HarperCollins Study Bible

by Harold W. Attridge

13.16 Marked, i.e., branded or tattooed as a mark of ownership and devotion to the beast (tattooing was used to identify slaves in the ancient world); this marking is a counterpart to the sealing of Christians with the name of God (see note on 7.2).

  13.18 The number of the beast, a code name based on the numeric value of letters. Six hundred sixty-six, perhaps the numeric value of the name Nero Caesar in Hebrew.

  Revelation 14

  The Lamb and the 144,000

  1Then I looked, and there was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion! And with him were one hundred forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 2And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, 3and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the one hundred forty-four thousand who have been redeemed from the earth. 4It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins; these follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from humankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb, 5and in their mouth no lie was found; they are blameless.

  The Messages of the Three Angels

  6Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who livea on the earth—to every nation and tribe and language and people. 7He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

  8Then another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”

  9Then another angel, a third, followed them, crying with a loud voice, “Those who worship the beast and its image, and receive a mark on their foreheads or on their hands, 10they will also drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and they will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image and for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”

  12Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith ofb Jesus.

  13And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.”

  Reaping the Earth’s Harvest

  14Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like the Son of Man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand! 15Another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to the one who sat on the cloud, “Use your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” 16So the one who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.

  17Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18Then another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over fire, and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” 19So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth, and he threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God. 20And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the wine press, as high as a horse’s bridle, for a distance of about two hundred miles.c

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  a Gk sit

  b Or to their faith in

  c Gk one thousand six hundred stadia

  14.1–20 Three loosely connected visions dealing with eschatological judgment and salvation.

  14.1–5 A victory vision of the Lamb and the 144,000.

  14.1 Mount Zion, i.e., Jerusalem as the center of God’s eschatological action (Ps 2.6; Isa 24.23; 40.9–11; 2 Esd 13.35–40; Heb 12.22–24). One hundred forty-four thousand. See note on 7.4.

  14.2–3 Preparatory heavenly throne-room scene; see note on 4.1–11.

  14.3 A new song. See note on 5.9. No one could learn that song. Knowledge of heavenly realities is often said to be reserved only for the pure.

  14.4 Virgins, males who are chaste, though not necessarily sexually inexperienced; ritual impurity was widely thought to follow sexual intercourse (Lev 15.18), and celibacy was a ritual requirement for holy warriors (Deut 23.9–14; 1 Sam 21.5–6). Follow the Lamb, a metaphor for discipleship and martyrdom (see Mt 19.28; Lk 9.57–58; Jn 12.26). The word translated first fruits actually means “servants devoted to God” and has nothing to do with first fruits as a sacrificial harvest metaphor. Here the term is applied to martyrs as sacrificial victims (cf. Jer 2.3; Rom 16.5; 1 Cor 15.20, 23).

  14.6–13 The second vision consists of three angelic messages.

  14.6 An eternal gospel, not the saving message of Jesus’ death and resurrection, but the message referred to in v. 7.

  14.7 The eternal message is the necessity of repentance in light of the imminent judgment (see also Deut 10.12–15; Acts 14.15–17).

  14.8 Babylon the great, code name for Rome (see Introduction; 17.1–5, 18; 1 Pet 5.13); Rome’s future fall is announced as if past (see 16.19; 17.5, 16–18; 18.2). The wine of the wrath of God, a metaphor derived from Jer 25.15–17; 51.7 (repeated in Rev 14.10; 17.2; 18.3).

  14.9 Mark. See note on 13.16.

  14.10 Wine unmixed with water was considered extremely potent and was a metaphor for severe judgment (see Ps 75.8; Jer 25.15).

  14.13 Blessed. See note on 1.3.

  14.14–20 A vision of the gathering of the righteous (vv. 14–16) and the judgment of the wicked (vv. 17–20) based on the grain and grape harvests of Joel 3.13.

  14.14 The white cloud (see note on 11.12) functions as a throne and is also associated with the figure of the Son of Man (Dan 7.13; see notes on 1.7; 1.13), a common title for Jesus in the Gospels; he gathers the elect in Mk 13.26–27. The author appears unaware of the extensive Son of Man tradition in the Gospels.

  14.15 The grain harvest symbolizes judgment (Hos 6.11; Mt 13.30, 39) or, as here, the gathering of the elect (Lk 10.2; Jn 4.35–38), an eschatological event based on the hope of the regathering of the twelve tribes of Israel.

  14.18 The angel who has authority over fire. In Jewish tradition various angels superintend particular aspects of the world, including wind (7.1), water (16.5; 1 Enoch 66.2), and the bottomless pit (9.11); see also 1 Enoch 60.11–22.

  14.19 Wine press, another metaphor for divine judgment (see 19.15; Isa 63.1–3; Lam 1.15).

  Revelation 15

  The Angels with the Seven Last Plagues

  1Then I saw another portent in heaven, great and amazing: seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is ended.

  2And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. 3And they sing the song of Moses, the servanta of God, and the song of the Lamb:

  “Great and amazing are your deeds,

  Lord God the Almighty!

  Just and true are your ways,

  King of the nations!b

  4Lord, who will not fear

  and glorify your name?

  For you alone are holy.

  All nations will come

  and worship before you,

  for your judgments have been revealed.”

  5After this I looked, and the temple of the tentc of witness in heaven was opened, 6and out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues, robed in pure bright linen,d with golden sashes across their chests. 7Then one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls full o
f the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever; 8and the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were ended.

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  a Gk slave

  b Other ancient authorities read the ages

  c Or tabernacle

  d Other ancient authorities read stone

  15.1–16.21 The last seven plagues; see note on 8.2–9.21.

  15.2–8 Preparatory heavenly throne-room scene (see note on 4.1–11).

  15.2 A sea of glass, i.e., a sea so smooth that it appears glasslike; see note on 4.6. Harps of God. See note on 5.8.

  15.3 Song of Moses. See Ex 15.1–18; Deut 32.1–47.

  15.5 The tent of witness, i.e., the heavenly tabernacle (Heb 8.2; 9.11), which was considered the model for the earthly tabernacle (see Ex 25.9, 40; 26.30; 27.8).

  15.7 Seven golden bowls, cultic utensils used for libations (Ex 27.3; 38.3; Num 4.14).

  15.8 In the OT, a cloud of smoke can represent the presence or glory of God (see Ex 24.16; Lev 16.2; 1 Kings 8.10–11; Isa 6.4).

  Revelation 16

  The Bowls of God’s Wrath

  1Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”

  2So the first angel went and poured his bowl on the earth, and a foul and painful sore came on those who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped its image.

  3The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing in the sea died.

  4The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. 5And I heard the angel of the waters say,

  “You are just, O Holy One, who are and were,

  for you have judged these things;

  6because they shed the blood of saints and prophets,

  you have given them blood to drink.

  It is what they deserve!”

  7And I heard the altar respond,

  “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty,

  your judgments are true and just!”

  8The fourth angel poured his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire; 9they were scorched by the fierce heat, but they cursed the name of God, who had authority over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory.

  10The fifth angel poured his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness; people gnawed their tongues in agony, 11and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores, and they did not repent of their deeds.

  12The sixth angel poured his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up in order to prepare the way for the kings from the east. 13And I saw three foul spirits like frogs coming from the mouth of the dragon, from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet. 14These are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. 15(“See, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and is clothed,a not going about naked and exposed to shame.”) 16And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Harmagedon.

  17The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!”18And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a violent earthquake, such as had not occurred since people were upon the earth, so violent was that earthquake. 19The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. God remembered great Babylon and gave her the wine-cup of the fury of his wrath. 20And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found; 21and huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds,b dropped from heaven on people, until they cursed God for the plague of the hail, so fearful was that plague.

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  a Gk and keeps his robes

  b Gk weighing about a talent

  16.2 A foul and painful sore, reminiscent of the sixth plague of Ex 9.8–12.

  16.3 See the first plague of Ex 7.14–25 (see also Pss 78.44; 105.29).

  16.5 Angel of the waters. See note on 14.18. You are just, O Holy One, a doxology emphasizing God’s just dispensation of judgment (see Neh 9.33; Dan 9.14; Tob 3.2).

  16.9 They did not repent, a motif from the Exodus plagues tradition; see note on 9.20.

  16.10 The throne of the beast, the center of imperial power in Rome (13.2).

  16.12 Euphrates, the natural boundary between the rival powers of Parthia and Rome (see note on 9.14). Its water was dried up. In antiquity the Euphrates never dried up; this miracle is the antithesis of the crossing of the Red Sea (Ex 14). Kings from the east, the Parthians and their subordinate kingdoms.

  16.13 False prophet, the beast from the land under a new alias (13.11–18).

  16.14 To assemble them for battle. The tumult and assault of the Gentiles against Israel is a common eschatological motif (see Ezek 38–39; Zech 12.1–9; see also notes on 11.2; 11.18). The great day of God. See note on 6.17.

  16.15 I am coming like a thief! An isolated saying inserted by the author; see note on 3.3. Blessed. See note on 1.3.

  16.16 They, the three demonic spirits. Harmagedon, Hebrew term probably meaning “mountain(s) of Megiddo,” a city in a valley in central Palestine that was the site of important ancient battles because of its strategic position (see Judg 5.19; 2 Kings 23.29–30).

  16.17 It is done. The wrath of God has ended (15.1), yet the end is not yet (see 21.6).

  16.19 The great city, Babylon, i.e., Rome. God remembered great Babylon. Divine justice is often linked with divine remembrance (see Jer 14.10; Hos 7.2; 8.13); the destruction of Babylon is described in 17.1–18.24.

  16.20 No mountains were to be found, a motif found in OT theophany and judgment scenes (see Ps 97.5; Isa 40.4; Ezek 38.20).

  Revelation 17

  The Great Whore and the Beast

  1Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great whore who is seated on many waters, 2with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk.” 3So he carried me away in the spirita into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. 4The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication; 5and on her forehead was written a name, a mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of whores and of earth’s abominations.” 6And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses to Jesus.

  Alternate Ways of Counting the Roman Emperors Signified in Rev 17.10–11

  Column A begins with Julius Caesar, following a traditional way of counting the emperors (see Dio Chrysostom, Discourses 34.7; Josephus, Antiquities 18.32; Sibylline Oracles 5.12–51).

  Column B modifies the sequence of Column A by omitting the three short–lived emperors of 68–69 CE

  Column C reflects another traditional way of counting the emperors and begins with Augustus, the first actually to receive that title (see Virgil, Aeneid 6.789–97; Tacitus, Annals 1.1).

  Column D modifies the sequence of Column C by omitting the three short–lived emperors of 68–69.

  Column E reflects the judgment of some modern scholars that the enumeration begins with Gaius, infamous for his treatment of Jews.

  Column F reflects the judgment of other modern scholars that the enumeration begins with Gaius, infamous for his treatment of Jews.

  Column G represents the scheme of Victorinus of Pettau in his Commentary on the Apocalypse (17.9–11).

  Column H shows the first five emperors deified by the Roman senate, followed by Domitian
, who claimed divinity while living. The list concludes with a mythical, Nero-like adversary of God derived from legends about Nero’s return from death (see Sibylline Oracles 4.138–39; 5.108–10, 214–27).

  When I saw her, I was greatly amazed. 7But the angel said to me, “Why are you so amazed? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her. 8The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to ascend from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the inhabitants of the earth, whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will be amazed when they see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.

  9“This calls for a mind that has wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; also, they are seven kings, 10of whom five have fallen, one is living, and the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain only a little while. 11As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. 12And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. 13These are united in yielding their power and authority to the beast; 14they will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”

  15And he said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the whore is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. 16And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the whore; they will make her desolate and naked; they will devour her flesh and burn her up with fire. 17For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by agreeing to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled. 18The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.”