REVELATION 15 VIEWED THROUGH DIFFERENT LENSES

 

Revelation 15 viewed through different lenses

There are some superficial readers of Revelation who immediately come to the conclusion that it consists of the ravings of a mentally unbalanced person or someone high on drugs. But the problem isn't that this book is totally disorganized. In fact, it is just the opposite. It is so highly organized and packed with ideas, allusions and images that it only appears to be confusing. So I thought it might be instructive to show how a variety of perspectives can begin to bring out some of the richness of the book. As a relatively easy example I picked the shortest chapter in Revelation, ch. 15, to demonstrate my thesis above.

Textual

You can't even begin to study this chapter or any other one in the Bible without first having confidence that you are reading a translation based on a reliable Greek text. And the problem is that there are literally thousands of early manuscripts (i.e. handwritten documents) to compare with one another using generally accepted criteria to determine which reading is the more authentic when the words disagree with on another on occasion. This is the job of textual critics who attempt to carry out this task in an objective manner.

It turns out that the Greek wording in at least four verses of Revelation 15 is somewhat in doubt.

Verse 3: The phrase “king of the ages” is found in some early manuscripts and “king of nations” in others. Comfort opts for the former, feeling that “nations” was added by some scribes due to that word being in the very next verse. By contrast, Metzger prefers “nations” over “ages” for two reasons: (a) “ages” probably came from recollection of I Timothy 1:17 (“To the king of ages...be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”) and (b) “nations” makes more sense in the context. There is additional support for Metzger's view found in the “Literary” section below.

Verse 4: According to Metzger, there are actually six variant readings in the first line of this verse (“Lord, who does not fear”), most adding “you” somewhere in the verse, “feeling the need of an object for the verb.” Such additions are not really needed to clarify the thought in the line.

Verse 6: The textual note in NRSV mentions that some early manuscripts have the angels robed in “stone” (lithon) in place of “linen” (linon). Metzger rejects “stone” as making no sense at all (but see below for another view).

Doctrinal and Symbolic

vs. 1: They are called the last plagues in this verse “because they bring to completion the wrath of God.” (Beagley)

vs. 2: “The use of nikao (Rev 12:11; 15:2; Rom 8:35-37) confirms that 'overcoming' is best understood individually, ironically, and as an inaugurated event, not merely as a future reality on a corporate level. The ironic, or paradoxical, meaning of nikao is modeled after that of Christ's eschatological conquest (Rev 3:21).” (Beale)

vs. 3: “The name of Moses is conjoined with that of Christ because a similar, though greater, deliverance has been wrought from a similar, though greater, foe.” (Beasley-Murray)

“Wrath against apostate Israelites because of idolatry is the focus in Deut. 32 as here judgment on apostate Christians together with the nations is in view.” (Beale and McDonough)

“Every believer is a priest in his or her own right, but collectively they are a kingdom. Christ is the king (Rev 9:11; 15:3; 17:4; 19:16), and the people over whom he rules are a kingdom of priests (Rev 1:6,9; 5:10; 11:15; 12:10).” (Giles)

Arnold comments on verse 3: “The one God is unequalled in power and sovereignty. He is therefore acclaimed pantokrator, 'all powerful.' The epithet appears nine times in the Apocalypse (e.g., Rev 4:8; 11:17; 15:3...).”

“John likes to use the phrase 'the Lord God'...This phrase comes up particularly in contexts in which prayer or praise is being offered up to God, and it is sometimes combined with the term pantokrator ('almighty'; Rev 15:3; 19:6; 21:22) to indicate the magnitude of God's sovereignty.” (Witherington)

“All ten uses of truth language in Revelation are with the adjective alethinos. Often the adjective describes the activities or characteristics of Jesus or God as true. In Revelation 3:7,14 Jesus is spoken of as the 'true one' and 'true witness' respectively. In Revelation 6:10 the Lord is praised as 'holy and true'; in Revelation 15:3 'just and true are the ways of the Lord God'; in Revelation 16:7 and Revelation 19:2 God's judgments are 'true and just.'” (Reed)

vv. 3-4: Wu and Pearson comment: “Hymn singing is an important element in Christian worship, being a spiritualized form of sacrifice replacing animal sacrifices of temple service...The content of these hymns is mainly descriptive praise directed toward God or Christ and blended with motifs derived from the OT...”

vv. 3-5: Seifrid states, “The churches stand in the relation to the risen Lord that he stood to the Father in his earthly ministry...They are martyred for their witness (Rev 6:9-11; 12:10), just as he was for his (Rev 1:5). And they likewise share in his triumph (Rev 7:17; 15:3-5; 19:1-20:15).”

vs. 4: “God, as holy, stands apart from and opposed to sin and evil...he alone is able to administer justice and judge rightly.” (Hawthorne)

Similarly, Newman says, “Three times in Revelation (Rev 16:5,7; 19:2; cf. Rev 15:3) it is said of God that his judgments are 'just' (phikaios).”

vs. 5: Beasley-Murray notes that the opening up of the temple in heaven “emphasizes that the judgments about to be executed are the expression of God's righteousness.”

vv. 5-8: The “heaven beyond the material heaven is portrayed as a temple (cf. Rev 11:19; 15:5-8), of which the earthly one is but a shadow and copy (Heb 8:2,5; 9:24).” (daSilva)

vs. 7: Newman says, “The seven bowls are full of God's anger (Rev 15:7; 16:1), and only when the bowls are emptied shall God's anger cease (Rev 15:1). God's anger and wrath, however, should never be construed as indiscriminate vengeance. Revelation asserts that God's judgments are always 'just and true' (Rev 16:5; 19:2).”

vs. 8: “Long deferred though God's judgment may be, when once it is begun it proceeds with terrible swiftness. The seven receptacles of His wrath are not narrow-necked 'vials', from which the contents trickle slowly, but wide, shallow bowls, whose entire contents splash out immediately when they are upturned. But while the strange and swift work is going on, the sanctuary is inaccessible; the meaning may be that the time for intercession is past.” (Bruce)

Newman says, “Revelation combines theophanic, royal and prophetic imagery in the description of the eschatological, heavenly temple that will be filled with the smoke 'from the glory of God and from his power...'”

Davies states that “whereas Hebrews' use of temple imagery is primarily concerned with the redemptive historical accomplishment of Jesus' entrance into the holy of holies, Revelation has a focus upon the heavenly temple as the place of God's abode (Rev 15:8), the place from which the earth is governed and judgment emanates (Rev. 14:15,17; 16:1,17). Yet it is also the place of safety for the saints (Rev 3:12; 7:15).”

Historical

Few scholars zero in on this important aspect of the visions in Revelation. However, Webb looks at the book from the perspective of historical events surrounding the author at the time of writing.: “The intensity and scope of the suffering in Revelation clearly transcends that of 1 Peter...From the perspective of the Apocalypse, much of the persecution was due to a political movement to enforce the cult of the emperor worship..Christians appear to have been forced into economic hardship, ...imprisoned...or slain for their faith...as a result of their refusal to participate in the emperor cults (cf. Rev 13:14; 14:9,11; 15:2; 16:2; 19:20; 20:4).”

Prophetic

Walvoord, writing from a dispensational premillenial viewpoint says of verses 1-2, “This description of praise to God and prediction of universal worship is in keeping with many other Scriptures and relates, of course to the second coming of Christ and worship of God by the entire world in the millennial kingdom...The awful hour of wickedness and blasphemy against God, which will characterize the period leading up to the Second Coming will be followed by a full vindication of God's judgment and holiness in the next period.”

“The first exodus, out of Egypt and out from under Pharaoh's tyrannical power, will be recaptitulated by divine design in a final, end-time exodus of God's people out from under the tyrannical oppression and rule of the 'beast' over the world.” (Beale and McDonough)

Beasley-Murray comments on the parallel passages 6:1-8:15; 8:6-11:19; and chapters 15-16: “These three series of judgments in Revelation have been interpreted as following in chronological sequence...There is, however, one major feature of the three series of judgments that makes this interpretation difficult to accept: each of the three series concludes with a description of the day of the Lord.”

“Given...frequent references to the judgment as something in the past [i.e. in Revelation 6:16-17; 14:7; 14:15; 15:4; 16:17; 18:10], it is understandable how it might be argued (as by Hanson) that the judgment which comes to Babylon (Rome!)...refers to the processes of history and not only to the final eschatological act. As Hanson puts the key point: 'This is not to say that the wrath has no reference to the end of hisory; but it never refers purely to that end. It is always a process; sometimes a process viewed as culminating in the end.'” (Kreitzer)

“There have been numerous interpretations of how the seals, trumpets and bowls relate to each other, some interpreters seeing them consecutively and others with various degrees of overlap, some more and some less literally, but in any event in the end Babylon is destroyed (Rev 17:1-18:24), making way for the return of Christ.” (Porter)

Intertextual

The great correspondence between the whole of Revelation and the Old Testament is in evidence also in Rev. 15. Since Ford feels that John the Baptist wrote the book, she is a good resource for pointing out some of the parallels between Revelation found both in the Greek version of the OT and the writings between the two Testaments. Just some of these are given below:

Revelation 15:                          Other Writings

vs. 1a “plagues”                       Exodus 11:1-9

vs. 1b “wrath” (thumos)           Leviticus 26:28

vs. 2b heavenly “fire”              Ezekiel 1:4,13,27

vs. 2a “crystal sea”                  I Kings 7:23-26

vs. 5 “tent of witness”              Exodus 33:7; Josephus Antiquities 4.100, 1-2-3

vs. 6 “stone”                            Ezekiel 28:12-13, if “stone” is the reading rather than “linen”

vs. 7 “golden bowls”               Exodus 27:3; Numbers 7: I Kings 8:3; Antiquities 3.150

vs. 8 “filled with smoke”        I Kings 8:10-14; II Chronicles 7:2-3; Ezekiel 10:3-4

Bruce points to some additional correspondences within the poetic center of the chapter:

vs. 3a “song of Moses”                                          Exodus 15; Deuteronomy 32

vs. 3c “Lord God Almighty”                                 Isaiah 6:3

vs. 3b “Great and amazing are your deeds”          Psalms 104:24; 11:2; 139:14

vs. 3c “king of the ages”                                       Jeremiah 10:10

vs. 3b “just and true are your ways”                     Psalm 145:17

vs. 4 “you alone are holy”                                    Psalms 86:10; 99:3,5,9

Some additional parallels have been pointed out between Revelation 15 and Exodus 15 by commentators:

vv. 1,7 “wrath/fury of God”                                  Exodus 15:4

vv. 2 “sea”                                                             Exodus 15:4

vv. 4,8 “glorious(ly)”                                            Exodus 15:1,6

v. 7 “forever and ever”                                          Exodus 15:18

Ethical

Most commentators are so busy trying to make sense out of Revelation from a prophetic viewpoint that they totally ignore the practical and ethical implications underpinning the whole book. The most important of these is perhaps the call for Christians to remain faithful to their call even in the face of opposition. This sort of loyal and steadfast behavior will also have a profound effect on those who observe your actions under trial. Kim states that “the church is empowered by the Spirit of prophecy (Rev 11:3-6; 19:10), and its faithful witness to the kingship of the true God and the Lamb unto death among all the nations brings about the conversion of the nations from idolatry to the worship of the true God (Rev 11:13; 15:2-4). Thus God's kingship is made effective over the nations at present through the church's witness.”

Literary

This short chapter breaks down into an ABA' type structure when the verses are separated by genre:

A. Prose: Revelation 15:1-2

        B. Poetry: Revelation 15:3-4

A'. Prose: Revelation 15:5-8

I have chosen to include the prose introduction of verse 3a in the middle section, although one could just as easily have it conclude the first section. Reinforcing these tripartite divisions are the following verbal parallels between A and A:;

“and...I saw...in heaven” – verses 1 and 5 This pair occurs at the respective beginnings of sections A and A'.

“seven angels with seven plagues” – verses 1,6, and 8

“the wrath of God is ended (v. 1) // “the seven plagues...were ended” (v. 8) These two phrases serve to conclude sections A and A'.

In addition, it is characteristic of chapter 15 to utilize the same Greek words exactly twice. Most of these duplications have the effect of strengthening the topical unity that exists within each of the three major units. Thus we see “sea of glass” appearing twice in Section A (both in v. 2), “song” two times in B (both in v. 3), and “nations” also in B (vv. 3 and 4). And acting as a bridge connecting all three units together is the following word chain: “name” in verses 2 (A) and 4 (B) as well as “glory/glorify” in v. 4 (B) and v. 8 (A').

Toward the start of this post, I mentioned that Comfort rejected the word “nations” in v. 3, feeling that it was added by some scribes due to that word being in v. 4 as well. But we can see from the above examples that such doubling of words was fully in keeping with the author's practice elsewhere in the chapter.