Westminster Pelican Commentaries

Revelation
J. P. M. SWEET

The Westminster Press

PHILADELPHIA
 © J. P. M. Sweet, 1979
The Bible text in this publication is from the Revised Sl41ld41'd
Vel'sion of the Bible, copyright 1946 and 1952 by the Division of
Christian Education, National Council of Churches, and used by
permission.

Published by The Westminster Press@

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

987 6 , 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Sweet, John Philip McMurdo.

Revelation.

(Westminster Pelican commentaries)

Bibliography: p.
Includes indexes.
1. Bible. N.T. Revelation-Commentaries.
I. Bible. N.T. Revelation. English. Revised standard.
1979. II. Title. III. Series.
BS2825.3.S93 228'.Q7'7 78·26383
ISBN 0·664-21375·8
ISBN 0·664·24262·6 pbk.
 gl-S

Finally, just as in ch. 7 we are given anticipatory glimpses beyond

the great tribulati071, so after the final woe, which corresponds to it,
ch. 14 adumbrates the triumph of the Lamb and his followers, the
fate of the beast's city and worshippers, and the final coming of the
Son of man (cf. Matt. 24'7).
The concluding section, the bowls, goes over much of the same
ground, but it is not simply a more explicit recapitulation. It has a
new focus: the final doom of Satan's work, now seen as embodied in
the harlot, Babylon, and the fmal triumph of God's work, embodied
in the Bride, New Jerusalem - themes already stated in the fourth
and seventh letters. The Lord's Apocalypse is still in view: the coming
of the Son of man, the conquering Bridegroom, is the centre of the
picture (19" f f.).

THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS

8 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for
about half an hour. Z Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God,
and seven trumpets were given to them. 3 And another angel came and stood
at the altar with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle
with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne;
4and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the
hand of the angel before God. J Then the angel took the censer and filled it
with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth; and there were peals of
thunder, loud noises, flashes of lightning, and, an earthquake.

After the judgment scene introduced by the sixth unsealing, the

seventh might be expected to usher in the consummation, or at least
spell out the contents of the scroll, but in fact there is silence, followed
by a further septet of disasters.
This half-hour silence ~as caused much speculation. Stauffer explains
it from the ritual of the Games, r but we are on firmer ground with
, Which he seems to have invented. His reconstruction (pp, 184ff.) is
attractive but lacks evidence.
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 81 - 5
the ritual of the daily sacrifice in the Jewish temple, as set out in the
Mishnah (Tamid). It began with the trimming of the sevenfold lamp
(Rev. 1-3), then came the slaughter of the lamb (56) and the blood-
offering poured at the base of the altar (6 9 ), then the incense-offering
(8 3- 5) - a time of prayer (cf. Luke 110), to which the silence might
correspond. The liturgy continued with the burnt-offering of the
lamb and a drink-offering (c£ 16 1 ) accompanied by the blowing
of trumpets (8 6 ), and the singing of psalms (c£ 19 1 - e). Charles ex-
plains the silence by reference to a Talmudic tradition (Hagigah 12 b)
that in the fifth heaven angels sing praises by night, but are silent by
day so that Israel's praises may be heard. Here, 'the prayers of the
highest orders of angels in heaven are hushed that the prayers of
all the suffering saints on earth may be heard before the throne'
(I, p. 224).
Rissi (Time and History, pp. 3-6) suggests, more convincingly, the
primeval silence out of which issues the Word of God, to create the
world (II Esd. 6 39 , 730, II Baruch 37 , Gen. 1 3 in Jewish exegesis); or
to punish the Egyptians (Wisd. 18 14 - (6 ); or to dwell among men
(John 1 14, Ignatius, Magn. 8». So now silence precedes the fmal
Egyptian punishment and the re-creation of the world (cf. II Esd.73 I).
The trumpets which follow the half-hour of prayer do not give the
contents of the scroll - for that see ch. 10. They arc warning blasts,
summoning the world to repentance (cf. 9 20 f.). Here is another word
of multiple associations: trumpets were used in liturgy and in war,
for warning, for assembly, for victory (c£ e.g. Ex. 19 16 , Josh. 64ff.,
Isa. 27 13 , Ezek. 33 3, Amos 36, Joel 2 " I'). They were blown on New
Year's Day, to initiate a penitential season leading up to the Day of
Atonement ten days later. They were part of the imagery of the Day
of the Lord, with its themes of gathering, battle, judgment and a new
order (c£ Matt. 2431 , I Cor. 15 52 , I Thess. 4 16).

I
silence: Jewish expectation was that the world would return to primeval
chaos (cf. 6 12 - 14); out of it a new world would arise (cf. II Esd. 7'9 f f.).

2
The seven angels: the seven archangels of Judaism, who 'present the
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prayers of the saints' (Tobit 121 5). They are named Uriel. Raphael,
Raguel. Michael, Sariel, Gabriel, Remeiel (I Enoch 20).

3
the altar: combining the earthly temple's altar for sacrifice and altar for
incense. See on 69.

incense to mingle with the prayers ofall the saints: lit. 'to put on the prayers',
as if they are the burning charcoal on which grains of incense are poured
to make smoke. Through the sacrifice of the Lamb the prayers of the
saints (cf. Sl) have access to God's presence (cf. John 14 1 3, I6 a,). and are
poured out as coals of wrath on the earth (v. 5). Not that the saints pray
for the plagues that follow. They ask for justice (6 10), and it was a
commonplace that 'the instruments of a man's sin are the instruments
of his punishment' (Wisd. II Iii; cf. Rev. 164- 7). But that is God's
bwiness, as Paul told the Romans (12 1 9- 21 ). The saints do not specify
what should happen to their persecutors as the psalmists do. They pray
in accordance with Jesus' teaching (Luke 18 1 - 8), and II 1.1 suggests that
'Thy kingdom come!' was their prayer.

4
Smoke hides the glory of God (15 8, 1sa. 64). Contrast the smoke of the
torment of those who worship the beast (1411).

S
fire . •• threw it on the earth: John again draws on Ezekiel. Af~er the
marking of the penitent (9 4 : cf. Rev. 7 3) and the smiting of the rest.
the man clothed in linen is told to take 'burning coals from between the
cherubim [= God's throne], and scatter them over the city' (10)).
Fire figures prominently in the following plagues (Rev. 87 f ., 10,9" 17);
cf. also Luke 1249-.1 I.

pealsof thunder etc.: cf. II I\) and 16 t1 ; each of the three septets con-
cludes with the son et lumiere proper to the divine throne (4.1). being
manifestations of its hidden power in the rebellious world. The model
is Mount Sinai and the giving of the law (Ex. 19 16ff.). See on 6 U and
p. 145 note g.

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