Apocalyptic

After the devastation of the first six of the trumpets, the people of the earth do not repent of their idolatry (Revelation 9:20-21). This description of idolatry is consistent with the Old Testament, idols are things crafted by men that cannot do anything (Ps 115:5-7; 1 Cor 10:20). Standing on the foundation of texts like Deuteronomy 32:17, Revelation 9:20 says the worship of idols is the worship of demons. This is certainly the same view of idolatry as other Second Temple Jewish literature:

1 Enoch 99.6–7 “Again I swear to you, you sinners, for sin has been prepared for the day of unceasing blood. 7 (And those) who worship stones, and those who carve images of gold and of silver and of wood and of clay, and those who worship evil spirits and demons, and all kinds of idols not according to knowledge, they shall get no manner of help in them.

Testament of Judah 23.1 “My grief is great, my children, on account of the licentiousness and witchcraft and idolatry that you practice contrary to the kingship, following ventriloquists, omen dispensers, and demons of deceit.

The people of the earth do not repent of any of their offenses: murders, magic arts, sexual immorality, and thefts.” Three of these four are in the ten commandments (murder, adultery, and theft). The fourth, “magical arts” is sometimes translated “sorcery” (φάρμακον). Although this particular offense seems out of place alongside three of the Ten Commandments, the related φάρμακος describes the Egyptian magicians in the Septuagint (Exod 7:11; 9:11). Sorcerers or magicians are among those consigned to the Lake of Fire in Revelation 21:8 and 22:15.

The Old Testament often associated sorcery and idolatry. For example, 2 Kings 9:22, Jehu says there can be no peace in Israel because of the many “the whorings and the sorceries of your mother Jezebel.” Magicians are associated with sexual immorality in some Second Temple literature. For example, in the Testament of Reuben 4.9 Egyptian woman used magicians and potions for him to entrap Joseph sexually.

In the Temple Scroll idolatry and magic are abominations which will result in exile:

11Q19 Col. lx:17-20 Among you there should not be found anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass 18 through fire, anyone who practices divination, astrologers, sorcerers, wizards, anyone who performs incantations, anyone who consults a spirit 19 or oracles or anyone who questions the dead; because all those who do these things are an abomination to me. 20 And owing to these abominations I shall dispossess them before you.

I suggest the immediate context of idolatry and sexual immorality is participation in festivals and banquets honoring Roman gods, perhaps even the imperial cult. The letters to the seven churches often warned believers to repent (2:5 (2x); 2:16; 2:21, 22; 3:3; 3:19). In the case of Thyatira (2:18-28), the use of Jezebel clearly associates idolatry and immorality, as in 2 Kings 9:22, “the whorings and the sorceries of your mother Jezebel.”

That the people of the earth refuse to repent after the sixth trumpet is consistent with the sixth seal. Rather than repent, the people of the earth call on the rocks and mountains to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. Greg Beale draws a parallel to the conclusion of the plagues in Egypt, God hardened the heart of Pharaoh (Revelation, 517). He argues there is a “theological purpose” to these warnings, God is providing sufficient opportunities for repentance so that he may demonstrate his sovereignty and justice when he finally judges those who are not sealed by God when the seventh trumpet sounds (11:18).

Like the plagues on the Egyptians in Exodus, the plagues in Revelation 7-9 are not evangelistic. They are fair warnings by the sovereign God that final judgment is coming soon even if the ones who are warned are have no interested in repenting.

When the angel sounds the sixth trumpet a voice from the golden altar commands the angel to release the four angels who have been bound at the great River Euphrates. These four angels command a massive army which will kill one-third of mankind.

Who are these four bound angels appointed for this task? In Revelation 7:1 four angels were holding back the four winds. Aune thinks Revelation 7:1 and 9:13 refer to the same four angels (2:537), Charles does not (1:250). Since these angels are bound at the Euphrates River, they seem to be a different set of four than 7:1. Revelation does not identify these angels and it is unlikely they are four archangels, Michael, Gabriel, Suriel, and Uriel (1 Enoch 20:1).

There are a few references to destroying angels in Second Temple apocalyptic, although there are no examples of four angles appointed for the task.  First Enoch 66:1 refers to “the angels of punishment who are prepared to come and release all the powers of the waters which are underground to become judgment and destruction unto all who live and dwell upon the earth.”

The Euphrates River is to the north and east of Jerusalem and many of Israel’s enemies in the Old Testament came from the east. Both Assyria and Babylon came from beyond the Euphrates River. After the exile Judea was controlled by the Ptolemies in Egypt to the south and the Seleucids in Syria to the north.

From the perspective of the late first century, the Euphrates could refer to eastern edge of the Roman empire. The Parthian empire controlled the east and Rome was concerned to control their eastern frontier against them. Since the Parthians were fierce warriors who used horseman in battle, many commentators interpret this large cavalry as a reference to the Parthians. Sibylline Oracles 14.66 refer to the “arrow-shooting Parthians of the deep-flowing Euphrates.”

The Sibylline Oracles refer to the Parthians several times. “Then the strife of war being aroused will come to the west, and the fugitive from Rome will also come, brandishing a great spear, having crossed the Euphrates with many myriads” (Sib. Or. 4.137–139). In 13.122–124 the “fugitive of Rome” crosses the Euphrates “with many myriads, who will burn you down and dispose everything badly.”

The size of the army is enormous, “twice ten thousand times ten thousand” (δισμυριάδες μυριάδων). Since the word myriad (μυριάς) refers to a very large, imprecise number (BDAG), Aune suggest the phrase be translated as “uncountable” (Aune 2:539). Psalm 68:17 describes an angelic army in similar terms, “The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands.” In 4 Ezra 13:5, Ezra sees “an innumerable multitude of men were gathered together from the four winds of heaven to make war against the man who came up out of the sea.” The man from the sea is a messianic figure based on Daniel 7.

Although popular prophecy teachers often associate this large number with China, a massive empire to the east of modern Israel, that is not at all the point of this massive uncountable army. A better explanation is to see this army as a demonic horde. The description of these demonic soldiers is intentionally horrifying:

Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The breastplate probably refers only to the riders, there are many examples of breastplates for horses.

The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions. A horse is not a terrifying animal, but a horse-sized animal with a head of a lion certainly is! Aune compares this lion-headed horse with “the widely distributed depictions of the Chimaera” (Aune 2:540).

Out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. Fire-breathing creatures are associated with judgement in early Jewish texts. For example, in Job 41:19 Leviathan breathed fire. Beale suggests these creatures allude Job’s description of Leviathan, associating these beasts “with Satan and his deceptive work” (515).  Fourth Ezra 13 the messianic figure breaths fire on the uncountable multitude utterly destroying them.

4 Ezra 13.8-11 After this I looked, and behold, all who had gathered together against him, to wage war with him, were much afraid, yet dared to fight. 9 And behold, when he saw the onrush of the approaching multitude, he neither lifted his hand nor held a spear or any weapon of war; 10 but I saw only how he sent forth from his mouth as it were a stream of fire, and from his lips a flaming breath, and from his tongue he shot forth a storm of sparks. 11 All these were mingled together, the stream of fire and the flaming breath and the great storm, and fell on the onrushing multitude which was prepared to fight, and burned them all up, so that suddenly nothing was seen of the innumerable multitude but only the dust of ashes and the smell of smoke.

Their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury. Like the locust in Revelation 9:1-11, the tails of these beasts are deadly.

As Greg Beale suggests, “the sixth trumpet intensifies and develops further the woe of the fifth” (Revelation, 513). The demonic oppression in the fifth trumpet had the power to torment, but not kill. This sixth trumpet kills one-third of the earth. Neither this destructive army nor the locust in the fifth trumpet refer to modern warfare or modern nations. They depict terrifying demonic oppression.

The last line of John’s description of the demonic locust rising from the bottomless pit refers to their king, Abaddon in Hebrew or Apollyon in Greek. Both words mean Destroyer.

Although Proverbs 30:27 states the locust have no king, there is a reference to the king of the locust in LXX Amos 7:1. The Hebrew reads “after the king’s mowing” although translating the final three words of 7:1 is difficult since the Hebrew גֵּז is rare. The Septuagint translation of Amos 7:1 is considerably different than the Hebrew Bible: “Thus the Lord God showed me and look, the offspring of locusts is coming early, and look, one locust is Agag, the king” (LES²). The name Agag is associated with the Amalekites; in 1 Sam 15 Saul was command to attack Agag, king of the Amalekites.

This translation understands the Greek Γώγ, Gog, as Agag. The NET of the Septuagint translates this as “Gog, their king.” It is likely the translator read the Hebrew word גֵּז as Gog (גּוֹג). The same confusion appears in the LXX of Numbers 24:7, the king is Agag but the LXX has Gog. While it is tantalizing to hear an echo of Ezekiel 38-39 and a foreshadowing of Revelation 20:8, the evidence that Gog is the king of the locust is thin.

The name Abaddon appears only here in Revelation, although the word אֲבַדּוֹן is found in the Hebrew Bible a few times with reference to the abode of the dead, in parallel with Sheol (Job 26:6; Prov 15:11). In Job 31:12 it is also a location: “a fire that consumes as far as Abaddon.” Later rabbinic literature used the term for the place of punishment for the wicked (Grether, “Abaddon,” ABD 1:6).

The name is found in several fragmentary Dead Sea Scrolls as a location of the dead (the pot, sheol, etc.)

1QHa Col. xi:19-20 I thank you, Lord, because you saved my life from the pit, and from the Sheol of Abaddon 20 have lifted me up to an everlasting height, so that I can walk on a boundless plain.

1QHa Col. xi:32 The torrents of Belial break into Abaddon. The schemers of the deep howl at the din of those extracting mud.

4Q432 Frag. 4 i:4 [And when they rush forth, Sheo]l [and Abaddon open; all the arrows of] 5 [the p]it [make their voice heard] while going down [to the abyss; and the gates of Sheol] «open» 6 [for al]l […] the deed[s of the serpent.

4Q504 Frags. 1–2 viir:7 the earth and all its schemers [… the] 8 great [abyss], Abaddon, the water and all that there [is in it …]  9 all its creatures, always, for centuries [eternal. Amen. Amen.]

In Revelation 9:11Abaddon is not a location but rather the “king of the locust.” In Greek, the name of the king is Apollyon, the destroyer. The Greek is related to the word ἀπολλύναι, “to destroy” but also to the name Apollo (Charles, 1:246). David Aune suggests an allusion to Nero since he claimed to be Apollo and was “identified with Belial in some early Jewish literature” (Aune, 2:535).

However, Beale suggests Abaddon/Apollyon refers to “the angel is that of the exodus plagues” (504). During the tenth plague a destroying angel swept over Egypt. Unfortunately, “destroyer” is a participle of ὀλεθρεύω rather than ἀπόλλυμι. Jubilees 49:2 calls this angel Mastema. LXX Psalm 77:49 refers to “evil angels” active in the plagues.

That Abaddon or Apollyon is associated with the Egyptian plagues would be consistent with the first four trumpets which also alluded to the plagues.

As the angel sounds the fifth trumpet, John sees a strange locust plague rising out of the bottomless pit like smoke. As with the other trumpets, this locust plague evokes the plagues on Egypt. This chapter is an excellent example of why we need to ground our reading of Revelation in its first-century context: the locust are NOT helicopters, drones, soldiers with jetpacks, or whatever new technology known today. These locusts are the ultimate demonic army which will be released in the last days.

The eighth plague was great plague of locust, such as has never been before nor will be again (Exod 10:14; Pss 78:48; 105:34-35). Ezekiel the Tragedian associated darkness and locust in the Egyptian plagues: “Darkness I’ll decree for three whole days, and locusts send, who shall the residue of food consume and every blade of grass” (EzTrag 1.144–146).

The curses for unfaithfulness include locust plagues (Deut 28:38; 1 Kings 8:36). Amos 4:9 describes a locust plague as God’s judgment on Israel and Jeremiah 46:23 describes the armies of Egypt as “more numerous than locusts; they are without number.” Huge enemy armies are uncountable locust (Judg 6:5; 7:12).

Since locusts are associated with a terrifying army of enemies who strip the land bare, a locust plague was a natural metaphor for a great final battle. Joel 2 uses a locust plague in Israel as a metaphor for an eschatological army descending on the land “like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes; their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come” (Joel 2:2).

Locust breed in the desert regions and can travel in a column as deep as one hundred feet and as long as four miles (Mounce, 186).  Usually locust strip the land of all vegetation, but these locusts do not attack vegetation, but rather who are not sealed by God. This is the opposite of the normal activity of locust, they eat plants, not people!

But these are not ordinary locust (Rev 9:7-9). There is an Arabic proverb that says that a locust has the head of a horse, the chest of a lion, the feet of a camel, the body of a serpent, and antennae like the hair of a woman. Each of the items in the description are grounded in the Old Testament and the literature of Second Temple Judaism.

Like other crowns in Revelation, these golden crowns refer to the power that they are given to rule for five months (Aune, 2:532).

Long disheveled hair does not mean these creatures are feminine. Samson and Absalom were both known for their strength yet had long hair. The important difference is this hair is disheveled. D.C. Duling suggests (OTP 1:973, note a) disheveled hair was a characteristic Medusa and is found on Aramaic Incantation Bowls depicting the demon Lilith with disheveled hair. Both the Testament of Solomon and the Apocalypse of Zephaniah describe demons with disheveled hair.

Testament of Solomon 13.1 Then I ordered another demon to appear before me. There came before me one who had the shape of a woman but she possessed as one of her traits the form of one with disheveled hair.

Apoc. Zeph. 4.1-4 Then I walked with the angel of the Lord. I looked before me and I saw a place there. 2 [Thousands] of thousands and myriads of myriads of an[gels] entered through [it]. 3 Their faces were like a leopar[d], their tusks being outside their mouth [like] the wild boars. 4 Their eyes were mixed with blood. Their hair was loose like the hair of women, and fiery scourges were in their hands.

Apoc. Zeph. 6:8 That same instant I stood up, and I saw a great angel before me. His hair was spread out like the lionesses’. His teeth were outside his mouth like a bear. His hair was spread out like women’s. His body was like the serpent’s when he wished to swallow me.

Teeth like iron are proverbial for “something irresistibly and fatally destructive” (Aune, 2:532) and their breastplates of iron imply invincibility.

These demonic locust-scorpions are given the power to torment people for five months. Although their sting is painful, the sting of a scorpions in Judea are not usually fatal to humans. These locust with scorpion tails are only allowed to torment people for five months, but not to kill them.

Why five months? It is often observed that the normal life-span of a locust is 5 months (Charles, 1:243, Aune 2:530, five simply means “a few”) The dry season in Palestine is also about 5 months, the months that are most likely to experience a locust plague. The time limit is an indication that this is not just a capricious torment, but a punishment with definite limits.  It is a warning to the earth, as are the other trumpets.

People “will beg God to kill them, but they won’t be able to die.” This is similar to the description given by Pliny of the eruption of Vesuvius, “People bewailed their own fate or that of their relatives, and there were some who prayed for death in their terror of dying.” (Ep. 6.20.14)

Apoc. Elijah 9.1-7 They will desire death but death will flee from them. They will climb onto rocks and jump down on them, and say, “Fall on us!” And they will not die but death runs away from them.

The people tormented by these demonic beings want to die in order to escape the plague but all that awaits them is the lake of fire.