CHAPTER 8

8:113. THE OPENING OF THE SEVENTH SEAL; THE HALF-HOURS SILENCE: THE
FIRST FOUR TRUMPET-BLASTS.
1. ] The sequence broken by the two
visions of c. 7. is resumed. The Lamb opens the last of the seals (cf. 6:1, 6:3, 6:5, 6:7,
6:9, 6:12), and the book can now be unrolled and read. We expect the catastrophe,
which had been foreboded by the signs and by the panic that followed the penultimate
opening, at length to supervene. But all is still; there is neither sight nor sound to
indicate the approach of the end.
is substituted for , which is used on previous occurrences of the formula,
perhaps with the view of emphasizing the uncertainty of the time of the end; cf. Mc.
11:19, Apoc. 4:9, where it implies the indefinite repetition of an act. Blass (Gr. p. 218)
prefers to regard it simply as due to linguistic deterioration, urging that in late Greek
and are indistinguishable. , sc. , as in 6:1.
.] Heaven, hitherto resonant with voices, now holds
its peace: neither Elder nor Angel offers a word of explanation (5:5, 7:13); there is
neither chorus of praise nor cry of adoration (4:8, 4:11, 5:9 f., 5:12 f., 7:10, 7:12); no
calls (6:3 etc.); no thunders issue from the Throne (4:5). This silence does
not spell a cessation of the Divine workings (Ign. Eph. 19 ,
Magn. 8 ), but a temporary suspension of revelation; cf.
Renan, lAntechrist, p. 391 le premier acte du mystre est termin. There is a partial
parallel in Apoc. 10:4 , , but
there the Seer hears though he may not impart; here the Seer himself is kept in
ignorance.
The remark of Victorinus, significatur initium quietis aeternae, is attractive, but
exegetically irrelevant; is not characteristic of the heavenly rest. Nor is it more to
the point to refer to such passages as Hab. 2:20, Zeph. 1:7, Zech. 2:13; the Apocalyptic
silence is in heaven and not on earth.
, sc. (Prim. fere semihora, Vg. quasi media hora), acc. of
duration. The adjective is . ., being the usual form. For , as the
twelfth part of the natural day, see Jo. 1:40, 4:6, 19:14, Acts 5:7, 10:3.
Half-an-hour, though a relatively short time, is a long interval in a drama, and makes
an impressive break between the Seals and the Trumpets.
2. .] Seven Angels are required by the situation,
and the number finds a parallel in the seven Spirits of God and other hebdomads in
this book. The article seems to point to the well-known group of Angels first mentioned,
as it seems, in Tobit 12:15 ...
. In Enoch 20:7 (Gr.) they are styled archangels, and
their names are given as Uriel (4 Esdr. 4:1), Raphael (Tob. l.c.) Raguel, Michael (Dan.
10:13, 10:21, 12:1, Jude 9, Apoc. 12:7), Sariel (Eth. Saraqel), Gabriel (Lc. 1:19, 1:26),
Remiel (Hieremihel; 4 Esdr. 4:36); cf. ib. 81:5, 90:21 f. Angels of the Presence are
Vg. The Latin Vulgate.

mentioned repeatedly in the Book of Jubilees (1:27, 1:29; 2:1f. , 18, 15:27, 31:14, where
see Charless note); the title comes from Isa. 63:9
, ,


, and the idea from the
practice of Oriental courts (cf. Gen. 45:1, 2 Esdr. 7:24, Esth. 1:14, 8:4, Job 1:6, Zech.
4:14, 6:5, Dan. 7:10, 4 Macc. 17:18, Lc. 1:19). On the possible connexion of the later
Jewish angelology with Parsism or Zoroastrianism, see Hastings, D. B. 1:96, 4:991;
Driver, Daniel, p. 96.; the evidence, so far as it has been produced, is interesting but
scarcely conclusive. .; cf. Lc. 1:19
.
] Trumpets are assigned to Angels in Mt.
24:31, 1 Cor. 15:52, 1 Thess. 4:16, Apoc. 4:1, 4 Esdr. 6:23, Apoc. Mos. 22; the
conception rests ultimately on the scene of the Lawgiving (Exod. 19:16 ff.), which
Jewish thought connected with the ministry of Angels (Acts 7:38, Gal. 3:19). The
Trumpets of the Seven are presently to break the silence which followed the opening of
the last seal with fresh revelations of the Divine purpose. There is possibly an allusion
to Jos. 6:13 .; cf. also Joel 2:1
... , .
3. .] Another Angel, not one of the Seven (cf. 7:2,
10:1, 14:6 ff., 18:1), came forward and took his place (, cf. Lc. 18:11, 18:40,
Acts 5:20, 17:22) over, i.e. before, the Altar, as in Amos 9:1
(
) , where the prep. denotes the position of one who
stands (B.D.B., p. 756) by (prop. leaning over) an altar or sacrifice. The celestial
messenger takes the place of the priest, and offers the incense; contrast the position of
Gabriel in Lc. 1:11 ( ). The altar is
not as in 6:9 the Altar of Burnt offering, but the Altar of Incense; .
points to Exod. 40:5 ...
, cf. Lev. 4:7 ; it is the
of Lev. 4:7, 4:18the of Heb. 9:4. Cf. Iren. 4:18. 6 est ergo
altare in caelis, illuc enim preces nostrae et oblationes nostrae diriguntur.
.] is elsewhere frankincense; the
commentators quote the scholiast on Ar. nub. ... ,
, and Ammonius:
, . The latter is evidently the meaning of
in 1 Chron. 9:29, 3 Macc. 5:2, as of in Lev. 2:1, Apoc. 18:13; but
here and in v. 5 shews that a censer is intended; for censer ( ,,
,

(
(

) the LXX. use (Exod. 27:3, 38:23 (3), Num. 16:6 ff., Sir. 50:9), or
(3 Regn. 7:36 (50)), or (2 Chron. 26:19, Ezek. 8:11, 4 Macc. 7:11);
the later Greek has or .
... .] The Angel received the incense for a particular
purpose. , as in v. 2 (cf. 6:2, 6:4, 6:8, 6:11, 7:2, et passim), does not
describe an act which forms part of the vision, but is simply a recognition of the Divine
ordering of all life; cf. 1 Cor. 4:7 ; On the future ( AC)
Ar. Arethas.

see 3:9, note; , , are probably corrections of the less usual form. , as
in 5:8, where see note; but the metaphor is differently handled here, for while in c. 5. the
prayers of the saints are the incense or incense-bowls, in this place they are apparently
the live coals on which the grains of incense fall ( , Prim. ut
daret orationibus, Vg. wrongly, ut d. de orationibus), the meeting of the incense and the
hot coals producing the fragrant smoke cloud, the symbol of Divine acceptance. This
change brings into sight the relation of Christs sacrifice and intercession to the prayers
of the Church; cf. Bede: Christo Domino se hostiam suavitatis offerente compunctio
cordis sanctorum acceptabilis facta est. Cf. Eph. 5:2 ...
: the doctrine is
substantially that of Jo. 14:16, 16:23 f., 1 Jo. 2:1 f., Rom. 8:34, Heb. 12:25.
, not of the martyrs only (6:9 f.) but of all the faithful; cf. Eph. 3:18. The Angel
with the golden censer belongs perhaps to the scenery of the vision rather than to its
teaching; at the same time it does not seem improbable that the
(Heb. 1:14) are concerned in some way with the ministry of prayeran idea anticipated
in Tob. 12:15
, and frequent in Enoch (9:3, 15:2, 40:6, 47:2, 104:1). , upon
the altar (of incense); one sees the whole process depicted, the fire kindled on the altar,
and then taken up into the censer where it receives the incense: see Lev. 10:1
... ,
, 16:12 ,
Num. 16:46 (17:11) .
4. .] I.e., from the censer in the Angels hand; cf. Ezek. 8:11
, .
, the dat. commodi, for the benefit of the prayers, i.e. to help them
(Blass, Gr. p. 111), or perhaps (WM. p. 270) the dative of reference; the incense-cloud
stood in a certain relation to the prayers, as their symbol and representative; it was
given to them (v. 3). The symbolical meaning of the incense offered in the Temple
was well understood in pre-Christian times, cf. Ps. 140. (141.) 2
.
The words added by C (app. crit.) appear to be a gloss from c. 11:3.
5. .] The Angel had laid aside the censer.
But he takes it again (on followed by see 5:7 f., note) in order to fulfil
another office; it is to be used now not for intercession but for judgement. The censer is
again filled with fire from the altar: cf. Isa. 6:6
. But now no incense is added, and no fragrant cloud goes
up; the contents of the censer are poured upon the earth; the prayers of the saints return
to the earth in wrath: cf. Ezek. 10:2 ...
. There is perhaps an ultimate reference to the doom of
Sodom (Gen. 19:24).
This casting of fire on the earth (cf. Lc. 12:49) is immediately followed by results
( ) premonitory of a great
WM. Winer-Moulton, Grammar of N. T. Greek, 8th Engl. ed. (Edinburgh, 1877).

visitation; cf. 4:5, 6:12, 11:19, notes, and for see Ezek. 3:12
. The whole scene in
vv. 35 is a prelude to the Seven Trumpets, which now begin to sound.
6. .] The Angels of the Presence who are charged
with the Seven Trumpets know the signal, and make ready. They are seen to take their
stand and to raise the trumpets to their mouths. : (, Num.
10:5 ff.), , in Biblical Greek take the place of , (W. Schm.
p. 105); cf. , Apoc. 18:22.
The first four Trumpet-blasts, like the first four Seal-openings, form a closely
connected group. They describe the coming visitation as primarily affecting inanimate
Nature; although animals and men are involved in the destruction which is caused (vv.
9, 11), direct judgements upon mankind are reserved for the last three. The imagery was
perhaps in part suggested by the storms earthquakes and eclipses of the first century.
7. .] The judgements ushered in by
the first four Trumpets borrow many of their features from the Plagues of Egypt; cf.
Iren. 4:30. 4: the attentive reader inveniet easdem plagas universaliter aceipere gentes
quas tune particulatim accepit Aegyptus. recalls the seventh plague;
Exod. 9:24 a description of a
semitropical thunderstorm which is heightened here by .

. to mix with blood, cf. Ps. 105. (106.) 35 ( ) : the

usual construction is with (Mt. 27:34, Lc. 13:1), or the simple dative (Apoc. 15:2
). A rain of mingled fire and blood is mentioned
also in the Sibyllines, 5:377 ... . Blood-red
rain is not unknown in nature; in the spring of 1901 the daily journals contained
accounts of this phenomenon, which was then being witnessed in Italy and the South of
Europe, the result, as it seemed, of the air being full of particles of fine red sand from
the Sahara. The interpretation suggested to Andreas by passing events is interesting as a
specimen of its kind: []
.
The storm flung itself (, cf. vv. 5, 8, 12:9 f., 20:14 f.) on the earth, with the
result that a third part of its surface and the whole of the verdure were devoured by the
fire (=, cf. 1 Cor. 3:15, 2 Pet. 3:10 (A) an early form
which survives in late Gk., cf. W. Schm. p. 108). (sc. , cf. Num. 28:14)
appears again vv. 8 f., 11 f., 9:15, 9:18, 12:4. See Zech. 13:7 ff. [sc.
] , , and
compare the Rabbinical parallel cited by Schoettgen: percussus est mundus, tertia
nempe pars olearum, tertia pars tritici et tertia hordei. , the land (= )
as contrasted with the sea (v. 8) and other waters (vv. 10 f.). The fire destroyed the
whole of the vegetation, which was scorched at once (cf. Jac. 1:12), and one-third of the
trees and other perishable things. Two-thirds escaped everywhere, i.e. the visitation was
partial, and not final; cf. 6:8. : the fruit-trees especially, the olive, the fig,
and the vine, on which the inhabitants of Palestine and Asia Minor depended so largely:

cf. 7:3 ... a prohibition now partly withdrawn. For

see Mc. 6:39, note, and Apoc. 9:4; cf. 6:8, note.
8 f. .] As at the first trumpetblast the fiery hail was flung upon the earth, so at the second a burning mass falls into
the sea. With may perhaps be compared Jer. 28. (51.) 25,

where Babylon is likened to an (,

,
,
) . But Babylon is
not in view here, and . may be merely a figure of speech for a blazing
mass. If a volcano is in the Apocalyptists mind, the simile may have been suggested
either by the eruption of Vesuvius which desolated the Bay of Naples in August, 79, or
to some movements among the volcanic islands in the Aegean, of which Thera
(Santorin) was the chief (cf. Tozer, Islands of the Aegean, p. 94 ff.); Strabo (1:3. 16)
reports an eruption in B.C. 196 which issued in the formation of a new island afterwards
known as Palaea Kaumene. But volcanoes are not flung bodily into the sea, so that such
phenomena were at most but remotely suggestive of the writers bold conception. He is
perhaps rather indebted to Enoch for the figure of the burning mountain; see En. 18:13
, which is curiously close to
. The phrase seems to have been proverbial; cf. Plaut. mercat. 3:4. 32
montes tu quidem mali in me ardentes iamdudum iacis.
.] The sea is smitten, like the Nile in the
first plague (Exod. 7:20 ); as the fish
in the Nile died (ib. 21), so do the animate inhabitants of the stricken Aegean. With
. cf. 5:13 ... , Ps. 104:25; and for
, Vg. quae habebant animas, animate, see Gen. 1:20

,
(,

) ( ( . The illapse of the burning mass had a still
more serious result; the ships in the waters disturbed by its fall were wrecked; for
of wrecked or disabled ships see Herod. 1:166
. Yet in the case of the sea as in that of the dry land, the visitation
was partial; two-thirds of the inhabitants of the sea and the ships on its surface were
unhurt. The plural (sc. , understood in .)
attributes a quasi-personal life to the ships, in view of their human masters and crews.
10. .] The fresh water supply is
smitten next. At the third trumpet-blast there falls from heaven upon a third of the rivers
and upon the water-springs a great meteor (, cf. Mt. 2:2), flashing across the sky
like a blazing torch (, cf. c. 4:5); for . see v. 8 . With ...
cf. Isa. 14:12 , and Mc. 13:25, note; here
the star is merely a symbol of Divine visitation, like the burning mountain in v. 8.

=,
,



, a common phrase in the LXX. (cf. e.g. 3 Regn.
18:5, Ps. 113. (114.) 8, Hos. 13:15.
11. ] , normally or
but here assimilated in gender to , does not occur elsewhere in the
N.T. or the LXX., though it is used by Aquila in Prov. 5:4, Jer. 9:15, 23:15; the LXX.
render ,
,
, wormwood, variously by , , , . The Heb. word
is employed in the O.T. as a metaphor for (1) the perversion of justice (Amos 5:7, 6:12);

(2) the bitter fruits of idolatry (Deut. 29:17); (3) Divine chastisements (Jer. 9:14); see
B.D.B. s.v. The genus Artemisia, to which wormwood (A. absinthiaca) belongs, is
represented in the flora of Palestine by several species; see Tristram, W.H., p. 493;
Hastings, D. B., 4. p. 941.
.] The reverse of the miracle at
Marah (Exod. 15:23). Wormwood water is more than once in the Prophets a symbol of
suffering, e.g. Jer. 9:15 (14) , 23:15; cf. 4 Esdr. 5:9 in
dulcibus aquis salsae invenientur. Wormwood mixed with water does not kill, but in
the Apocalyptic vision the waters are not mixed with wormwood but changed into it
( ). As the creatures in the sea perished when it was smitten by the
burning mass (v. 9), so the rivers and fountains converted into wormwood are
destructive of human life. For , to die of, see WM. p. 460.
12. .] Visitations on land and
water are followed by a visitation on the heavenly bodies, having for its object the
further punishment of mankind. The conception is borrowed from the ninth of the
Egyptian plagues (Exod. 10:21 ... ... ,
, , , cf. Am. 8:9, Joel 3. (4.) 4). To
the Apocalyptic plague no time limit is fixed, but it is limited in its extent; only a third
of the suns and moons disk is obscured, and a third of the stars suffer occultation. By
this partial eclipse of the lights of heaven a partial darkness would obviously be
produced, but not a shortening of the duration of daylight and moonlight and starlight
such as the following words ( ) seem to suggest.
There is an inconsistency here which shews the writers independence of the ordinary
laws of thought; he is content to produce a desired effect by heaping up symbolism
without regard to the consistency of the details. Here his purpose is chiefly to emphasize
the partial character of the visitation. Its purpose is the reformation and not the
destruction of mankind; it is charged with serious warning, but not with final doom.
Contrast Isa. 30:26 ,
. For see Isa. 9:13, and for (not
) c. 18:23.
The first series of Trumpet-blasts is now complete. It has set loose the elemental
forces of Nature and wrought havoc on a large scale. But the next verse warns the
reader that worse things are to follow.
13. , .] For , cf. 5:11, 6:1; the
scene which follows is one which arrests both eye and ear. may be a correction
for the harder , suggested by 14:6; or possibly it is due to the error of a scribe who
read as ; for , see 4:7, Job 9:26, Prov. 24:54 (30:19).
Had the Apocalyptist written , would probably have taken the place of
; cf. 7:2, 8:3. The eagle is chosen not only for his strength of wing (12:14), but as
the emblem of coming judgement (Mt. 24:28, Apoc. Bar. 77:19 ff.); points perhaps
to the solitary figure projected against the sky (cf. Mt. 21:19), but in such instances
approaches in meaning to or the indefinite article, cf. 9:13, 18:21, and see Blass, Gr.
p. 144. , in the meridian or the zenith; that part of the sky where

the sun is at noon-day; cf. 14:6, 19:17. The eagle , i.e. he flies not near the
horizon where he may pass unobserved, but overhead, where his course can be seen by
all. The word is said to belong to Alexandrian Greek: Pollux 4:157
. Syr.gw. for has simply

.] The eagle is not only seen but heard.

In Ezek. 16:23 (A), Apoc. 18:10, 18:16, 18:19, the double is merely for emphasis;
the triple here has reference to the three remaining trumpet-blasts or rather the
visitations that will follow them; see 9:12
. : the acc. after is unusual, the dativus incommodi might
rather have been expected, as in Lc. 6:24 ff.; but cf. 12:12
, and see Blass (Gr. p. 112), who compares vae me=vae mihi. The earth has
suffered already from the first four Trumpets; the time has now come for her inhabitants
to suffer yet more severely. , the pagan or non-Christian
population of the Empire, as in 3:10, 6:10, 11:10, 13:8 ff., 17:2 ff.
, by reason of the remaining trumpet-blasts.
modifies the sound is that of the trumpet; is
unnecessary, since the readers attention is not called to the plurality of the trumpets but
to the trumpet-like utterance which proceeds from each of the angels. On in this
sense see WM. p. 461.