hittite jug (ill. 22.) the god is shown in the typical
position, but before it stands the person pouring from a vessel
something (a wine, water?). It reminds Hittite ceremony of sacrifice
before deers. "King goes from a chariot, he sits on a place
circulations. (Around of him) the dancer is turned once, and (then)
(he) (the dancer?) passes before deers. Other man holds a gold vessel
and makes sacrifice (before) deers " (Ardzinba, 1982, 16). One more
relief shows the god - this time the pedestrian, in an environment of
animals. One hand he holds a lion for a back leg, other hand - the
bull for its horn. There is a deer also. All composition very much
reminds image Cernunnos from the boiler from Gundestrup and even more
stone relief from medieval Irish church.
The deer god was esteemed in Asia Minor and after
final disappearance of the Hittites. In Hellenistic period the most
important gods of Cilicia were Tarhunt (Hittite God of Thunder,
identified with Zeus) and Runda. A cult of the last, according to
Houwink, merged with cult Hermes (see Houwink, 1961, 213), that is
very important circumstance to which in the given research it is
necessary to return still.
It is interesting, that Runda, so well-known in
Hittite rituals and monuments of the fine arts, practically does not
meet in mythological plots. On the other hand, at there is a god of
fertility Telephinu in Hittite mythology, the hero of popular myths,
whose images we do not know (but it is known, that his sacrificial
animal was the goat). The basic plot is connected to Telephinu's
anger. He leaves a society of gods. "With leaving Telephinu from a
house the centers, sacrificial tables are shrouded with a smoke (a
cloud of a beer plenty), the domestic cattle ceases to bring
posterity, the drought begins, in fields cereals (Telephinu carries
away with itself the goddess of a grain and fields) do not grow. Gods
gather on a feast, but can not satisfy famine. <...> On searches the
god of a thunder-storm is sent, he breaks the handle of his hammer but
can not open a gate of city - residence of Telephinu. Then goddess -
mother sends a bee (contrary to the god of a thunder-storm asserting,
that it is too small) on searches. <...> The bee bites Telephinu, he
wakes up angrier and attracts destruction and destruction on people,
cattle and all country. However goddess Kamrusepa, having made a
ceremony of a spell, softens anger Telephinu and he comes back,
bringing with itself fertility" (Myths of nations of the world, 1998.
Ò.2, 498). There is Telephinu as a disappearing and coming back deity
of fertility. We shall recollect the bull killed by a lion, but
reviving. Important also the indirect certificate of the conflict
between Hittite Storm god (this is his name) and Telephinu (or
Telephinus). In the other myth it is told about kidnapping by Aruna
(Great Ocean) deity of the sun and as Telephinu has released it.
Telephinu in this plot behaves similarly to Holan's cultural hero,
whose embodiment the deer is. Whether it is impossible, in view of all
considered circumstances to assume, what Telephinu in mythological
texts and Runda on Hittite monuments there is same image?
Huichol paganism
For the Huichol people of Mexico,[4]
the "magical deer" represents both the power of maize to sustain
the body and of the peyote cactus to feed and enlighten the
spirit. Animals such as the eagle, jaguar, serpent and deer are of
great importance to the Mexican indigenous cultures. For each
group, however, one of these animals is of special significance
and confers some of its qualities to the tribe.
For the Huichol it is the deer that holds this intimate
role. The character of the Huichol tends to be light, flexible and
humorous. They have avoided open warfare, neither fighting against
the Spanish nor Mexican governments, but holding to their own
traditions. The Huichol hunt and sacrifice deer in their
ceremonies. They make offerings to the Deer of the Maize to care
for their crops, and to the Deer of the Peyote to bring them
spiritual guidance and artistic inspiration
The spirit
Furfur in The
Goetia is depicted as a
hart
or winged hart.
In Huichol mythology they evolved from wolves. By learning the
ways of the gods, hunting the deer and offering the blood of the deer
to the deities they were finally able to remain in human form. Shamans
proclaim the ability to metamorphose into wolves.
Deer or Mahjrah in Huichol
symbolize Kayumahli, the spirit guide. Kayumahli is the guide, teacher
and channel of knowledge for the Shamans. The deer hunt, capture and
slaying is a very ritualized ceremony. Only the "pure" may
participate. For the insurance of a good crop the deer blood is
offered to the Deer Mother. Tah Tay Mahjrahlee. As a guardian spirit
she is one of the animals of primary importance in the shamanism of
the Huichol. The unity of men and women on their spiritual journeys is
symbolized by the male and female deer depicted together
Scythian culture
The
Scythians had some reverence for the stag, which is one of the
most common motifs in their artwork, especially at funeral sites.
The swift animal was believed to speed the spirits of the dead on
their way, which perhaps explains the curious antlered headdresses
found on horses buried at
Pazyryk (illustrated above)
Occurrence in art of Scythians of the first
anthropomorphic images (under influence of Middle East civilisations).
These are ornaments on sword sheath from Melgunovsky barrow - winged
geniuses about trees (typically Mesopotamian plot) and Kelermes silver
rithon. The centaur bearing on his shoulder a tree with adhered to it
a deer is pictured there. This motive is present at folklore modern
Ossets where ability to bear on his shoulder the biggest tree with
body of deer acts as a parameter of physical power of the hero. A
similar plot in Etruscan art as an ornament of a vase. There are
beside the centaur the hero struggling with a lion (Heracles?) on
Kelermes rithon. The person with arrow, probably attacking with rear
of two- or free-headed dog (Cerberus?) also is shown on Etruscan vase.
Cerberus in its turn whether submits a paw to the centaur, whether
attacks him. Another the same centaur behind is tormented with a lion.
Both Kelermess and Etruscan centaurs are similar even in details.
Shinto
Deer are considered messengers to the gods in
Shinto, especially
Kasuga Shrine in
Nara Prefecture where a white deer had arrived from
Kashima Shrine as its divine messenger. It has become a symbol
of the city of
Nara.
The temporal setting for Mononoke–the Muromachi era
(1392-1573). Historians describe it as a time of great upheaval
when the relationship between humanity and nature was radically
changing in Japan. "Hand-cannons" or firearms had been imported
by the Portuguese in 1543 and the Iron Age was dawning. However,
Miyazaki is not attempting historical realism in his depiction
of the era; rather, he appears to illustrate a power shift in
the growing conflict between the natural world and newly
industrialised humans. And so, it was the time when humans
declared war on the kamigami, the wild gods. Miyazaki
comments:
I think that the Japanese did kill shishigami [Deer
God] around the time of the Muromachi era. And then we stopped
being in awe of forests … From ancient times up to a certain
time in the medieval period, there was a boundary beyond which
humans should not enter. Within this boundary was our
territory, so we ruled it as the human’s world with our rules,
but beyond this road, we couldn’t do anything even if a crime
had been committed since it was no longer the human’s world …
After shishigami’s head was returned, nature
regenerated. But it has become a tame, non-frightening forest
of the kind we are accustomed to seeing. The Japanese have
been remaking the Japanese landscape in this way
Slavic / Slovenian
In
Slavic mythology and
folklore, Golden-horned deer is a large deer with golden
antlers which often appear in
fairytales. The legend of Saint
Hubertus (or "Hubert") concerned an apparition of a stag with
the
crucifix between its horns, effecting the worldly and
aristocratic Hubert's conversion to a saintly life.
In the story of Saint
Hubertus, on Good Friday morning, when the faithful were
crowding the churches, Hubertus sallied forth to the chase. As he
was pursuing a magnificent stag the animal turned and, as the
pious legend narrates, he was astounded at perceiving a crucifix
standing between its antlers, which occasioned the change of heart
that led him to a saintly life. The story of the hart appears
first in one of the later legendary hagiographies (Bibliotheca
hagiographica Latina, nos. 3994-4002) and has been
appropriated from the earlier legend of
Saint Eustace or Placidus.
The
holy animal with horns, or better said, the animal with golden horns,
represented light. It is God's messenger and it is hunted by the Wild
Hunter (the powers of darkness).
The
image of a similar holy animal entered also the mythology of the
classic era. Greek authors mentioned it already in their tales,
meaning Pindar and Euripides in the 5th century BC and later, in the
2nd century BC, it was mentioned again by Apollodorus as well.
Moreover, Callimachos reports to us in the 3rd century BC, that
Artemis' coach was drawn by four hinds with golden horns.
Among
the Latin authors, Valerius Flaccus, in the 1st century BC, and
Quintus Smirneus, in the 4th century AD, report a deer with golden
horns. Anyway, in Pliny's stories appears the real deer, i.e., without
golden horns, that later entered the medieval legends, especially
those of St. Eustachius and St. Hubertus. These legends narrate the
story of a hunter that follows a deer. At the moment, when the hunter
sees the deer, it turns around and carries the host between its horns,
converting him into a holy man.
In
popular tales all over Europe we find many animals with golden horns,
belonging to the same Indo-European origin. A similar animal could be
also a chamois goat (Tyrol, Albania, Bulgaria), or a ram (Macedonia,
Romania, Bohemia), an ox (Finland, Estonia), or a golden goat (Walloon
Belgium, Provence), and so on.
To the most beautiful tale of this nature that emerged, belongs to
"Goldenhorn" (Zlatorog),
which originated in the Slovenian Julian Alps. It was registered and
published in German by Karl Deschmann
(Ljubljana 1868). Its contents could be summarized as follows:
|
|
Once upon a time there was an Alpine paradise in the
northeastern part of the Julian Alps beneath the peak of Triglav.
The place was inhabited by the so-called White Ladies, who were
the benefactresses of the people in the valley, but they made sure
that no strangers entered their mountain territory. White goats
pastured on the mountain ridge that rose vertically above the
valley of the Isonzo river . |
|
|
In case that a stranger should try to approach them, they
made rocks fall down, so that the intruders would fall into the
precipice. |
|
|
The white goats were lead by a white steinbock with golden
horns named Zlatorog, whom the White Ladies made invulnerable to
every lesion. When a hunter fired at him and caused to spoil a
drop of his blood, a plant with mysterious balm, called the
Triglav rose, sprang up and a leaf of this plant healed Zlatorog
immediately. Moreover, his golden horns had a divine magic all of
their own in sense of forgiveness and redemption. If someone
succeeded in plundering one of the steinbock's golden horns,
instead to punish him, he would obtain the keys to the gold and
silver chamber, watched by a three-headed serpent on Mountain
Bogatin. |
|
|
In the suburbs of Bovec, on the junction of the rivers
Isonzo and Koritnica, there used to be an inn in those days, which
was frequently visited by merchants, travelling on horseback. The
innkeeper's daughter was the prettiest girl in the whole valley.
Many suitors wanted to marry her, but she gave her love to a young
man from the Trenta Valley. He was considered to be the best
hunter as far as the eye could reach, and therefore, he was called
the Trenta Hunter. |
|
|
It was a sunny Sunday when the young girl danced with an
Italian merchant. The Trenta Hunter asked her to dance with him,
but the girl replied that the Italians were much more refined
gentlemen than her lover. For he, even though he knew all the
treasures of the mountain, he never brought her a single Triglav
rose. |
|
|
The young man, deeply offended, left the inn. On his way he
met the Green Hunter, who told him about the treasures guarded on
Bogatin mountain. The same night, they both climbed the mountain
and the next morning they met Zlatorog. The Trenta Hunter fired at
him, but the buck, healed by the Triglav rose, charged them,
making the Trenta hunter fall into the precipice.
|
|
|
The next summer, when the shepherds returned to the Alps,
instead of an Alpine paradise, they found desolated rocky grounds.
The White Ladies had left the mountain world and Zlatorog had
ruined all the beautiful meadows in his anger. The marks of his
horns can still be seen on the rocky ground today. |
The Zlatorog tale is filled with mythological components of Wild
Hunting, that had its source in the Indo-European antiquity. Here, the
role of the Wild Hunter, i.e., the tresspasser, belongs to the man
(the Trenta Hunter), meanwhile, his tempter the Green Hunter, the
representative of the darkness, is identified with the evil in the
Central European, as well as in the Slovenian tradition.
Furthermore, it seems that the motifs of the Alpine steinbock
(Capra ibex ibex) and the Wonder Flower entered the Situla-arts in the
Eastern Alps and Northern Italy during the 6th and 5th century BC. The
ornaments on the various utensils portray animals, some of them with
horns, marching in a row. Several of these animals eat flowers.
Moreover, the Greek author Aristotle, in the 4th century BC, gives
detailed information about the Greek steinbock (Capra aegagrus), i.e.,
when he is hit by a bullet he eats the wonder flower and is
immediately cured in the same way as the Alpine steinbock.
After
Aristotle, many Greek and Latin authors cited the Dictamnon, namely
the wonder flower:
Theophrastus, Philostratus, Cicero, Virgil, Plutarch, Dioscurides, and
so on. The antique writers, who inherited the symbol from Aristotle,
had no knowledge of this plant. The prevailing opinion today is that
it was identified with Origanum Dictamnus from Crete. But this flower
was rare already in those times, and therefore a similar plant, named
Dictamnus Albus, was used for its healing powers.
The saga about "Goldenhorn"
(Zlatorog) survived through the Middle Ages, and although it cannot be
adapted to any Christian legend, it neither was in opposition to any.
Moreover, in the 19th century AD, "Goldenhorn" arose to a mythological
symbol.
It was the German poet Rudolph Baumbach, a native of Thuringia, who
stayed in Trieste and visited the Julian Alps at the time when the
saga was published. Deeply impressed by the story he wrote the famous
poem entitled Zlatorog
(Leipzig 1877). The poem about "Goldenhorn" and the presumptuous
hunter, who had the audacity to profane the mountain world, impressed
also numerous cultural circles.
So, the Zlatorog tale conquered the public of Central Europe. The
story has been translated from German
into Czech, Slovenian, Polish, Lusatian,
Italian and Serbian.
Four German and one Slovenian composers set it into an opera. "Goldenhorn"
(Zlatorog) became a symbol of the spotless mountain world of Middle
Europe and an admonitory against its devastation.Manufactured mythology
Quintus Sertorius, while a general in
Lusitania, had a tame white stag which he had raised nearly
from birth. Playing on the superstitions of the local tribes, he
told them that it had been given to him by the goddess
Diana; by attributing all his intelligence reports to the
animal, he convinced the locals that it had the gift of prophecy.
(See
Plutarch's life of Sertorius and
Pliny the Elder's chapter on stags (N.H., VIII.50)
The naming of the ship, the "Golden
Hind", of Sir
Francis Drake is sometimes given a mythological origin, though
Drake actually renamed his flagship, in mid-voyage, 1577, as a
gesture to flatter his patron Sir
Christopher Hatton, whose armorial bearings included the crest
"a hind
Or." In heraldry, a "hind" is a
doe.
References
- ^ J.
G. McKay, "The Deer-Cult and the Deer-Goddess Cult of the
Ancient Caledonians"Folklore 43.2 (June 1932), pp.
144-174; McKay (p. 149) points out that the usual term for a
giantess, ban-fhuamhair, a cannibal ogress, is never
applied to the "Old
Woman"
- ^ J.F.
Campbell of Isalay, Popular Tales of the West Highlands,
ii, no. 27, noted by McKay 1932:150.
- ^ "The
Chase of Ben Gulbin" (McKay1932:151).
- ^
Barbara G. Myerhoff, "The Deer-Maize-Peyote Symbol Complex
among the Huichol Indians of Mexico" Anthropological
Quarterly 43.2 (April 1970), pp. 64-78.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_in_mythology"
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