Revelation 8

Revelation 8:1

And after these six rolls and seals, ch. vi, containing the several previous judgments that were to fall on the unbelieving Jews, and the prodigies foregoing, and predictions of utter destruction that should fall upon them, follows now the seventh roll and seal, and on the opening of that there was a representation of the service in the temple at the time of offering incense. For, first, I perceived an universal silence for half an hour, that is, the people praying by themselves silently in the court, (as they are wont to do while the high priest is offering in the sanctuary.)

[a] silence in heaven] The manner of offering of incense is here described by way of vision, the high-priest offering it upon the θυμαιτήριον within the temple, the priests shouting and blowing with the trumpet, and the people meanwhile praying without by themselves, every one silently in the court; which prayers of theirs are supposed to go up to God with the incense, ver. 4. (a description of this, see note [e] on Luke i. 10.) These prayers of the people are here first set down by the phrase, σιγὴ ἐν οὐρανῷ, silence in heaven for half an hour, the temple being sometime expressed by heaven, sometime by the host of heaven, that is, the sun, moon, and stars, (see ver. 12,) and the silence there being the private prayer of the people in the court, Luke i. 10, and the time of half an hour being the space that those prayers used to continue, while the priest continued within at the altar in the temple, and after which he used to come out, and pronounce the blessing on the people, and dismiss them, but till then they stayed and prayed: see Luke i. 21. And if beside this primary and literal, any secondary mystical sense of this phrase, silence in heaven about half an hour, need to be observed, it may not unfitly be this, that it denote a short amazement in the faithful persevering Christians, joined with an awful reverence of the Divine Majesty, and compassion of their native country, upon the apprehension of the calamities now to be inflicted. These might justly provoke a sadness and an amazement. But then the consideration of God’s glory, arising out of this his justice upon the impenitent, and also of the merciful deliverance of the faithful, not only from this misery, but even by means of this misery, (the destruction of the persecutors being the release of the persecuted,) these make the amazement and compassion not to remain long, and so the silence to be for a short space. But this by the way, as a descent, not an interpretation. Then next, the trumpeting of the priests, the sons of Aaron, Ecclus. l. 16, is here expressed by the seven trumpets given to the seven angels, ver. 2, then the high-priest’s offering the incense is described by the other angel having the golden censer, &c. ver. 3. And all this representation was here fitly set in the vision to signify the prayers of the true faithful Christians, and their acceptance with God, to which is consequent their deliverance; while all other the impenitent unbelievers have this vengeance poured down upon them, nay, as an effect of the hearing these prayers of the godly, (though they prayed not for judgments on the rest,) is the very vengeance on the wicked, who persecute the godly, (as when Abel’s blood is said to cry to heaven for vengeance against Cain,) for so every where most bitterly did the Jews persecute the Christians. See note [b] on ch. ii, and Gal. vi. 12.

Revelation 8:2

And the seven angels or officers that waited on God, ch. i. 4, like so many priests in the temple, sounded their trumpets.

3, 4. And another angel, as the high priest, offered up the incense with which the people’s prayers are supposed to ascend to God. By this, signifying the prayers of all faithful people, persecuted by these obdurate Jews, to have come to God’s ears, and to have found admission there:

Revelation 8:5

And as an effect or consequent of that, that is, of that persecution, and their prayers for deliverance, (not for this vengeance,) it is, that the angel fills his censer with fire from the altar of burnt offerings, that is, with the wrath of God, (so oft expressed in the prophets by fire,) and that wrath consuming, (such as the fire that consumed the burnt sacrifice totally,) and cast it upon all Judæa; and the effects of that were voices, and thunders, (that is, noise of thunders,) and lightnings, and earthquake, that is, great, heavy, sudden, wasting judgments upon that people, represented here in general, but particularly set down in the consequents of the sounding the seven trumpets.

[b] voices, and thunderings, and—] That φωναὶ and Βρονταὶ, voices and thunders, are all one, (from the equivocalness of the Hebrew word, which signifies both,) hath been often said; and so here, by these two words there is no more meant than either of them would have imported, thunder; to which lightning and earthquake are fitly joined, to signify in general the judgments of God, and vengeance on this people, which are more specially described and represented under the sounding of the seven trumpets that follow, and the productions of

Revelation 8:6

Then the seven angels set their trumpets to their mouths, every one, and were ready to blow, and did so, one after another, each of which had a several signification in it.

Revelation 8:7

And when the first sounded, I saw falling upon Judæa hail and fire mingled with blood, a fit emblem of seditions and commotions, and they fell upon Judæa, and wasted it in a bloody manner; and the obedient, meek, pious Christians that would not join with them in their seditious practices were terribly plundered and wasted by them. And this fell heavily upon the tetrarchate of Abylene (see note [b] ch. vii.) as well as upon Judæa.

[c] fire] What is signified by the soundings of the three first angels here, will be guessed by the πῦρ, fire, observable in each of them here, πῦρ μεμιγμένον ἐν αἵματι, fire joined with the hail precedent, (and then blood superadded to both of them,) a mountain burning with fire, ver. 8, and a star burning as it were a lamp, ver. 10. Now there is nothing more fitly resembled by fire, than sedition or rebellion is. All kind of contention being indeed a fire, and ordinarily styled πύρωσις, a combustion: but the greater it is, as rebellion is of all others the greatest, the better it deserves that title: and this, because as a little fire sets a whole house, a whole kingdom, a whole world on fire, James iii. 5, 6, and beginning from very small sparks ascends quickly into a very great flame; so sedition began by one, secretly steals on and increases, draws whole multitudes unto it, and then, as fire also, devours and destroys wherever it comes, lays all waste before it. Now it is observable in the Jewish records of those times, how full the history is of two sorts of most violent disturbers, στασιωσταὶ and ζηλωταὶ, the seditious and the zealots. And though the fire here might properly enough belong to either of these, yet it is very fit to make a distinction between them in the predictions here, as we know there is in the histories of them. The στασιωσταὶ, or seditious, stirred up rebellion against the Romans, pretending and designing to cast off that yoke of their conquerors, under the conduct of the ψευδόχριστοι, false Christs, which undertook to redeem Israel out of their slavery. But the ζηλωταὶ, zealots, exercised tyranny and all manner of cruelty upon their own countrymen. The latter of these were immediately before the siege, and in time of the siege, and are described by the lorusts most fitly, ch. ix. 3. But the former, the seditious, which raised those stirs and tumults, which caused the Romans to send armies to the subduing of them, and so were the foundation of that bloody wasting war, and by several degrees promoted it, are the subject of this part of the vision, upon the sounding of the four first angels. Of this sort was the Egyptian impostor, mentioned Acts xxi. 38, and more largely by Josephus, (Ant. l. 20. c. 6, and De Bell. Jud. l. 2. c. 12, and out of him by Eusebius, l. 2. c. 21,) who led after him to mount Olivet thirty thousand men, meaning from thence to force his passage into Jerusalem, and seize upon the Roman guards, and possess himself of the city, but was prevented and discomfited by Felix, about the end of Claudius’s reign. But this is somewhat too early to be referred to here. That which seems most probable is, that these first trumpets in this chapter contain the space of time from the coming of Albinus to his prefecture, and the Jews’ sufferings under him, then under Gessius Florus, his successor, as also the spoiling of Galilee, by Cestius Gallus, prefect of Syria, to which fitly follows the siege, and attempt of Gallus on Jerusalem, the importance of the sounding of the fourth trumpet. Under

[d] green grass] What is here distinctly meant by the green grass, χόρτος χλωρός, can be but conjectured; and that perhaps will be best done by comparing it with Ezek. xx. 47, where God’s judgments are described by a fire, (as here,) falling and devouring every green tree, and every dry. What is the meaning of this, appears, ch. xxi. 3, I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked; where the righteous are evidently described by the green, as the wicked by the dry tree. Thus Luke xxiii. 31, it proverbially signifies, if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in a dry? If the righteous escape so hardly, where shall the ungodly and sinners appear? And the elegance and significance lying not in that of the tree, but of the greenness, that doth as fitly hold in the grass as the tree. And thus it is clearly used, ch. ix. 4, where the grass and green thing and tree are opposed to those that have not the seal of God in their foreheads, and so are the righteous opposed to the impenitent, and particularly the Christians in Judæa, on whom the violence of these tumults and seditions fell heavily, as those which were hated by the Jews, and which would not take up arms with them, and join in their seditious practices.

Revelation 8:8

And upon the second angel’s sounding there was another representation of a great multitude of the same or like seditious persons rising in Galilee, and the suppressing of them cost a great deal of blood, consumed a great multitude of Galilæans,

[e] third part of the sea became blood] That the tumults and rebellions of the seditious are here represented by these three first angels, is more manifest than what those seditions particularly were which are denoted by each of them. Our Saviour saith of these times, that many should arise, and deceive many; and the event hath confirmed it. At every turn some or other arose and undertook to lead them out, and nothing is to be met with in the stories of these times but the raising of seditions among the Jews, and the coming of the Romans to suppress them. And therefore it is not needful to distribute these several representations of the three first trumpets, and apply them severally, but to understand them in gross of this matter. Yet supposing (what hath been shewed, note [b] on c. vii.) that the sea here (noting the sea or lake of Tiberias) may signify Galilee, it will be commodious enough to understand this of that sedition raised in Galilee, which Vespasian was by Nero sent to quell about the year of Christ 69, in the twelfth of Nero. At which time, saith Baronius out of Josephus, he subdued the Galileans, Gentem fortissimam, totius Palæstinæ potentissimam et munitissimam, “the most valiant, powerful and best fortified country of all Palestine.” Which action of his being so considerable and remarkable for the slaughter of above an hundred thousand, and the carrying above forty thousand Jews captive, may fitly be here represented under the third part of the sea becoming blood, and the dying of the third part of the creatures, that is, Jews, in the sea, that is, of Galilee, and the third part of the ships, that is, of the cities, which are to a country as ships to a sea, the places wherein men live and traffick, and wherein they are fortified against enemies, as by ships against the

Revelation 8:9

Made a great destruction of men, and vastation of the most eminent cities there: (see note [e].)

10, 11. And upon the sounding of the third, an eminent person, taking upon him to be a captain among them, and drawing many after him, raised a sedition in the lesser cities and towns of Galilee: (see note [e].) And this sedition was a bitter, pernicious one to those that joined in it, brought a force from the Romans, slew a great multitude more in those parts of Galilee.

² from the fire of the altar, ἐκ τοῦ κυρὸς τοῦ θυσ. ³ on the land, εἰς τὴν γῆν. ⁴ was, ἐγένετο. ⁵ land, γῆν. ⁶ The King’s MS. reads, καὶ τὸ τρίτον τῆς γῆς κατεκάη, καὶ τρίτον τῶν δένδρων, and the third part of the earth was burnt up, and the third part of the trees.

Revelation 8:11

[f] Wormwood] Wormwood is in scripture sometimes used to express that which infecteth others, infusing its bitterness into them; and so it may signify any impostor that seduceth and draws others after him, as many of those seditious captains did to their destruction. Sometimes it is used to signify any bitter effect, any heavy calamity: and so here it may signify also these tumults of the seditious bringing great slaughters on Judæa, as appears by Josephus’s story, De Bell. Jud. l. 2 and 3.

Revelation 8:12

[g] third part of the sun was smitten, and the—] That the temple is described and expressed generally in the scripture by an host, hath been formerly shewed, note [f] on 1 Tim. i. That this host is in visions or prophetical dark representations fitly expressed by the sun, moon, and stars, will be easily consented to, when we but remember that those are called the host of heaven, and that the temple is commonly a representation of heaven, and sometimes represented by it, (see ver. 1,) and accordingly the Christian church is called the kingdom of heaven ofttimes in the Gospel. Then that the particulars of sun, moon and stars are severally mentioned, rather than the heaven the aggregate body, is by that ordinary manner of speaking among the Hebrews, which express the whole by enumeration of the several parts of it, (see note [e] on 2 Pet. iii.) And so here it may possibly denote the service of the temple, which was performed by night, (ye that by night stand in the courts of God, saith the Psalmist, the watches being then kept,) as well as by day, which is here also mentioned by ἡ νῦξ, the night, as well as ἡμίρα, the day; which could not severally have been mentioned, had not the sun for the day, and the moon and stars for the night, been accordingly mentioned also. And if this be it, then when it is said that the third part of these was smitten, the meaning must be, that an heavy distress now fell upon the temple, and the service of God there was shrewdly disturbed by this siege, but not (at this part of the vision) wholly destroyed. But besides this, there is another interpretation, of which the words are more clearly capable, so as the sun signify the temple, the moon the city, and the stars all the people, and all together the whole nation, (as in Joseph’s prophetic dream, the sun, moon and stars are all the family of Jacob,) against which here the woes are denounced, ver. 13, according to the words in Josephus, Woe, woe to the city, and the people, and the temple, (see note [h]). And this seems the more probable interpretation. See note [n] on Matt. xxiv.

Revelation 8:13

[h] Woe, woe, woe] Concerning this angel flying in the midst of

Revelation 8:16

They shall no more be persecuted or restrained from assemblies: (see Isaiah xlix. 10.)

Revelation 8:17

But live peaceably in Christ’s fold, (see psalm xxiii. 2;) and having sown in tears, they shall now reap in joy the fruits of their patience and perseverance, (see Isaiah xxv. 8,) a peaceable time of serving God. (Such as the Christians had in the days of Vespasian and Titus after the destruction of the Jews.)

CHAP. VIII.

AND when he had opened the seventh seal, there was [a] silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.