Framework:
interpretation of
Section 3B - woes, angel, vantage points
Overview
The interpretation in this section focuses on the relationship between the last trumpets, woes, beasts and bowls (3B.a), the mighty angel (3B.b), John’s visionary vantage points (3B.c) and why the story–line steps back in relative time at 14:20/ 15:1 (3B.d).
Revelation is a piece of apocalyptic (i.e. revealing hidden mysteries), prophetic literature and its setting is John’s interpretation of the surrounding cosmos, but Revelation’s defining structural feature is the presence of two earthly dimensions (physical-spiritual and biblical) because it would create a temporal paradox if earthly events in chapters 12 to 14 interrupted/ intermingled with earthly events before 11:19 (see Figure 3). Both earths are earth-like spaces but some of the characters and events are more tangible than others. Characters associated with the physical-spiritual earth (like strange riders on horse-like mounts, the Jerusalem Temple and the two witnesses) may have some sort of physical presence, as well as a spiritual presence (like the smoke, 9:2-3, the angel of the abyss, 9:11, and the trumpets, 8:7-11:15 or bowls themselves, 16:2-21). Earth (biblical) characters may have a material presence (like the celestial mother perhaps representing Israel in Framework 1) but they are immaterial concepts, like the dragon/ satan and the beasts in this section that are ‘behind’ or influencing earthly activities and wars. Revelation is an apocalyptic prophecy and all its characters and events are symbolic so even the most tangible descriptions must be understood with this in mind. Neither the text nor the proposed model indicates how or when these symbolic events may be recognisable on the material, non-visionary world.
The structure in this section is a single, linear story told from multiple perspectives. There are four parallel time-lines that describe what happens in each cosmic space: the seven plague angels are seen as a sign in heaven (heaven’s environs); the victorious martyrs rejoice, the sanctuary opens and the plague angels are given the seven bowls full of the wrath of God (heaven’s throne room); satan’s two beasts appear and everybody is ‘marked’ (biblical earth); three woes are announced, the seventh trumpet sounds and the plague angels’ bowls are emptied (physical-spiritual earth). Below-the-earth is the (probable) source for the beasts but there is no below-the-earth time-line because the opening of the abyss and the earth are boundary events with earth (physical-spiritual and biblical).
Framework 3B considers the mighty angel with the little scroll and John’s vantage points during his journey but the beasts and the continuing eschaton, i.e. the ‘last days’, are discussed in 3C and 3D, respectively. Further background information is given in Framework 1.
3B) Section interpretation
At this point in the vision, the waiting period described in Framework 2 is now over and a voice from heaven (from the throne or from the temple) controls what happens during John’s journey (9:13, 10:4-11:13, 12:5, 14:13, 16:1-17, 18:4, 19:5, 20:11, 21:3-8). The four angels who bound the four winds at the four corners of the earth (7:1) are released at the Euphrates (9:14), assuming 7:1 and 9:14 refer to the same four angels. Earth is ravaged by three woes (from 8:13) and from now onwards there will be no more delay (10:6). From when the beasts are released, the number of time-parallels in the proposed macrostructure increases and every event has a counterpart in at least one other cosmic space. This implies activity in all spaces increases when the beasts appear from the abyss (perhaps the sea, time-parallel 2) and land (time-parallel 3) on the biblical earth. The ‘marking’ of the beasts’ followers begins on the biblical earth from time-parallel 4.
The plea to repent, which was part of five of the seven messages to the churches in Framework 1, is now repeated more widely and the need has become more urgent. When the trumpets sound, torments are hurled to/ impact earth (from 8:7, Framework 2) and the need to repent is a feature of the second woe (sixth trumpet). These torments are followed by the emptying of the bowls contain the seven ‘last’ plagues and the wrath of God, and the need to repent is a feature of the fourth and fifth bowls (16:8-11).
The mighty angel with the little scroll is discussed here because this angel defines John’s visionary location at the time (so Paul, 2018: 187). The text indicates John is probably on vantage points for the rest of his visionary journey, so the narrative path may sometimes follow the path of his eyes, rather than always reflecting his movement between the cosmic spaces. The beasts and the continuing eschaton are discussed later (Framework 3C and 3D).
3B.a) The last trumpets, woes, beasts and bowls
This section describes events in the middle of the eschaton (see Framework 3D) because trumpets have been sounding since the silence of the seventh seal ended (8:1) and the censer was thrown to earth (8:5, Framework 2). The last three trumpets herald three ‘woes’, which are intense periods of affliction. When the fifth trumpet sounds, the first woe begins and the abyss is opened, releasing an army of horse-like locusts (9:1-12); the abyss beast is now able to rise (13:1). When the sixth trumpet sounds, the second woe begins. The four angels are released at the Euphrates and an army of 200 million horse-like plague carriers appear (9:13-21); the earth beast is now able to rise (13:11). The bowls are the anticipated third woe of the seventh trumpet (11:14-15), as illustrated in Figure 3. From the fifth trumpet onwards, activity increases in every cosmic space and every event on the physical-spiritual earth has a biblical or heavenly counterpart (time-parallels 2 to 8a in Figure 3).
The Church’s role is to bear witness to the Gospel and John’s role as a prophet is to convict people of their sin and to encourage repentance before the great Day God’s Wrath (Jauhiainen, 2003a: 552) – which people thought of was underway when the sixth seal opened (6:12-17). The Day will be considered in more detail in Framework 5. Trumpet blasts are traditionally associated with warnings and, once the warnings begin, time to repent is limited. Refusal to repent is a feature of the second woe (sixth trumpet, 9:20-21) and third woe (fourth and fifth bowl, 16:9-11). The last opportunity to repent before the harvests is during the seventh bowl (18:4, Framework 4). This suggests the trumpet torments warn of coming judgements and the bowl torments actively encourage repentance because time is short – people are still experiencing the pains and sores of the first four bowls when the fifth one is emptying (16:10-11).
The trumpet and bowl torments follow the same physical-spiritual pattern as the seals, but as repetitions and not recapitulations (see the Macrostructure Model and Framework 2A.b). The four seal horsemen bring conquest, war, famine and death for everyone (6:2-8, Framework 1) and the trumpet and bowl torments are variations on this theme.[1] The seals, trumpets and bowls affect the same dimension that John, the Warrior and the congregations/ lamp-stands occupy (1:10-4:1) i.e. the visionary physical-spiritual earth (Framework 1). The spiritual elements are the four seal horsemen, and the trumpets and bowls themselves. The differences between the series in subject, intensity and duration illustrate the cyclical nature of the disasters and they show that John is not describing a single series from multiple perspectives; i.e the literary pattern is linear and not repeated.
Satan’s two beasts appear when the fifth trumpet/ woes begin (Figure 3) and they are described in more detail in Framework 3C and their role in the eschation is part of Framework 3D.
[1] The trumpets impact a third of the earth with scorching, water contamination and darkness. The bowls cause sores on the ‘marked’ people who worship the beast’s image, water contamination and scorching. The fifth events are martyrs rejoicing in heaven (seal), the abyss opening (trumpet, the woes begin) and darkness on the throne of the beast (bowl). The sixth events are associated with earthquakes and cosmic events (seal) and activity at the Euphrates (trumpet and bowl). The seventh events are silence in heaven (seal), the temple open in heaven (trumpet) and Babylon falls when the seventh bowl empties.
3B.b) The mighty angel and the little scroll
The mighty angel with the little scroll is particularly important in this spatio-temporal analysis because he defines John’s location in the vision during the sounding of the trumpets. This angel is ‘another’ mighty angel, who John sees ‘coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, (… with) his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land’ during the time of the sixth trumpet (10:1-2). There are ‘myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands’ angels (5:11), some of whom more powerful than others, but this is the only angel that John describes in detail.[1] There are other ‘mighty angels’: John saw one ‘proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?’ before the slain Lamb takes the scroll (5:2, Framework 1) and another is associated with the fall of Babylon (18:21; Framework 4). It is possible that the angel sent to give John the revelation from Jesus Christ (1:1, 22:16) is one of these mighty angels.
The ‘little scroll’ mighty angel has great authority and his orders come directly from ‘the voice (…) heard from heaven’ (10:8), the implication being that the voice is from the throne. This angel’s appearance reflects the appearance of the three occupants of the heavenly throne (4:3): he looks like the One-like-a-son-of-man (1:13-16, 2:18, 14:14); he has an ordinary rainbow over his head and this study proposes that the emerald rainbow encircling the throne is the Spirit (see Framework 1B.b); and the angel is the messenger for the one seated on the throne. The stance of the angel is important (standing on the sea and on the land is mentioned three times, 10:2, 10:5, 10:8) and when satan/ dragon stands by the seashore it is this angel that satan copies (12:18), perhaps mimicking the angel’s authority and world-wide domination. There are angelic princes like Michael (12:7-9) and his evil counterpart, the abyss angel called Destruction or Destroyer (9:11) who may be even more powerful than the mighty angels (or they have different roles) – but this is not a study about angelic hierarchies.
This mighty angel stands astride the coastline (the Mediterranean seashore is implied) and when he roars like a lion, the voices of the seven thunders respond. John was about to write down their messages but he is told to do so – but ‘there will be no more delay’ when the seventh trumpet sounds and the ‘mystery of God will be fulfilled’ (10:6-7). John is told by a voice from heaven to take the little scroll from the angel’s hand to eat it; it tastes sweet in the beginning and then John’s stomach turns sour (10:8-10). John is told to prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings (10:11) and Richard Bauckham suggests there will be no more torments as warnings (the thunders), instead the contents of the little scroll are the basis for John’s prophetic message – because there will be no more delay (Bauckham 1993b: 260-261). This suggestion is endorsed by Stephen Smalley, as being the ‘clearest’ and ‘most convincing’ interpretation (Smalley, 2005: 262-263). The context suggests the prophetic message is sweet because the mystery of God will soon be fulfilled, but bitter because the wrath of God (the bowls) is about to be unleashed.
This study concentrates on the spatial and temporal elements and the measurement of the temple and the two witnesses are tangible events, which confirm their physical-spiritual presence. Bauckham comments on the significance of the two witnesses’ recognisably human description: ‘Just as it would be a mistake to take the story literally, so it would be a mistake to take it in too strictly allegorical a way’ i.e. as representing the history of the Church or the law and the prophets, rather than taking two prophets (perhaps Elijah and Moses) as models for the Church’s prophetic witness to the nations.[2] John is given a reed to measure the temple (excluding its outer court) (10:11-11:2), he witnesses the murder, resurrection and ascension of the two witnesses (11:3-12) and he sees the destruction of ten percent of the ‘great city’ by earthquake and its 7000 fatalities (11:13). The Great City ‘is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord (Jesus) was crucified’ (11:8) i.e. Jerusalem. Tom Wright qualifies this interpretation by describing the Great City as ‘Rome itself, or maybe in this case the public world of the entire Roman Empire, which would include Jerusalem’ (Wright, 2012: 67). Rome is traditionally equated to Babylon in Revelation (see Framework 3C.c) but the Great City in 11:8 is interpreted as Jerusalem here. This is where Jesus was crucified and it is close to where the Lamb will appear, on Mt Zion (14:1-5; see Framework 4). Babylon is the ‘great city’ when she collapses (16:17-21) and she is the city/ harlot (17:1-18:24), so the term ‘great city’ may be a generic in Revelation (so Wright, 2012: 67).
The ‘little scroll’ mighty angel most probably leaves John after he is given the rod to measure the Jerusalem temple (11:1) because ‘they said to me’ (10:11) ‘I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy’ (11:3) – indicating that ‘they’ may be the angel and the voice heard from heaven earlier (10:4, 10:8), i.e. it is Christ who has been speaking directly to John.
John’s interactions with the ‘little scroll’ mighty angel indicate that he (John) is near/ in Jerusalem during the second woe and when the seventh trumpet sounds (11:14-15). There has been a delay in the fulfilment of the mystery of God, but now the wait is over (10:6-7) and the third woe is coming very soon (11:14). When the seventh trumpet sounds, John sees heaven rejoice (11:15-18). John measured the earthly temple, and now he sees the opening of its heavenly counterpart (the sanctuary) and the accompanying earthquake and storm (11:19). When John sees the open sanctuary for the second time (15:5), seven angels with the ‘last plagues’ appear carrying bowls full of the wrath of God; this suggests the bowl plagues are the third woe (from 16:2). John sees the temple fill with smoke from the glory and power of God (15:6-8) and these angels are directed by a ‘loud voice from the temple’ (16:1).
[1] 10:1-2: ‘And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. He held a little scroll open in his hand. Setting his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land,’.
[2] The two lamp-stands are like a parable of the whole (seven lamp-stands) Church’s prophetic witness, (Bauckham, 1993b: 273-276). Court suggests the two witnesses represent Paul and Peter (Court, 1994: 40), but this is unlikely because the witnesses are 2 of the 7 lamp-stands/ churches (1:20, 11:4).
3B.c) John's visionary vantage points (part 1)
In this spatio-temporal analysis, it is useful to know the space and relative timing of events from the perspective of the narrator (John). When the vision began, John was on the island of Patmos, sometime at the end of the first century A.D.[1] He was ‘in the spirit on the Lord’s day’ (1:10) when he heard a ‘loud voice like a trumpet’ and he turned around to see one like a son of man: a warrior (1:10-20). John was now standing on a visionary version of Patmos that was also spiritual because John was in the presence of the ‘first and the last and the living one’ (Christ), i.e. the visionary space was a physical-spiritual version of earth. Visionary Patmos is John’s first vantage point in Revelation’s story.
At 4:2, John is taken in the spirit to heaven’s throne-room, but at what point does he leave the throne-room? John is certainly on a vantage point on earth by 10:1 (so Paul, 2018: 187). John may have left heaven when the first seal or last seal opened (6:1-8:1), or he could be waiting in the throne-room for half an hour during the silence of the seventh seal (8:1) and during the distribution of the trumpets and the censer preparation and emptying (8:2-6). Exactly when John returns to earth is ambiguous: John looked, and behold four horsemen of the seals appear on earth (6:2-8) and he saw ‘another angel (with the seal) ascending from the rising of the sun’ (i.e. rising in the East, 7:2). John continues to see and hear events in the throne-room while he sees events on earth, for example he sees souls of the martyrs under the heavenly altar (fifth seal, 6:9-11) and the Great Earthquake (sixth seal, 6:12-17) (see Framework 2). The consequences of the opening seals and sounding trumpet are felt on earth and John is either in heaven, seeing earthly events from a distance, or on earth seeing heavenly events from a distance. This suggests that the boundaries between all the cosmic spaces, except with below-the-earth (see 3C.a), are transparent in Revelation. The proposed macrostructure illustrates the story-line in Revelation and sometimes this reflects John’s re-locations during his vision and sometimes the story-line reflects the path of his eyes.
By 10:1, John is on earth when he sees the ‘mighty angel’ holding a little scroll ‘coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, (… with) his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land’ (10:1-2) during the time of the sixth trumpet – the Mediterranean seashore is implied. John hears the seven thunders, he takes and eats the little scroll, prophesies again, measures the temple. He is told about and then sees the two witnesses and the partial destruction of the Great City, by earthquake, and its 7000 fatalities (10:3-11:13). The temple is in Jerusalem and the Great City is where ‘their Lord (Jesus) was crucified’ – so the Great City is Jerusalem in 11:8 (see Framework 3B.b). It is very likely that John settles on a vantage point in or near Jerusalem after he measures the temple (at 11:3).
When John hears the seventh trumpet and sees the open heavenly sanctuary for the first time, there is a tremendous earthquake and storm on earth (11:15-19). He sees two ‘signs’ in heaven (the celestial pregnant woman and the dragon, 12:1-4) and it is proposed in Framework 1A.b and 1B.c that the signs occur in heaven’s environs, i.e. the outer reaches of heaven. The earth described in 12:6 and 12:13-13:18 includes mythic or allegorical characters that are like those recorded in the Hebrew Bible: in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:1-24, see Framework 1) and satan’s two main beasts in 13:1-18 are like Daniel’s beasts (Dan. 7:1-8:27). This earthly space is not the same space within which John is located; it is the biblical earth in the proposed macrostructure (see Framework 1A.d). John probably remains on his vantage point in or near Jerusalem on the physical-spiritual earth when he sees all the events in chapters 12-14 unfold. John watches satan’s two beasts arise (from below-the-earth is implied). One beast rises from the abyss/ sea (13:1) in the west, relative to Jerusalem, and the other one rises through the earth, probably in the wilderness to the east of Jerusalem (13:11); this suggests all of humanity and the whole earth is included in the events that follow (see Framework 3C.a).
[1] If the vision occurred in A.D. 95-97, i.e. accepting as truth Irenaeus’ comment that Revelation was written towards the end of Domitian’s reign (Irenaeus, Against Heresies V.30.3) some of the first audiences may have experienced the fear of Nero’s cruelty and persecution (late A.D. 60’s), fled from the first Jewish-Roman war (A.D. 66-70), known the temple and Jerusalem had been destroyed (A.D. 70) and they were recovering from oppression under Domitian. If an earlier date is correct (A.D. 68-70; Hengel, 1989: 126-127), Nero’s persecutions would be a recent memory and Jerusalem was still standing, but under threat.
3B.d) Why does the story–line steps back in relative time at 14:20/ 15:1?
We cannot be sure why the story–line stepped back in relative time at 14:20/ 15:1, but it was clearly necessary for John to see his vision unfold in a way that included this temporal relocation. There is no evidence in the text that John moved from his vantage point in or near Jerusalem during this time period, but the story-line moves. In this section, John sees the impact of the last four trumpets on the physical-spiritual earth (9:1-11:18) and we know that the Parousia (Christ’s appearance, or his ‘coming’ in Revelation) in the eschaton (or ‘last days’ or ‘end times’) will be heralded by a trumpet (presumably the last one, Mt. 24:31); therefore it is imminent. In Revelation, the third woe is ‘coming soon’ (11:14) when the heavenly sanctuary opens (11:19) and this almost certainly corresponds to the emptying of the bowls full of the wrath of God (16:2-21) – so there is an hiatus between 11:19 and 16:2 on the physical-spiritual earth in the proposed macrostructure. The hiatus is the result of the relocation in the story from the physical-spiritual earth to heaven’s environs at 11:19/ 12:1, and John witnesses the Messianic War on the biblical earth (12:1-14:20; see Framework 1B.d). In this section, in this part of the War, John sees the rise of satan’s beasts (13:1-18). When the Lamb appears on Mt Zion in the next section (14:1-5, see Framework 4), the second of three angels who follow him announces that Babylon has fallen (14:8). This means that the emptying of the bowls full of the wrath of God (16:2-21, i.e. the third woe) must be underway, because Babylon falls during the seventh bowl (16:17-21) – but the bowls are not directly part of the War and they do not empty onto the biblical earth. In other words, the bowls are only represented by the announcement of the fall of Babylon in the story of the Messianic War.
The Messianic War tells of the rise of evil, its control over the earth and its defeat by Jesus Christ, the Messiah. It includes Christ’s appearance and its consequence: the harvests (14:1-20). This is the Creation-to-Christ’s-triumph story. The Lamb is not directly involved with Babylon’s fall (see Framework 4B.a), but her fall is very important in the extended Creation-to-New-Order story that John witnesses. This suggests that it is more important for John to see the Messianic War as a single unit than it is for the story-line to remain strictly chronological. Once the grapes have been crushed in the Grape Harvest (14:20), the War ends and the story-line goes back to the point where the bowls begin (15:1).
The step back in relative time at 14:20/ 15:1 enables John to see the ‘sign’ in heaven of the seven angels with the last plagues and the celebration in heaven by those who have been victorious over the beasts (15:1-4). When the heavenly sanctuary opens, the seven plague angels come out (15:5-6). They are given bowls filled with the wrath of God (15:7-8) and they are told to empty the bowls onto earth (16:1). The proposed macrostructure illustrates the over-lap between the appointment of the two witnesses, their murder, resurrection and ascension on the physical-spiritual earth, and the sanctuary open in heaven (11:3-19) and the heavenly sign, rejoicing in the throne-room, preparation of the seven bowls, and John seeing (for the second time) the sanctuary open in heaven (15:1-5; time-parallels 5-7). From 16:2 onwards, John sees the impact of the bowls emptying onto earth. The first five bowls resume the linear physical-spiritual earth time-line that was interrupted after the sanctuary was first seen to be open in heaven’s throne-room (11:19). In the next section, perhaps during the time of the fifth bowl (16:10-11), the Lamb appears on Mt Zion (14:1-5; time-parallel 8).
3B) Summary and conclusion
Construction of this section is described in Framework 3A and this part (3B) focuses upon on the relationship between the last trumpets, woes, beasts and bowls (3B.a), the mighty angel with the little scroll (3B.b), and John’s first visionary vantage points because they define John’s visionary location during the sounding of the trumpets (3B.c), and why the story–line may have stepped back in relative time at 14:20/ 15:1 (3B.d). Satan’s beasts and the continuing eschaton are discussed in 3C and 3D, respectively.
This section represents the middle of the eschaton (‘last days’ or ‘end times’), which this study proposes began with the emptying of the censer after the long heavenly silence (8:1-6; Framework 2). Following the censer, seven trumpet blasts warn of Christ’s forthcoming Parousia (appearance, or ‘coming’ in Revelation) and imminent judgement. The first four trumpet torments are quite generic (sores, contaminated water, cosmic disturbances and scorched earth) and they follow a similar physical-spiritual pattern as the seals, but as repetitions and not recapitulations. They are linear series of torments – separated by at least 2000 years from the seals in the interpretation in this study – but timescales for the censer and early trumpets are unknown.
Traumatic events become more frequent and intense after satan’s two main beasts appear, perhaps because the abyss beast only has authority to attack God’s people for ‘forty-two months’ (13:5-7). This is from the time of the fifth trumpet in the proposed macrostructure. There is time to repent, even after the sixth trumpet has sounded (9:20-21) but ‘there will be no more delay’ after the seventh trumpet sounds (10:6-7).
John sees the visionary events unfold throughout the cosmos from several vantage points. At first, John is on the visionary Patmos (1:9-4:1) and when he returns from heaven’s throne-room, it is probably to Patmos at 6:2. In this section, John moves to the (Mediterranean) coast when he is told to ‘go, take the scroll’ from the hand of the ‘mighty angel’ (10:8). John is told to measure the temple in Jerusalem (11:1-2) and he may be on a vantage in or near to Jerusalem when he sees the ‘two witnesses’ in Jerusalem (11:3-14) and subsequent events. John’s visionary vantage points are considered again when armies gather and Babylon falls (Framework 4B.b).
The importance of the Messianic War (12:1-14:20) may explain why John sees this (the Creation-to-Christ’s-triumph story) as a single unit within the longer Creation–to New-Order story. To achieve this narrative structure, the story steps back in relative time at 11:19/ 12:1 and at 14:20/ 15:1. The consistency in structure and references to John’s visionary vantage points suggests he experienced a single waking vision in which he remained aware of his surroundings; this is discussed further in Framework 5.
In conclusion, will God’s people recognise when they are in the eschaton? Even scorched earth, contaminated water, cosmic disturbances and evil armies may pass unnoticed because they have been happening throughout history. There have been many evil dictators (like the abyss beast) and accompanying false prophets (like the earth beast). It is possible that the 1,260 days of prophecies, death and resurrection of something like ‘two witnesses’ in Jerusalem, and the collapse of that city (11:3-13), may be key to recognising that the Parousia is imminent. This may be the first time when God’s people in that era realise that the trumpets have been sounding for some time. John warns his readers to repent, remain faithful and endure the present and coming torments, because Jesus Christ will come again (1:1-3:22) – but no one knows when this might be. When the words spoken by the seven thunders (10:3-4) are unsealed, more information will become available to those who listen.
Page updated 30 October 2024