Revelation

The mighty angel held a little scroll in his hand (10:2). John is commanded to take this scroll and eat it (10:8-11).  (See also, Books in Apocalyptic.)

Is this little scroll related to the seven-sealed scroll in Revelation 5? In Revelation 5 the Lamb was given a seven-sealed scroll (βίβλος); this is a little scroll (βιβλαρίδιον and βλαρίδιον, the diminutive of βίβλος), although in 10:8 John uses βίβλος for this scroll (in some manuscripts βιβλαρίδιον appears). Beale thinks there is enough similarity to enable the reader to see the scroll as not a “totally different kind of book” from chapter 5, “but only one on a smaller scale… John wants to underscore the fact that this is a “little book” in comparison to the big book of ch. 5, and that it is modeled on that larger book” (Revelation, 545). In both cases the scroll is in the right hand and in both cases, someone takes the scroll from the hand.

There are, however, serious differences between the two scrolls. The scroll in chapter 5 is written on both sides, sealed with seven seals, and given to the Lamb of God who is the only person in all of creation with the authority to open the scroll.  The content of the scroll is Revelation 6:1-8:1, the seven seals. In Revelation 10, the scroll is already open, and the content of the scroll seems to be the word of God John will prophesy against the nations (v. 11). The identity of the mighty angel is important, since Beale argue the angel is Christ, he can see this scroll as the same: it was given to the Lamb, who opened the scroll, then passed it along to John to reveal to the nations.

Not every scroll in Revelation needs to be the same scroll. Scrolls appear often in Revelation (23 times). In Revelation 1:1 John is commanded to write into a scroll the message to the seven churches. This is clearly not the same scroll as the two-sided scroll in Revelation 5 or this little scroll in chapter 10. Nor are these scrolls the same as the “book of life” in Revelation 20:12.

Eating the scroll is a clear allusion to Ezekiel 2:9-3:3.

Ezekiel 2:9-3:3 Then I looked, and I saw a hand stretched out to me. In it was a scroll, 10 which he unrolled before me. On both sides of it were written words of lament and mourning and woe. 3:1 And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.  3 Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.

Ezekiel’s first vision commissions him as a prophet. After seeing a revelation of the glory of God, he is shown a scroll written on both sides and he is told to eat it the scroll. Like Revelation 10, the scroll is “as sweet as honey.” Despite the words of lament and mourning, Ezekiel’s scroll does not turn his stomach bitter. He does have a bitter attitude toward his calling, “I went in bitterness (מַר) in the heat of my spirit” (3:14, the bitterness is omitted in the LXX).  Although the word was sweet as honey to Ezekiel, the message was difficult. This is enough to convince Beale Ezekiel also experiences “sweet as honey” followed by bitterness.

What is the content of this little scroll? There are various attempts in the commentaries to make the content of this scroll the ensuing chapters of Revelation, but this overlooks the function of eating a scroll in Ezekiel. In Ezekiel, the scroll represented God commissioning the prophet to speak his words to God’s people. In Revelation 10:11, after he eats the scroll John is commissioned: “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings” (ESV).

It is possible to translate the angel’s words as “against the nations,” the use of ἐπί and dative case may reflect the “negative apocalyptic attitude toward the ungodly nations of the world” (Aune 2:773; (BDAG §12). The more neutral “about” (NRSV, ESV, NIV) is possible (BDAG §8). For Aune, the negative sense “against” is “confirmed by the negative character of the Christian witness” in passages like Matthew 10:18, Luke 12:11 and 21:12 in which the disciples are warned they will be witnesses against rulers (ἐπί + dative; Aune 2:574). Beale agrees, “the accent is on judgment of the unrepentant” (554).

It is perhaps significant the next chapter describes the activity of two witnesses who indeed prophesy against the nations and are killed on account of their testimony.

When the mighty angel speaks, his words are like the roar of a lion, and he is answered by “the seven thunders.” The angel speaks, and John hears the response from the seven thunders, but he is forbidden to write these words. Why are the words of this mighty not recorded? Possibly this means the angel’s words were unintelligible (2 Cor 12:4; Betz, TDNT 9:296).

The “roar” of the Lord is a somewhat common motif in the Old Testament. Just prior to Moses receiving the Law at Mount Sinai, the people gathered around the foot of the mountain. They witnessed thunders (plural) and lightning as well as a “very loud trumpet blast” (Exodus 19:16). Later Rabbinic literature interpreted these thunders as the voice of God. The voice was so loud all the people of the world heard the voice, and “God’s voice split up into 70 voices acc. to the 70 languages of the earth, so that each people could hear it in its own tongue” (Betz, TDNT, 9: 288). Psalm 29:3-9 is a seven-fold description of God’s voice as thunder, although the word “voice” is not there seven times. There is a rabbinic tradition that the voice of God was heard, as seen through thunders on Mt. Sinai (Exod. Rab. 28:6, cf. 5:9.

Since the lion of Judah appears in Revelation 5:5, perhaps a voice like thunder is drawn from the metaphor of the thunderous voice of a lion. For example, Amos 1:2 begins with the words, “The LORD roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem.” Joe alludes to this text: The Lord “will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem” (3:16). The voice of God as thunder is common in other apocalyptic literature as well, “the One who thunders on high” (Sibylline Oracles 5.302). In 4 Ezra 16.10, the Lord is like a hungry lion who thunders and terrifies everyone.

Aune suggests thunder is a common “metaphor for articulate speech by supernatural beings” in both Jewish apocalyptic and Greek magical papyri (2:560). In Sibylline Oracles 5.344–345, “It will be possible to hear a heavenly crash of thunder, the voice of God throughout broad heaven above.” The “voice of the thunder” and the light of the lightning” are kept in the heavens (1 Enoch 69.23). In 2 Enoch 39.7, Enoch claims he has “heard the LORD speaking like loud thunder.” In the mystical visions of 3 Enoch, the writer “saw thunders and voices roaring in the midst of flames of fire” (3 Enoch 42.5)

In an example of a heavenly tour, Enoch is shown the secrets of the thunders:

1 Enoch 59:1-3 In those days, my eyes saw the mysteries of lightnings, and of lights, and their judgments; they flash lights for a blessing or a curse, according to the will of the Lord of the Spirits. 2 And there I (also) saw the secrets of the thunder and the secrets of (how when) it resounds in the heights of heaven its voice is heard (in) the earthly dwellings. He showed me whether the sound of the thunder is for peace and blessing or for a curse, according to the word of the Lord of the Spirits. 3 After that, all the mysteries of the lights and lightnings were shown to me (that) they glow with light for blessing and for contentment.

John prepared to write the content of the words spoken by the thunders, but a “voice from heaven” prevented him. He is told to seal up the vision and not write it down. In Daniel 12:9, Daniel could not understand the angel’s explanation of his vision, and he is told, “The words are to remain secret and sealed until the time of the end.” On the other hand, Enoch was permitted to write down “the rumble of the thunder and the lightning” (2 Enoch 40.9).

Keeping secrets is common in Jewish apocalyptic literature. In 1 Enoch 49, for example, Enoch is shown “all the secrets in heaven.” The reason for this, as Aune suggests, is that the visionary alone knows the secrets. This makes him wise and different than the reader. It was a mark of authenticity to hold back a little revelation from the readers. If you gave up everything, then perhaps you are not a real prophet.

What did the seven thunders say?  Bousset suggested John was given another series of plague judgments like the seals, trumpets, and bowls and that he was told not to record this series (cited by Aune 2:5620). This is certainly possible, and if so, it indicates that there will be more judgments during the tribulation than could expected after reading Revelation. Leviticus 26 has four seven-fold plagues as a part of the curses and blessings in Leviticus (26:18, 21, 23, and 27). This would mean there were four sets of seven judgments. One set was set aside. Caird suggested that John is told not to record the visions’ content because God will cancel these judgments out of his grace and mercy (Caird, 126-127). But as Beale points out, “seal up” does not have the same sense as “cancel” (Beale 535).

The identity of the Angel in Revelation 10:1-4 is a problem for interpreters. The mighty angel in Revelation 10 alludes to several passages in the Old Testament that describe angelic beings.

John does not name this angelic being, although some speculate the angel is Gabriel, primarily because the name Gabriel means “mighty one” (גִּבּוֹר gibbôr; Charles 1:258-259). It is not necessary to make the connection to Gabriel, although there are certainly parallels in Revelation 10 to Daniel. Gabriel is mentioned twice in Daniel. Both times, he delivers a message to Daniel from God. Gabriel also appears twice in Luke in a similar role, announcing to Mary she is pregnant.

The physical description of the Angel in Revelation 10:1-4 evokes a theophany from the Hebrew Bible.

The angel is “robed in a cloud.” A cloud is often associated with the glory of God. The image of a cloud appears in Revelation as a description of heaven (11:12) and the place where “something like a son of man” sits before he comes as judge, a reference to Jesus Christ (14:14-16). In Exodus 14:19, the angel of God traveled in front and behind Israel’s army along with a “pillar of cloud.” When Solomon installed the Ark of the Covenant in the Temple, the place was filled with a cloud, representing the glory of God (1 Kings 8:10; 2 Chron 5:14). Ezekiel sees this cloud depart the Temple before the Temple is destroyed (Ezek 10:4-5). At the transfiguration, Jesus is covered in a bright cloud (Matt 17:5).

Angelic beings clothed in a cloud are rare in apocalyptic literature. In 3 Enoch, God’s glory is associated with clouds. For example, “the clouds that encircle the throne of glory” (3 Enoch 22C.4) and describing the throne room, “those who say “Blessed” are encircled by bright clouds” (34:2). In Fourth Ezra’s Eagle vision, the “spread his wings over all the earth, and all the winds of heaven blew upon him, and the clouds were gathered about him” (4 Ezra 11.2). In the Testament of Abraham 15 (A), the angel Michael demonstrates his power to Abraham by enveloping him in a cloud. In Mark 16:5, the angel who greeted the women at the empty tomb was wrapped in white robes

The angel has a “rainbow above his head.” Like a cloud, rainbows are also associated with the glory of God, although the two places in scripture where a rainbow is associated with God it is a description of his throne or location. Aune takes ἶρις as a halo of light (2:557). The image is drawn from Ezekiel’s throne room vision in which he sees something “like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him” (Ezek 1:28). Revelation 4:3 alluded to Ezekiel’s vision, “a rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne.”

The angel’s face is “like the sun.” Revelation 1:6 Jesus is described as having a face shining like the sun, a possible allusion to the angelic being in Daniel 10:6. However, the angelic being in Daniel has a face like lightning and his eyes were like flaming torches. Both Moses (Exod 34:30) and Jesus are described as having radiant faces; at the Transfiguration, Jesus’s face “shone like the sun” (Matt 17:2)

“His legs were like fiery pillars.” This is literally feet (πούς). Most modern translations translate the word as legs since it is odd to describe feet as pillars. Aune gives several examples of feet for legs in contemporary Greek (Revelation, 2:548-549). The cherubim in Ezekiel 1:7 have straight legs like “burnished bronze.”

The angel is standing with one foot on land and one foot on the sea. This is important because the beasts in Revelation 13 come from both the land and the sea. God is demonstrating his sovereignty over both. This also corresponds to his oath in verse 6, swearing by both the land and the sea.

David Aune suggests this angelic being has some similarity to the Colossus of Rhodes (2:556-557). The Colossus was a 105-foot-tall bronze statue that was built about 280 B.C. It was placed in a promontory overlooking the harbor at Rhodes and was known as one of the “seven wonders” of the ancient world. The statue was of Helios, a sun god that was worshiped primarily in Rhodes (which is an island, 420 square miles, with three city-states named after the three sons of Helios.)

The image of a “halo/rainbow” and “fire” evokes the memory of this well-known statue.  It is possible that the statue had this right-handed lifted towards heaven, as the angel in this passage does. The Colossus was destroyed by an earthquake in 224 B.C. It broke off at the knees, and although it was looted for bronze, pieces were still visible during the first century. The fact the Colossus was destroyed some 275 years prior to the writing of Revelation creates a problem for Aune’s suggestion the great wonder of the world influenced this description.

Rather than the Colossus of Rhodes, the image of a mighty angel is drawn from Old Testament descriptions of God’s glory, his throne room, and other mighty angels. In fact, as Greg Beale suggests, “may be more than an angel” and that John’s use of this imagery is “Christological, if not divine” (Revelation, 522, 524). The description of the mighty angel in Revelation 10 reads the mighty angels in the Old Testament through the lens of Jesus.