Trumpets

The First Trumpet: Fire Mixed with Blood – Revelation 8:7

Revelation 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.

This is an image of a great red storm sweeping across the earth, destroying plants and trees, including green grass.  The storm evidently causes huge fires that destroy plants that would have been used for food.

Trumpets commonly announce judgment in the Old Testament. Zechariah 9:4, for example, the Lord himself will “sound the trumpet and will march forth in the whirlwinds of the south.” Similarly, in 4 Ezra 6:23 trumpets appear in a list of signs of the impending judgment on the earth “the trumpet shall sound aloud, and when all hear it, they shall suddenly be terrified.” The early Christian Didache 16:6 lists trumpets as one of the final signs before the coming of the Lord: “first the sign of an opening in heaven, then the sign of the sound of a trumpet.”

I have previously discussed the relationship of the trumpets to the Egyptian plagues. The first trumpet is similar to seventh plague in Exodus 9:13-25, hail and fire destroying the crops and livestock of the Egyptians. The purpose of this plague is “to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth” (Exod 9:16). God’s intention in all of the plagues is to demonstrate his power to the Israelite slaves so that when he calls them, they will come out of Egypt. I would suggest this is what is happening in Revelation 8 as well, God is demonstrating his power so that his people will come out of Babylon when he calls them (Rev 18:4-8).

Ezekiel 38:22 has similar language to the first trumpet. There is Lord “summons a sword against Gog” in order to judge him, raining on his hordes “torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur.” The reason for this apocalyptic destruction of God’s enemy is to show God’s greatness, holiness and to “make myself known in the eyes of many nations” so that they will know he is the Lord (38:23).

Fire and blood falling from heaven are among the signs of the end in the fifth Sibylline Oracle. It is likely this text has the destruction of Jerusalem in mind.  In SibOr. 14:112-113, “Hail will destroy the fruits of cattle on the boundless earth.” Fire and hail appear in the Christian addition to 4 Ezra as one of several signs of the end.

Sib. Or. 5.377–380 For fire will rain on men from the floors of heaven, fire and blood, water, lightning bolt, darkness, heavenly night, and destruction in war, and a mist over the slain will destroy at once all kings and noble men.

4 Ezra 15.40–41 And great and mighty clouds, full of wrath and tempest, shall rise, to destroy all the earth and its inhabitants, and shall pour out upon every high and lofty place a terrible tempest, fire and hail and flying swords and floods of water, that all the fields and all the streams may be filled with the abundance of those waters

Fire and blood from heaven was included in Roman lists of “evil signs.” Pliny refers to rain of “blood and milk” and flesh as a particularly nasty sign from heaven:

Pliny, Natural History, 2.57.147 Besides these events in the lower sky, it is entered in the records that in the consulshipa of Manius Acilius and Gaius Porcius it rained milk and blood, and that frequently on other occasions there it has rained flesh. (trans. H. Rackham, LLC).

Why are things destroyed in thirds? In each of the first four trumpets things are destroyed in third, perhaps to indicate God’s judgment is only beginning, it is far from complete. These are warnings to mankind that God’s wrath is burning against them.

The “thirds” may be loosely based on Ezekiel 5. There the prophet shaves his head and divides his hair into thirds. Each third represents judgment on Jerusalem: a third die by fire, plague and famine inside the city, a third by the sword, and a third is scattered to the wind (5:2, 12).  In the judgment described by Zechariah 13:8-9 two-thirds of the land will be cut off and only a third will remain. Even that third will be refined by fire before they call upon the name of the Lord.

Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls in Revelation

Within the structure of Revelation, John uses imagery to describe events on earth and in heaven during the coming period of persecution before the return of the Messiah. The first image is of the opening of a document with seven seals, the second is a series of seven angels blowing trumpets, and the last is a series of seven bowls which are upturned as judgment is pronounced.

These are sometimes called the seven “judgments” since they tend to be a judgments, although not all can be described in this way. The fifth seal, for example, is a scene in heaven of those who have been martyred. Some are simply events that set up the final conflict between the Beast and Christ.

The difficulty in interpreting these judgments is that the language is highly symbolic. John is describing these events in metaphorical language. As I have said, reading Revelation is like looking at a political cartoon from another culture and time. I need to understand the cultural and historical cues in the imagery in order to understand John’s original intention. For an American, baseball and cowboy movies are “image sets” which virtually everyone understands.

Greg Beale suggests that there are several potential “image sets” which inform John’s descriptions used in the vision (Revelation 370f). Nero’s persecution of Christians after the great fire in Rome is a good possibility, as are two major earthquakes in the Lycus valley in A.D. 17 and 60. An often overlooked event for the study of Revelation is the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79. This is intriguing especially for the fifth trumpet, since the descriptions of that catastrophe in contemporary literature sound quite a bit like John’s description of the opening of the Abyss. Beale also mentions a great famine in A.D. 92, an event which would have been fresh in the minds of those living in Asia Minor.

In fact, these are all well-known events to Christians living in Asia Minor in the 90’s A.D. If John alluded to the terror of a major earthquake in the Lycus Valley in 60, it is possible some hearing Revelation for the first time experienced that earthquake in their youth or heard stories from their parents about it. Personal experience is what makes a metaphor “work,” John used language that resonated with his readers.

To Beale’s list I would add the fall of Jerusalem, since the burning of Jerusalem and the Temple was a traumatic loss to the Jews, even to Christian Jews. I think that the original readers of Revelation were Jewish Christians. As followers of Jesus, the fall of Jerusalem would a confirmation of Jesus’ own predictions, but it was nonetheless a crisis of faith. Undoubtedly stories of those final days circulated among Jewish Christians who may have lost family members in Rome’s military action.

Finally, the main source for all of John’s imagery is the Hebrew Bible. He draws on the language of the curses of the Law for the three cycles of judgments. For example, Leviticus 26:21-26 as background to the four horsemen. The Exodus narrative provides some of the imagery for the trumpets. It is easy enough to hear echoes of the plagues in the descriptions of the first four trumpets.

When John describes a coming time of great persecution, he is talking about present realities. In my opinion it is the growing persecution of Christianity under Domitian as well as internal struggles caused by the success of the church among the Gentiles. John is using creative language drawn from well-known events of his day; but he also talking “through” the events to their ultimate fulfillment in the end times.

What are the Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls in Revelation?

Within the structure of Revelation, John uses imagery to describe events on earth and in heaven during the coming period of persecution before the return of the Messiah. The first image is of the opening of a document with seven seals, the second is a series of seven angels blowing trumpets, and the last is a series of seven bowls which are upturned as judgment is pronounced.

These are sometimes called the seven “judgements” since they tend to be a judgements, although not all can be described in this way. The fifth seal, for example, is a scene in heaven of those who have been martyred. Some are simply events that set up the final conflict between the Beast and Christ.

The difficulty in interpreting these judgements is that the language is highly symbolic. John is describing these events in metaphorical language. As I have said, reading Revelation is like looking at a political cartoon from another culture and time. I need to understand the cultural and historical cues in the imagery in order to understand John’s original intention. For an American, baseball and cowboy movies are “image sets” which virtually everyone understands.

Greg Beale suggests that there are several potential “image sets” which inform John’s descriptions used in the vision (Revelation 370f). Nero’s persecution of Christians after the great fire in Rome is a good possibility, as are two major earthquakes in the Lycus valley in A.D. 17 and 60. An often overlooked event for the study of Revelation is the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79. This is intriguing especially for the fifth trumpet, since the descriptions of that catastrophe in contemporary literature sound quite a bit like John’s description of the opening of the Abyss. Beale also mentions a great famine in A.D. 92, an event which would have been fresh in the minds of those living in Asia Minor.

In fact, these are all well-known events to Christians living in Asia Minor in the 90’s A.D. If John alluded to the terror of a major earthquake in the Lycus Valley in 60, it is possible some hearing Revelation for the first time experienced that earthquake in their youth or heard stories from their parents about it. Personal experience is what makes a metaphor “work,” John used language that resonated with his readers.

To Beale’s list I would add the fall of Jerusalem, since the burning of Jerusalem and the Temple was a traumatic loss to the Jews, even to Christian Jews. I think that the original readers of Revelation were Jewish Christians. As followers of Jesus, the fall of Jerusalem would a confirmation of Jesus’ own predictions, but it was nonetheless a crisis of faith. Undoubtedly stories of those final days circulated among Jewish Christians who may have lost family members in Rome’s military action.

Finally, the main source for all of John’s imagery is the Hebrew Bible. He draws on the language of the curses of the Law for the three cycles of judgments. For example, Leviticus 26:21-26 as background to the four horsemen. The Exodus narrative provides some of the imagery for the trumpets. It is easy enough to hear echoes of the plagues in the descriptions of the first four trumpets.

When John describes a coming time of great persecution, he is talking about present realities. In my opinion it is the growing persecution of Christianity under Domitian as well as internal struggles caused by the success of the church among the Gentiles. John is using creative language drawn from well-known events of his day; but he also talking “through” the events to their ultimate fulfillment in the end times.