And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
20. that they should not worship idols ] This verse gives us the only clue we have to the interpretation. It is a plague on idolaters that is here described neither on unfaithful Christians, nor on antichristian infidels of a more refined type unless the latter shall in the last days, as in the age of the Roman persecutions, and one may almost say of the Renaissance and Reformation, ally itself against the Gospel with the vulgar or sensuous idolatry which it was its natural tendency to despise.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues … – One third part is represented as swept off, and it might have been expected that a salutary effect would have been produced on the remainder, in reforming them, and restraining them from error and sin. The writer proceeds to state, however, that these judgments did not have the effect which might reasonably have been anticipated. No reformation followed; there was no abandonment of the prevailing forms of iniquity; there was no change in their idolatry and superstition. In regard to the exact meaning of what is here stated Rev 9:20-21, it will be a more convenient arrangement to consider it after we have ascertained the proper application of the passage relating to the sixth trumpet. What is here stated Rev 9:20-21 pertains to the state of the world after the desolations which would occur under this woe-trumpet; and the explanation of the words may be reserved, therefore, with propriety, until the inquiry shall have been instituted as to the general design of the whole.
With respect to the fulfillment of this symbol – the sixth trumpet – it will be necessary to inquire whether there has been any event, or class of events occurring at such a time, and in such a manner, as would be properly denoted by such a symbol. The examination of this question will make it necessary to go over the leading points in the symbol, and to endeavor to apply them. In doing this I shall simply state, with such illustrations as may occur, what seems to me to have been the design of the symbol. It would be an endless task to examine all the explanations which have been proposed, and it would be useless to do so.
The reference, then, seems to me to be to the Turkish power, extending from the time of the first appearance of the Turks in the neighborhood of the Euphrates, to the final conquest of Constantinople in 1453. The general reasons for this opinion are such as the following:
- If the previous trumpet referred to the Saracens, or to the rise of the Muhammedan power among the Arabs, then the Turkish dominion, being the next in succession, would be what would most naturally be symbolized.
- The Turkish power rose on the decline of the Arabic, and was the next important power in affecting the destinies of the world.
- This power, like the former, had its seat in the East, and would be properly classified under the events occurring there as affecting the destiny of the world.
- The introduction of this power was necessary, in order to complete the survey of the downfall of the Roman empire – the great object kept in view all along in these symbols.
In the first four of these trumpets, under the seventh seal, we found the decline and fall of the Western empire; in the first of the remaining three – the fifth in order – we found the rise of the Saracens, materially affecting the condition of the Eastern portion of the Roman world; and the notice of the Turks, under whom the empire at last fell to rise no more, seemed to be demanded in order to the completion of the picture. As a leading design of the whole vision was to describe the ultimate destiny of that formidable power – the Roman – which, in the time when the Revelation was given to John ruled over the whole world; under which the church was then oppressed; and which, either as a civil or ecclesiastical power, was to exert so important an influence on the destiny of the church, it was proper that its history should be sketched until it ceased – that is, until the conquest of the capital of the Eastern empire by the Turks. Here the termination of the empire, as traced by Mr. Gibbon, closes; and these events it was important to incorporate in this series of visions.
The rise and character of the Turkish people may be seen stated in full in Gibbon, Decline and Fall, iii. 101-103, 105, 486; iv. 41, 42, 87, 90, 91, 93, 100, 127, 143, 151, 258, 260, 289, 350. The leading facts in regard to the history of the Turks, so far as they are necessary to be known before we proceed to apply the symbols, are the following:
(1) The Turks, or Turkmans, had their origin in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea, and were divided into two branches, one on the east, and the other on the west. The latter colony, in the 10th century, could muster 40,000 soldiers; the other numbered 100,000 families (Gibbon, iv. 90). By the latter of these, Persia was invaded and subdued, and soon Bagdad also came into their possession, and the seat of the caliph was occupied by a Turkish prince. The various details respecting this, and respecting their conversion to the faith of the Koran, may be seen in Gibbon, iv. 90-93. A mighty Turkish and Moslem power was thus concentrated under Togrul, who had subdued the caliph, in the vicinity of the Tigris and the Euphrates, extending east over Persia and the countries adjacent to the Caspian Sea, but it had not yet crossed the Euphrates to carry its conquests to the west. The conquest of Bagdad by Togrul, the first prince of the Seljuk race, was an important event, not only in itself, but as it was by this event that the Turk was constituted temporal lieutenant of the prophets vicar, and so the head of the temporal power of the religion of Islam. The conqueror of the East kissed the ground, stood some time in a modest posture, and was led toward the throne by the vizier and an interpreter. After Togrul had seated himself on another throne his commission was publicly read, which declared him the temporal lieutenant of the prophet. He was successively invested with seven robes of honor, and presented with seven slaves, the natives of the seven climates of the Arabian empire, etc. Their alliance (of the sultan and the caliph) was cemented by the marriage of Togruls sister with the successor of the prophet, etc. (Gibbon, iv. 93).
The conquest of Persia, the subjugation of Bagdad, the union of the Turkish power with that of the caliph, the successor of Muhammed, and the foundation of this powerful kingdom in the neighborhood of the Euphrates, is all that is necessary to explain the sense of the phrase which were prepared for an hour, etc., Rev 9:15. The arrangements were then made for the important series of events which were to occur when that formidable power should be summoned from the East, to spread the predicted desolation over so large a part of the world. A mighty dominion had been forming in the East that had subdued Persia, and that, by union with the caliphs, by the subjugation of Bagdad, and by embracing the Muhammedan faith, had become prepared to play its subsequent important part in the affairs of the world.
(2) The next important event in their history was the crossing of the Euphrates, and the invasion of Asia Minor. The account of this invasion can be best given in the words of Mr. Gibbon: Twenty-five years after the death of Basil (the Greek emperor), his successors were suddenly assaulted by an unknown race of barbarians, who united the Scythian valor with the fanaticism of new proselytes, and the art and riches of a powerful monarchy. The myriads of Turkish horse overspread a frontier of 600 miles from Taurus to Arzeroum, and the blood of one hundred and thirty thousand Christians was a grateful sacrifice to the Arabian prophet. Yet the arms of Togrul did not make any deep or lasting impression on the Greek empire. The torrent rolled away from the open country; the sultan retired without glory or success from the siege of an Armenian city; the obscure hostilities were continued or suspended with a vicissitude of events; and the bravery of the Macedonian legions renewed the fame of the conqueror of Asia. The name of Alp Arslan, the valiant lion, is expressive of the popular idea of the perfection of man; and the successor of Togrul displayed the fierceness and generosity of the royal animal. (The heads of the horses were as the heads of lions.) He passed the Euphrates at the head of the Turkish cavalry, and entered Caesarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia, to which he had been attracted by the fame and the wealth of the temple of Basil (vol. iv. 93, 94; compare also p. 95).
(3) The next important event was the establishing of the kingdom of Roum in Asia Minor. After a succession of victories and defeats; after being driven once and again from Asia Minor, and compelled to retire beyond its limits; and after subjecting the East to their arms (Gibbon, iv. 95-100) in the various contests for the crown of the Eastern empire, the aid of the Turks was invoked by one party or the other until they secured for themselves a firm foothold in Asia Minor, and established themselves there in a permanent kingdom – evidently with the purpose of seizing upon Constantinople itself when an opportunity should be presented (Gibbon, iv. 100, 101). Of this kingdom of Roum Mr. Gibbon (iv. 101) gives, the following description, and speaks thus of the effect of its establishment on the destiny of the Eastern empire: Since the first conquests of the caliphs, the establishment of the Turks in Anatolia, or Asia Minor, was the most deplorable loss which the church and empire had sustained. By the propagation of the Moslem faith Soliman deserved the name of Gazi, a holy champion; and his new kingdom of the Romans, or of Roum, was added to the table of Oriental geography. It is described as extending from the Euphrates to Constantinople, from the Black Sea to the confines of Syria; pregnant with mines of silver and iron, of alum and copper, fruitful in grain and wine, and productive of cattle and excellent horses. The wealth of Lydia, the arts of the Greeks, the splendor of the Augustan age, existed only in books and ruins, which were equally obscure in the eyes of the Scythian conquerors. By the choice of the Sultan, Nice, the metropolis of Bithynia, was preferred for his palace and fortress – the seat of the Seljukian dynasty of Roum was planted one hundred miles from Constantinople; and the divinity of Christ was denied and derided in the same temple in which it had been pronounced by the first general synod of the Catholics. The unity of God and the mission of Muhammed were preached in the mosques; the Arabian learning was taught in the schools; the cadis judged according to the law of the Koran; the Turkish manners and language prevailed in the cities; and Turkman camps were scattered over the plains and mountains of Anatolia, etc.
(4) The next material event in the history of the Turkish power was the conquest of Jerusalem. See this described in Gibbon, iv. 102-106. By this the attention of the Turks was turned for a time from the conquest of Constantinople – an event at which the Turkish power all along aimed, and in which they doubtless expected to be ultimately successful. Had they not been diverted from it by the wars connected with the Crusades, Constantinople would have fallen long before it did fall, for it was too feeble to defend itself if it had been attacked.
(5) The conquest of Jerusalem by the Turks, and the oppressions which Christians experienced there, gave rise to the Crusades, by which the destiny of Constantinople was still longer delayed. The war of the Crusades was made on the Turks, and as the crusaders mostly passed through Constantinople and Anatolia, all the power of the Turks in Asia Minor was requisite to defend themselves, and they were incapable of making an attack on Constantinople until after the final defeat of the crusaders and restoration of peace. See Gibbon, iv. 106-210.
(6) The next material event in the history of the Turks was the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 ad – an event which established the Turkish power in Europe and completed the downfall of the Roman empire (Gibbon, iv. 333-359).
After this brief reference to the general history of the Turkish power, we are prepared to inquire more particularly whether the symbol in the passage before us is applicable to this series of events. This may be considered in several particulars:
(1) The time. If the first woe-trumpet referred to the Saracens, then it would be natural that the rise and progress of the Turkish power should be symbolized as the next great fact in history, and as that under which the empire fell. As we have seen, the Turkish power rose immediately after the power of the Saracens had reached its height, and identified itself with the Muhammedan religion; and was, in fact, the next great power that affected the Roman empire, the welfare of the church, and the history of the world. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the time is such as is demanded in the proper interpretation of the symbol.
(2) the place. We have seen (in the remarks on Rev 9:14) that this was on or near the river Euphrates, and that this power was long forming and consolidating itself on the east of that river before it crossed it in the invasion of Asia Minor. It had spread over Persia, and had even invaded the region of the East as far as the Indies; it had secured, under Togrul, the conquest of Bagdad, and had united itself with the caliphate, and was, in fact, a mighty power prepared for conquest before it moved to the west. Thus, Mr. Gibbon (iv. 92) says, The more rustic, perhaps the wisest, portion of the Turkmans continued to dwell in the tents of their ancestors; and from the Oxus to the Euphrates these military colonies were protected and propagated by their native princes. So again, speaking of Alp Arslan, the son and successor of Togrul, he says (iv. 94), He passed the Euphrates at the head of the Turkish cavalry, and entered Caesarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia, to which he was attracted by the fame and the wealth of the temple of Basil. If it be admitted that it was intended by John to refer to the Turkish power, it could not have been better represented than as a power that had been forming in the vicinity of that great river, and that was prepared to precipitate itself on the Eastern empire. To one contemplating it in the time of Togrul or Alp Arslan, it would have appeared as a mighty power growing up in the neighborhood of the Euphrates.
(3) the four angels: Loose the four angels which are bound. That is, loose the powers which are in the vicinity of the Euphrates, as if they were under the control of four angels. The most natural construction of this would be, that under the mighty power that was to sweep over the world, there were four subordinate powers, or that there were such subdivisions that it might be supposed they were ranged under four angelic powers or leaders. The question is, whether there was any such division or arrangement of the Turkish power, that, to one looking on it at a distance, there would seem to be such a division. In the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (iv. 100) we find the following statement: The greatness and unity of the Turkish empire expired in the person of Malek Shah. The vacant throne was disputed by his brother and his four sons; and, after a series of civil wars, the treaty which reconciled the surviving candidates confirmed a lasting separation in the Persian dynasty, the oldest and principal branch of the house of Seljuk. The three younger dynasties were those of Kerman, of Syria, and of Roum; the first of these commanded an extensive, though obscure dominion, on the shores of the Indian Ocean; the second expelled the Arabian princes of Aleppo and Damascus: and the third (our special care) invaded the Roman provinces of Asia Minor. The generous policy of Malek contributed to their elevation; he allowed the princes of his blood, even those whom he had vanquished in the field, to seek new kingdoms worthy of their ambition; nor was he displeased that they should draw away the more ardent spirits who might have disturbed the tranquility of his reign.
As the supreme head of his family and nation, the great Sultan of Persia commanded the obedience and tribute of his royal brethren: the thrones of Kerman and Nice, of Aleppo and Damascus; the atabeks and emirs of Syria and Mesopotamia erected their standards under the shadow of his scepter, and the hordes of Turkmans overspread the plains of Western Asia. After the death of Malek the bands of union and subordination were gradually relaxed and dissolved; the indulgence of the house of Seljuk invested their slaves with the inheritance of kingdoms; and, in the Oriental style, a crowd of princes arose from the dust of their feet. Here it is observable, that, at the period when the Turkman hordes were about to precipitate themselves on Europe, and to advance to the destruction of the Eastern empire, we have distinct mention of four great departments of the Turkish power: the original power that had established itself in Persia, under Malek Shah, and the three subordinate powers that sprung out of that of Kerman, Syria, and Roum. It is observable:
(a)That this occurs at the period when that power would appear in the East as advancing in its conquests to the West;
(b)That it was in the vicinity of the great river Euphrates;
(c)That it had never before occurred – the Turkish power having been before united as one; and,
(d)That it never afterward occurred – for, in the words of Mr. Gibbon, after the death of Malek the bands of union and subordination were relaxed and finally dissolved.
It would not be improper, then, to look upon this one mighty power as under the control of four spirits that were held in cheek in the East, and that were prepared to pour their energies on the Roman empire.
(4) the preparation: Prepared for an hour, etc. That is, arranged; made ready – as if by previous discipline – for some mighty enterprise. Applied to the Turkmans, this would mean that the preparation for the ultimate work which they executed had been making as that power increased and became consolidated under Togrul, Alp Arslan, and Malek Shah. In its successful strides Persia and the East had been subdued; the caliph at Bagdad had been brought under the control of the sultan; a union had been formed between the Turks and the Saracens; and the sultanies of Kerman, Syria, and Roum had been established embracing together all the countries of the East, and constituting this by far the most mighty nation on the globe. All this would seem to be a work of preparation to do what was afterward done as seen in the visions of John.
(5) the fact that they were bound: Which are bound in the great river Euphrates. That is, they were, as it were, restrained and kept back for a long time in that vicinity. It would have been natural to suppose that that vast power would at once move on toward the West to the conquest of the capital of the Eastern empire. Such had been the case with the Huns, the Goths, and the Vandals. But these Turkish hordes had been long restrained in the East. They had subdued Persia. They had then achieved the conquest of India. They had conquered Bagdad, and the entire East was under their control. Yet for a long time they had now been inactive, and it would seem as if they had been bound or restrained by some mighty power from moving in their conquests to the West.
(6) the material that composed the army: And the number of the army of the horsemen. And thus I saw the horses in the vision. And the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions. From this it appears that this vast host was composed mainly of cavalry; and it is hardly necessary to say that this description would apply better to the Turkish hordes than to any other body of invaders known in history. Thus, Mr. Gibbon (vol. iv. p. 94) says, The myriads of the Turkish horse overspread a frontier of six hundred miles, from Taurus to Arzeroum, 1050 ad. So again, speaking of Togrul (vol. iv. p. 94), He passed the Euphrates at the head of the Turkish cavalry (ibid.). So again (vol. iii. p. 95), Alp Arslan flew to the scene of action at the head of forty thousand horse. 1071 a.d. So in the attack of the crusaders on Nice, the capital of the Turkish kingdom of Roum, Mr. Gibbon (vol. iv. p. 127) says of the sultan Soliman: Yielding to the first impulse of the torrent, he deposited his treasure and family in Nice; retired to the mountains with fifty thousand horse, etc. And so again (ibid.), speaking of the Turks who rallied to oppose the strange invasion of the Western barbarians, he says, The Turkish emirs obeyed the call of loyalty or religion; the Turkman hordes encamped round his standard; and his whole force is loosely stated by the Christians at two hundred, or even three hundred and sixty thousand horse, 1097 a.d. Every student of history knows that the Turks, or Turkmans, in the early periods of their history, were remarkable for their cavalry.
(7) their numbers: And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand. That is, it was vast, or it was such as to be reckoned by myriads, or by tens of thousands – duo muriades muriadon – two myriads of myriads. Thus, Mr. Gibbon (vol. iv. p. 94) says, The myriads of Turkish horse overspread, etc. It has been suggested by Daubuz that in this there may be probably an allusion to the Turkman custom of numbering by tomans, or myriads. This custom, it is true, has existed elsewhere, but there is probably none with whom it has been so familiar as with the Tartars and Turks. In the Seljukian age the population of Samarcand was rated at seven tomans (myriads), because it could send out 70,000 warriors. The dignity and rank of Tamerlanes father and grandfather was thus described, that they were the hereditary chiefs of a toman, or 10,000 horse – a myriad (Gibbon, vol. iv. p. 270); so that it is not without his usual propriety of language that Mr. Gibbon speaks of the myriads of the Turkish horse, or of the cavalry of the earlier Turks of Mount Altai, being, both men and horses, proudly computed by myriads. One thing is clear, that to no other invading hosts could the language used here be so well applied, and if it were supposed that John was writing after the event, this would be the language which he would be likely to employ – for this is nearly the identical language employed by the historian Gibbon.
(8) their personal appearance: Them that sat on them having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone – as explained above, in a uniform of red, and blue, and yellow. This might, undoubtedly, be applicable to other armies besides the Turkish hordes; but the proper question here is, whether it would be applicable to them. The fact of the application of the symbol to the Turks in general must be determined from other points in the symbol which designate them clearly; the only natural inquiry here is, whether this description would apply to the Turkish hosts; for if it would not, that would be fatal to the whole interpretation. On the application of this passage to the Turks Mr. Daubuz justly remarks, that from their first appearance the Ottomans have affected to wear warlike apparel of scarlet, blue, and yellow – a descriptive trait the more marked from its contrast to the military appearance of the Greeks, Franks, or Saracens contemporarily. Mr. Elliott adds: It only needs to have seen the Turkish cavalry (as they were before the late innovations), whether in war itself, or in the djerrid wars mimicry, to leave an impression of the absolute necessity of some such notice of their rich and varied colorings, in order to give in description at all a just impression of their appearance, vol. i. p. 481.
(9) The remarkable appearance of the cavalry: Having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone; and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone. It was remarked in the exposition of this passage that this is just such a description as would be given of an army to which the use of gunpowder was known, and which made use of it in these wars. Looking now upon a body of cavalry in the heat of an engagement, it would seem, if the cause were not known, that the horses belched forth smoke and sulphurous flame. The only question now is, whether in the warfare of the Turks there was anything which would especially or remarkably justify this description. And here it is impossible not to advert to the historical fact that they were among the first to make use of gunpowder in their wars, and that to the use of this destructive element they owed much of their success and their ultimate triumphs.
The historical truth of this it is necessary now to advert to, and this will be done by a reference to Mr. Gibbon, and to the account which he has given of the final conquest of Constantinople by the Turks. It will be seen how he puts this new instrumentality of war into the foreground in his account; how prominent this seemed to him to be in describing the victories of the Turks; and how probable, therefore, it is that John, in describing an invasion by them, would refer to the fire and smoke and brimstone, that seemed to be emitted from the mouths of their horses. As preparatory to the account of the siege and conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, Mr. Gibbon gives a description of the invention and use of gunpowder. The chemists of China or Europe had found, by casual or elaborate experiments, that a mixture of saltpetre, sulpher, and charcoal produces, with a spark of fire, a tremendous explosion. It was soon observed that if the expansive force were compressed in a strong tube, a ball of stone or iron might be expelled with irresistible add destructive velocity. The precise era of the invention and application of gunpowder is involved in doubtful traditions and equivocal language; yet we may clearly discern that it was known before the middle of the fourteenth century; and that before the end of the same the use of artillery in battles and sieges, by sea and land, was familiar to the states of Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and England. The priority of nations is of small account; none could derive any exclusive benefit from their previous or superior knowledge; and in the common improvement they stood on the same level of relative power and military science.
Nor was it possible to circumscribe the secret within the pale of the church; it was disclosed to the Turks by the treachery of apostates and the selfish policy of rivals; and the sultans had sense to adopt, and wealth to reward, the talents of a Christian engineer. By the Venetians the use of gunpowder was communicated without reproach to the sultans of Egypt and Persia, their allies against the Ottoman power; the secret was soon propagated to the extremities of Asia; and the advantage of the European was confined to his easy victories over the savages of the New World, vol. iv. p. 291. In the description of the conquest of Constantinople Mr. Gibbon makes frequent mention of their artillery, and of the use of gunpowder, and of its important agency in securing their final conquests, and in the overthrow of the Eastern empire. Among the implements of destruction he (the Turkish sultan) studied with special care the recent and tremendous discovery of the Latins; and his artillery surpassed whatever had yet appeared in the world. A founder of cannon, a Dane or Hungarian, who had almost starved in the Greek service, deserted to the Moslems, and was liberally entertained by the Turkish sultan. Muhammed was satisfied with the answer to his first question, which he eagerly pressed on the artist: Am I able to cast a cannon capable of throwing a ball or stone of sufficient size to batter the walls of Constantinople? I am not ignorant of their strength, but, were they more solid than those of Babylon, I could oppose an engine of superior power; the position and management of that engine must be left to your engineers. On this assurance a foundry was established at Adrianople; the metal was prepared; and at the end of three months Urban produced a piece of brass ordnance of stupendous and almost incredible magnitude: a measure of twelve palms is assigned to the bore; and the stone bullet weighed above six hundred pounds.
A vacant place before the new palace was chosen for the first experiment; but to prevent the sudden and mischievous effects of astonishment and fear, a proclamation was issued that the cannon would be discharged the ensuing day. The explosion was felt or heard in a circuit of 100 furlongs; the ball, by force of gunpowder, was driven above a mile; and on the spot where it fell it buried itself a fathom deep in the ground, vol. iv. p. 339. So, in speaking of the siege of Constantinople by the Turks, Mr. Gibbon says of the defense by the Christians (vol. iv. p. 343): The incessant volleys of lances and arrows were accompanied with the smoke, the sound, and the fire of their musketry and cannon. The same destructive secret, he adds, had been revealed to the Moslems, by whom it was employed with the superior energy of zeal, riches, and despotism. The great cannon of Muhammed has been separately noticed – an important and visible object in the history of the times; but that enormous engine was flanked by two follows almost of equal magnitude; the long order of the Turkish artillery was pointed against the walls; fourteen battories thundered at once on the most accessible places; and of one of these it is ambiguously expressed that it was mounted with one hundred and thirty guns, or that it discharged one hundred and thirty bullets, vol. iv. pp. 343, 344.
Again: The first random shots were productive of more sound than effect; and it was by the advice of a Christian that the engineers were taught to level their aim against the two opposite sides of the salient angles of a bastion. However imperfect, the weight and repetition of the fire made some impression on the walls, vol. iv. p. 344. And again: A circumstance that distinguishes the siege of Constantinople is the reunion of the ancient and modern artillery. The cannon were intermingled with the mechanical engines for casting stones and darts, the bullet and the battering-ram were directed against the same walls; nor had the discovery of gunpowder superseded the use of the liquid and inextinguishable fire, vol. iv. p. 344. So again, in the description of the final conflict when Constantinople was taken, Mr. Gibbon says, From the lines, the galleys, and the bridge, the Ottoman artillery thundered on all sides; and the camp and city, the Greeks and the Turks, were involved in a cloud of smoke which could only be dispelled by the final deliverance or destruction of the Roman empire, vol. iv. p. 350. Assuredly, if such was the fact in the conquests of the Turks, it was not unnatural in one who was looking on these warriors in vision to describe them as if they seemed to belch out fire and smoke and brimstone. If Mr. Gibbon had designed to describe the conquest of the Turks as a fulfillment of the prediction, could he have done it in a style more clear and graphic than what he has employed? If this had occurred in a Christian writer, would it not have been charged on him that he had shaped his facts to meet his notions of the meaning of the prophecy?
(10) the statement that their power was in their mouth, and in their tails, Rev 9:19. The former part of this has been illustrated. The inquiry now is, what is the meaning of the declaration that their power was in their tails? In Rev 9:19 their tails are described as resembling serpents, having heads, and it is said that with them they do hurt. See the notes on that verse. The allusion to the serpents would seem to imply that there was something in the horses tails, as compared with them, or in some use that was made of them, which would make this language proper; that is, that their appearance would so suggest the idea of death and destruction, that the mind would easily imagine they were a bundle of serpents. The following remarks may show how applicable this was to the Turks:
(a) In the Turkish hordes there was something, whatever it was, that naturally suggested some resemblance to serpents. Of the Turkmans when they began to spread their conquests over Asia, in the eleventh century, and an effort was made to rouse the people against them, Mr. Gibbon makes the following remark: Massoud, the son and successor of Mahmoud, had too long neglected the advice of his wisest Omrahs. Your enemies (the Turkmans), they repeatedly urged, were in their origin a swarm of ants; they are now little snakes; and unless they be instantly crushed, they will acquire the venom and magnitude. of serpents, vol. iv. p. 91.
(b) It is a remarkable fact that the horses tail is a well-known Turkish standard – a symbol of office and authority. The pashas are distinguished, after a Tartar custom, by three horsetails on the side of their tents, and receive by courtesy the title of beyler beg, or prince of princes. The next in rank are the pashas of two tails, the beys who are honored with one tail – Edin. Ency. (art. Turkey). In the times of their early warlike career the principal standard was once lost in battle, and the Turkman commander, in default, cut off his horses tail, lifted it on a pole, made it the rallying ensign, and so gained the victory. So Tournefort in his Travels states. The following is Ferrarios account of the origin of this ensign: An author acquainted with their customs says, that a general of theirs, not knowing how to rally his troops that had lost their standards, cut off a horses tail, and fixed it to the end of a spear; and the soldiers rallying at that signal, gained the victory.
He adds further, that whereas on his appointment a pasha of the three tails used to receive a drum and a standard, now for the drum there have been substituted three horses tails, tied at the end of a spear, round a gilded haft. One of the first officers of the palace presents him these three tails as a standard (Elliott, vol. i. pp. 485, 486). This remarkable standard or ensign is found only among the Turks, and, if there was an intended reference to them, the symbol here would be the proper one to be adopted. The meaning of the passage where it is said that their power is in their tails would seem to be, that their tails were the symbol or emblem of their authority – as in fact the horses tail is in the appointment of a pasha. The image before the mind of John would seem to have been, that he saw the horses belching out fire and smoke, and, what was equally strange, he saw that their power of spreading desolation was connected with the tails of horses. Anyone looking on a body of cavalry with such banners or ensigns would be struck with this unusual and remarkable appearance, and would speak of their banners as concentrating and directing their power. The above engraving, representing the standard of a Turkish pasha, will illustrate the passage before us.
(11) the number slain, Rev 9:18. That is said to have been the third part of men. No one in reading the accounts of the wars of the Turks, and of the ravages which they have committed, would be likely to feel that this is an exaggeration. It is not necessary to suppose that it is literally accurate, but it is such a representation as would strike one in looking over the world, and contemplating the effect of their invasions. If the other specifications in the symbol are correct, there would be no hesitation in admitting the propriety of this.
(12) the time of the continuance of this power. This is a material, and a more difficult point. It is said Rev 9:15 to be an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year; that is, as explained, three hundred and ninety-one years, and the portion of a year indicated by the expression an hour; to wit, an additional twelfth or twenty-fourth part of a year. The question now is, whether, supposing the time to which this reaches to be the capture of Constantinople, and the consequent downfall of the Roman empire – the object, in view in this series of visions – in reckoning back from that period for 391 years, we should reach an epoch that would properly denote the moving forward of this power toward its final conquest; that is, whether there was any such marked epoch that, if the 391 years were added to it, it would reach the year of the conquest of Constantinople, 1453 a.d. The period that would be indicated by taking the number 391 from 1453 would be 1062 – and that is the time in which we are to look for the event referred to. This is on the supposition that the year consisted of 360 days, or twelve months of thirty days each. If, however, instead of this, we reckon 365 days and six hours, then the length of time would be found to amount to 396 years and 106 days.
This would make the time of the loosening of the angels, or the moving forward of this power, to be 1057 a.d. In the uncertainty on this point, and in the unsettled state of ancient chronology, it would, perhaps, be vain to hope for minute accuracy, and it is not reasonable to demand it of an interpreter. On any fair principle of interpretation it would be sufficient if at about one of these periods – 1062 a.d. or 1057 ad – there was found such a definite or strongly marked event as would indicate a movement of the hitherto restrained power toward the West. This is the real point, then, to be determined. Now, in a common work on chronology I find this record: 1055 a.d., Turks reduce Bagdad, and overturn the empire of the caliphs. In a work still more important to our purpose (Gibbon, iv. 92, 93), under the date of 1055 a.d., I find a series of statements which will show the propriety of referring to that event as the one by which this power, so long restrained, was let loose; that is, was placed in such a state that its final conquest of the Eastern empire certainly followed.
The event was the union of the Turkish power with the caliphate in such a way that the sultan was regarded as the temporal lieutenant of the vicar of the prophet. Of this event Mr. Gibbon gives the following account. After mentioning the conversion of the Turks to the Moslem faith, and especially the zeal with which the son of Seljuk had embraced that faith, he proceeds to state the manner in which the Turkish sultan Togrul came in possession of Bagdad, and was invested With the high office of the temporal lieutenant of the vicar of the prophet. There were two caliphs, those of Bagdad and Egypt, and the sublime character of the successor of the prophet was disputed by them, iv. 93. Each of them became solicitous to prove his title in the judgment of the strong though illiterate barbarians. Mr. Gibbon then says, Mahmoud the Gaznevide had declared himself in favor of the line of Abbas; and had treated with indignity the robe of honor which was presented by the Fatimite ambassador. Yet the ungrateful Hashemite had changed with the change of fortune; he applauded the victory of Zendecan, and named the Seljukian sultan his temporal vicegerent over the Moslem world. As Togrul executed and enlarged this important trust, he was called to the deliverance of the caliph Cayem, and obeyed the holy summons, which gave a new kingdom to his arms. In the palace of Bagdad the commander of the faithful still slumbered, a venerable phantom. His servant or master, the prince of the Bowides, could no longer protect him from the insolence of meaner tyrants; and the Euphrates and the Tigris were oppressed by the revolt of the Turkish and Arabian emirs.
The presence of a conqueror was implored as a blessing; and the transient mischiefs of fire and sword were excused as the sharp but salutary remedies which alone could restore the health of the republic. At the head of an irresistible force the sultan of Persia marched from Hamadan; the proud were crushed, the prostrate were spared; the prince of the Bowides disappeared; the heads of the most obstinate rebels were laid at the feet of Togrul; and he inflicted a lesson of obedience on the people of Mosul and Bagdad. After the chastisement of the guilty, and the restoration of peace, the royal shepherd accepted the reward of his labors; and a solemn comedy represented the triumph of religious prejudice over barbarian power. The Turkish sultan embarked on the Tigris, landed at the gate of Racca, and made his public entry on horseback. At the palace gate he respectfully dismounted, and walked on foot preceded by his emirs without arms.
The caliph was seated behind his black veil; the black garment of the Abbassides was cast over his shoulders, and he held in his hand the staff of the Apostle of God. The conqueror of the East kissed the ground, stood some time in a modest posture, and was led toward the throne by the vizier and an interpreter. After Togrul had seated himself on another throne, his commission was publicly read, which declared him the temporal lieutenant of the vicar of the prophet. He was successively invested with seven robes of honor, and presented with seven slaves, the natives of the seven climates of the Arabian empire. His mystic veil was perfumed with musk; two crowns were placed on his head; two scimetars were girded to his side, as the symbols of a double reign over the East and West. Their alliance was cemented by the marriage of Togruls sister with the successor of the prophet, iv. 93, 94. This event, so described, was of sufficient importance, as constituting a union of the Turkish power with the Moslem faith, as making it practicable to move in their conquests toward the West, and as connected in its ultimate results with the downfall of the Eastern empire, to make it an epoch in the history of nations. In fact, it was the point which one would have particularly looked at, after describing the movements of the Saracens (Rev 9:1-11), as the next event that was to change the condition of the world.
Happily we have also the means of fixing the exact date of this event, so as to make it accord with singular accuracy with the period supposed to be referred to. The general time specified by Mr. Gibbon is 1055 a.d. This, according to the two methods referred to of determining the period embraced in the hour, and day, and month, and year, would reach, if the period were 391 years, to 1446 a.d.; if the other method were referred to, making it 396 years and 106 days to 1451 a.d., with 106 days added, within less than two years of the actual taking of Constantinople. But there is a more accurate calculation as to the time than the general one thus made. In vol. iv. 93 Mr. Gibbon makes this remark: Twenty-five years after the death of Basil his successors were suddenly assaulted by an unknown race of barbarians, who united the Scythian valor with the fanaticism of new proselytes, and the art and riches of a powerful monarchy.
He then proceeds (pp. 94ff) with an account of the invasions of the Turks. In vol. iii. 307 we have an account of the death of Basil. In the sixty-eighth year of his age his martial spirit urged him to embark in person for a holy war against the Saracens of Sicily; he was prevented by death, and Basil, surnamed the slayer of the Bulgarians, was dismissed from the world, with the blessings of the clergy and the curses of the people. This occurred 1025 a.d. Twenty-five years after this would make 1050 a.d. To this add the period here referred to, and we have respectively, as above, the years 1446 a.d., or 1451 a.d., and 106 days. Both periods are near the time of the taking of Constantinople and the downfall of the Eastern empire (1453 a.d.), and the latter strikingly so; and, considering the general nature of the statement of Mr. Gibbon, and the great indefiniteness of the dates in chronology, may be considered as remarkable. – But we have the means of a still more accurate calculation.
It is by determining the exact period of the investiture of Togrul with the authority of caliph, or as the temporal lieutenant of the vicar of the prophet. The time of this investiture, or coronation, is mentioned by Abulfeda as occurring on the 25th of Dzoulcad, in the year of the Hegira 449; and the date of Elmakins narrative, who has given an account of this, perfectly agrees with this. Of this transaction Elmakin makes the following remark: There was now none left in Irak or Chorasmia who could stand before him. The importance of this investiture will be seen from the charge which the caliph is reported by Abulfeda to have given to Togrul on this occasion: The caliph commits to your care all that part of the world which God has committed to his care and dominion; and entrusts to thee, under the name of vicegerent, the guardianship of the pious, faithful, and God-serving citizens. The exact time of this investiture is stated by Abulfeda, as above, to be the 25th of Dzoulcad, A.H. 449.
Now, reckoning this as the time, and we have the following result: The 25th of Dzoulcad, A.H. 449, would answer to February 2, 1058 a.d. From this to May 29, 1453, the time when Constantinople was taken, would be 395 years and 116 days. The prophetic period, as above, is 396 years and 106 days – making a difference only of 1 year and 10 days – a result that cannot but be considered as remarkable, considering the difficulty of fixing ancient dates. Or if, with Mr. Elliott (i. 495-499), we suppose that the time is to be reckoned from the period when the Turkman power went forth from Bagdad on a career of conquest, the reckoning should be from the year of the Hegira 448, the year before the formal investiture, then this would make a difference of only 24 days. The date of that event was the 10th of Dzoulcad, A.H. 448. That was the day in which Togrul with his Turkmans, now the representative and head of the power of Islamism, quitted Bagdad to enter on a long career of war and conquest. The part allotted to Togrul himself in the fearful drama soon to open against the Greeks was to extend and establish the Turkman dominion over the frontier countries of Irak and Mesopotamia, that so the requisite strength might be attained for the attack ordained of Gods counsels against the Greek empire. The first step to this was the siege and capture of Moussul; his next of Singara. Nisibis, too, was visited by him; that frontier fortress that had in other days been so long a bulwark to the Greeks. Everywhere victory attended his banner – a presage of what was to follow.
Reckoning from that time, the coincidence between the period that elapsed from that, and the conquest of Constantinople, would be 396 years and 130 days – a period that corresponds, with only a difference of 24 days, with that specified in the prophecy according to the explanation already given. It could not be expected that a coincidence more accurate than this could be made out on the supposition that the prophecy was designed to refer to these events; and if it did refer to them, the coincidence could have occurred only as a prediction by Him who sees with perfect accuracy all the future.
(13) The effect. This is stated, in Rev 9:20-21, to be that those who survived these plagues did not repent of their wickedness, but that the abominations which existed before still remained. In endeavoring to determine the meaning of this, it will be proper, first, to ascertain the exact sense of the words used, and then to inquire whether a state of things existed subsequent to the invasions of the Turks which corresponded with the description here:
(a) The explanation of the language used in Rev 9:20-21.
The rest of the men – That portion of the world on which these plagues did not come. One third of the race, it is said, would fall under these calamities, and the writer now proceeds to state what would be the effect on the remainder. The language used – the rest of the people – is not such as to designate with certainty any particular portion of the world, but it is implied that the things mentioned were of very general prevalence.
Which were not killed by these plagues – The two-thirds of the race which were spared. The language here is such as would be used on the supposition that the crimes here referred to abounded in all those regions which came within the range of the vision of the apostle.
Yet repented not of the works of their hands – To wit, of those things which are immediately specified.
That they should not worship devils – Implying that they practiced this before. The word used here – daimonion – means properly a god, deity; spoken of the pagan gods, Act 17:18; then a genius, or tutelary demon, e. g., that of Socrates; and, in the New Testament, a demon in the sense of an evil spirit. See the word fully explained in the notes on 1Co 10:20. The meaning of the passage here, as in 1Co 10:20, they sacrifice to devils, is not that they literally worshipped devils in the usual sense of that term, though it is true that such worship does exist in the world, as among the Yezidis (see Layard, Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i. pp. 225-254, and Rosenmuller, Morgenland, iii. 212-216); but that they worshipped beings which were inferior to the Supreme God; created spirits of a rank superior to human beings, or the spirits of people that had been enrolled among the gods. This last was a common form of worship among the pagan, for a large portion of the gods whom they adored were heroes and benefactors who had been enrolled among the gods – as Hercules, Bacchus, etc. All that is necessarily implied in this word is, that there prevailed in the time referred to the worship of spirits inferior to God, or the worship of the spirits of departed people. This idea would be more naturally suggested to the mind of a Greek by the use of the word than the worship of evil spirits as such – if indeed it would have conveyed that idea at all; and this word would be properly employed in the representation if there was any homage rendered to departed human spirits which came in the place of the worship of the true God. Compare a dissertation on the meaning of the word used here, in Elliott on the Apocalypse, Appendix I. vol. ii.
And idols of gold, and silver, … – Idols were formerly, as they are now in pagan lands, made of all these materials. The most costly would, of course, denote a higher degree of veneration for the god, or greater wealth in the worshipper, and all would be employed as symbols or representatives of the gods whom they adored. The meaning of this passage is, that there would prevail, at that time, what would be properly called idolatry, and that this would be represented by the worship paid to these images or idols. It is not necessary to the proper understanding of this, to suppose that the images or idols worshipped were acknowledged pagan idols, or were erected in honor of pagan gods, as such. All that is implied is, that there would be such images – eidola – and that a degree of homage would be paid to them which would be in fact idolatry. The word used here – eidolon, eidola – properly means an image, spectre, shade; then an idol-image, or what was a representative of a pagan god; and then the idol-god itself – a pagan deity. So far as the word is concerned, it may be applied to any kind of image-worship.
Which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk – The common representation of idol-worship in the Scriptures, to denote its folly and stupidity. See Ps. 115; compare Isa 44:9-19.
Neither repented they of their murders – This implies that, at the time referred to, murders would abound; or that the times would be characterized by what deserved to be called murder.
Nor of their sorceries – The word rendered sorceries – pharmakeia – whence our word pharmacy, means properly the preparing and giving of medicine, Eng. pharmacy (Robinsons Lexicon). Then, as the art of medicine was supposed to have magical power, or as the persons who practiced medicine, in order to give themselves and their art greater importance, practiced various arts of incantation, the word came to be connected with the idea of magic sorcery, or enchantment. See Schleusner, Lexicon. In the New Testament the word is never used in a good sense, as denoting the preparation of medicine, but always in this secondary sense, as denoting sorcery, magic, etc. Thus, in Gal 5:20, the works of the flesh – idolatry, witchcraft, etc. Rev 9:21, of their sorceries. Rev 18:23, for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. Rev 21:8, Whoremongers, and sorcerers. The word does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament; and the meaning of the word would be fulfilled in anything that purposed to accomplish an object by sorcery, by magical arts, by trick, by cunning, by sleight of hand, or by deceiving the senses in any way. Thus, it would be applicable to all jugglery and to all pretended miracles.
Nor of their fornication – Implying that this would be a prevalent sin in the times referred to, and that the dreadful plagues which are here predicted would make no essential change in reference to its prevalence.
Nor of their thefts – Implying that this, too, would be a common form of iniquity. The word used here – klemma – is the common word to denote theft. The true idea in the word is that of privately, unlawfully, and feloniously taking the goods or movables of another person. In a larger and in the popular sense, however, this word might embrace all acts of taking the property of another by dishonest arts, or on false pretence, or without an equivalent.
(b) The next point then is, the inquiry whether there was any such state of things as is specified here existing in the time of the rise of the Turkish power, and in the time of the calamities which that formidable power brought upon the world. There are two things implied in the statement here:
(1)That these things had an existence before the invasion and destruction of the Eastern empire by the Turkish power; and,
(2)That they continued to exist after that, or were not removed by these fearful calamities.
The supposition all along in this interpretation is, that the eye of the prophet was on the Roman world, and that the design was to mark the various events which would characterize its future history. We look, then, in the application of this, to the state of things existing in connection with the Roman power, or that portion of the world which was then pervaded by the Roman religion. This will make it necessary to institute an inquiry whether the things here specified prevailed in that part of the world before the invasions of the Turks, and the conquest of Constantinople, and whether the judgments inflicted by that formidable Turkish invasion made any essential change in this respect:
(1) The statement that they worshipped devils; that is, as explained, demons, or the deified souls of people. Homage rendered to the spirits of departed people, and substituted in the place of the worship of the true God, would meet all that is properly implied here. We may refer, then, to the worship of saints in the Roman Catholic communion as a complete fulfillment of what is here implied in the language used by John. The fact cannot be disputed that the invocation of saints took the place, in the Roman Catholic communion, of the worship of sages and heroes in pagan Rome, and that the canonization of saints took the place of the ancient deification of heroes and public benefactors. The same kind of homage was rendered to them; their aid was invoked in a similar manner, and on similar occasions; the effect on the popular mind was substantially the same; and the one interfered as really as the other with the worship of the true God. The decrees of the seventh general council, known as the second council of Nice, 787 a.d., authorized and established the worshipping ( proskuneo – the same word used here – proskunesosi ta daimonia) of the saints and their images.
This occurred after the exciting scenes, the debates, and the disorders produced by the Iconoclasts, or image-breakers, and after the most careful deliberation on the subject. In that celebrated council it was decreed, according to Mr. Gibbon (iii. 341), unanimously, that the worship of images is agreeable to Scripture and reason, to the fathers and councils of the church; but they hesitate whether that worship be relative or direct; whether the Godhead and the figure of Christ be entitled to the same mode of adoration. This worship of the saints, or prayer to the saints, asking for their intercession, it is well known, has from that time everywhere prevailed in the papal communion. Indeed, a large part of the actual prayers offered in their services is addressed to the Virgin Mary. Mr. Maitland, the able and learned advocate of the Dark Ages, says, The superstition of the age supposed the glorified saint to know what was going on in the world; and to feel a deep interest, and to possess a considerable power, in the church militant on earth. I believe that they who thought so are altogether mistaken; and I lament, abhor, and am amazed at the superstition, blasphemies, and idolatries, which have grown out of that opinion (Elliott, ii. p. 10).
As to the question whether this continued after the judgments brought upon the world by the hordes loosed on the Euphrates, or whether they repented and reformed on account of the judgments, we have only to look into the Roman Catholic religion everywhere. Not only did the old practice of daemonolatry, or the worship of departed saints, continue, but new saints have been added to the number, and the list of those who are to receive this homage has been continually increasing. Thus, in the year 1460, Catharine of Sienna was canonized by Pope Pius II; in 1482, Bonaventura; the blasphemer, by Sixtus IV; in 1494, Anselm by Alexander VI. Alexanders bull, in language more pagan than Christian, avows it to be the popes duty thus to choose out, and to hold up the illustrious dead, as their merits claim, for adoration and worship.
(2) The statement that idolatry was practiced, and continued to be practiced, after this invasion: Repented not that they should not worship idols of gold, silver, and brass. On this point, perhaps it would be sufficient to refer to what has been already noticed in regard to the homage paid to the souls of the departed; but it may be further and more clearly illustrated by a reference to the worship of images in the Roman Catholic communion. Anyone familiar with church history will recollect the long conflicts which prevailed respecting the worship of images; the establishment of images in the churches; the destruction of images by the Iconoclasts; and the debars on the subject by the council at Hiera; and the final decision in the second council of Nice, in which the propriety of image-worship was affirmed and established. See, on this subject, Bowers History of the Popes, ii. 98ff, 144ff; Gibbon, vol. iii. pp. 322-341.
The importance of the question respecting image-worship may be seen from the remarks of Mr. Gibbon, iii. 322. He speaks of it as a question of popular superstition which produced the revolt of Italy, the temporal power of the popes, and the restoration of the Roman empire in the West. A few extracts from Mr. Gibbon – who may be regarded as an impartial witness on this subject – will show what was the popular belief, and will confirm what is said in the passage before us in reference to the prevalence of idolatry. The first introduction of a symbolic worship was in the veneration of the cross, and of relics. The saints and martyrs, when intercession was implored, were seated on the right hand of God; but the gracious, and often supernatural favors, which, in the popular belief, were showered round their tombs, conveyed an unquestionable sanction of the devout pilgrims who visited, and touched, and kissed these lifeless remains, the memorials of their merits and sufferings. But a memorial, more interesting than the skull or the sandals of a departed worthy, is a faithful copy of his person and features delineated by the arts of painting or sculpture. In every age such copies, so congenial to human feelings, have been cherished by the zeal of private friendship or public esteem; the images of the Roman emperors were adored with civil and almost religious honors; a reverence, less ostentatious, but more sincere, was applied to the statues of sages and patriots; and these profane virtues, these splendid sins, disappeared in the presence of the holy people who had died for their celestial and everlasting country.
At first the experiment was made with caution and scruple, and the venerable pictures were discreetly allowed to instruct the ignorant, to awaken the cold, and to gratify the prejudices of the pagan proselytes. By a slow, though inevitable progression, the honors of the original were transferred to the copy; the devout Christian prayed before the image of a saint, and the pagan rites of genuflexion, luminaries, and incense again stole into the Catholic Church. The scruples of reason or piety were silenced by the strong evidence of visions and miracles; and the pictures which speak, and move, and bleed, must be endowed with a divine energy, and may be considered as the proper objects of religious adoration. The most audacious pencil might tremble in the rash attempt of defining, by forms and colors, the infinite Spirit, the eternal Father, who pervades and sustains the universe. But the superstitious mind was more easily reconciled to paint and worship the angels, and above all, the Son of God, under the human shape, which on earth they have condescended to assume.
The Second Person of the Trinity had been clothed with a real and mortal body, but that body had ascended into heaven; and had not some similitude been presented to the eyes of his disciples, the spiritual worship of Christ might have been obliterated by the visible relies and representations of the saints. A similar indulgence was requisite, and propitious, for the Virgin Mary; the place of her burial was unknown; and the assumption of her soul and body into heaven was adopted by the credulity of the Greeks and Latins. The use, and even the worship of images, was firmly established before the end of the sixth century; they were fondly cherished by the warm imagination of the Greeks and Asiatics; the Pantheon and the Vatican were adorned with the emblems of a new superstition; but this semblance of idolatry was more coldly entertained by the rude barbarians and the Arian clergy of the West, vol. iii. p. 323.
Again: Before the end of the sixth century these images, made without hands (in Greek it is a single word – acheiropoietos), were propagated in the camps and cities of the Eastern empire; they were the objects of worship, and the instruments of miracles; and in the hour of dangler or tumult their venerable presence could revive the hope, rekindle the courage, or repress the fury of the Roman legions, vol. iii. pp. 324, 325. So again (vol. iii. pp. 340ff): – While the popes established in Italy their freedom and dominion, the images, the first cause of their revolt, were restored in the Eastern empire. Under the reign of Constantine the Fifth, the union of civil and ecclesiastical power had overthrown the tree, without extirpating the root, of superstition. The idols, for such they were now held, were secretly cherished by the order and the sex most prone to devotion; and the fond alliance of the monks and females obtained a final victory over the reason and the authority of man.
Under Irene a council was convened – the second council of Nice, or the seventh general council – in which, according to Mr. Gibbon (iii. 341), it was unanimously pronounced that the worship of images is agreeable to Scripture and reason, to the fathers and councils of the church. The arguments which were urged in favor of the worship of images, in the council above referred to, may be seen in Bowers Lives of the Popes, vol. ii. pp. 152-158, Dr. Coxs edition. The answer of the bishops in the council to the question of the empress Irene, whether they agreed to the decision which had been adopted in the council, was in these words: We all agree to it; we have all freely signed it; this is the faith of the apostles, of the fathers, and of the Catholic church; we all salute, honor, worship, and adore the holy and venerable images; be they accursed who do not honor, worship, and adore the adorable images (Bowers Lives of the Popes, ii. 159). As a matter of fact, therefore, no one can doubt that these images were worshipped with the honor that was due to God alone – or that the sin of idolatry prevailed; and no one can doubt that that has been continued, and is still, in the papal communion.
(3) The next point specified is murders Rev 9:21; Neither repented they of their murders. It can hardly be necessary to dwell on this to show that this was strictly applicable to the Roman power, and extensively prevailed, both before and after the Turkish invasion, and that that invasion had no tendency to produce repentance. Indeed, in nothing has the papacy been more remarkably characterized than in the number of murders perpetrated on the innocent in persecution. In reference to the fulfillment of this we may refer to the following things:
(a) Persecution. This has been particularly the characteristic of the Roman communion, it need not be said, in all ages. The persecutions of the Waldenses, if there were nothing else, show that the spirit here referred to prevailed in the Roman communion, or that the times preceding the Turkish conquest were characterized by what is here specified. In the third Lateran council, 1179 a.d., an anathema was declared against certain dissentients and heretics, and then against the Waldenses themselves in papal bulls of the years 1183, 1207, 1208. Again, in a decree of the fourth Lateran council, 1215 a.d., a crusade, as it was called, was proclaimed against them, and plenary absolution promised to such as should perish in the holy war, from the day of their birth to the day of their death. And never, says Sismondi, had the cross been taken up with more unanimous consent. It is supposed that in this crusade against the Waldenses a million people perished.
(b) That this continued to be the characteristic of the papacy after the judgments brought upon the Roman world by the Turkish invasion, or that those judgments had no tendency to produce repentance and reformation, is well known, and is manifest from the following things:
(1) The continuance of the spirit of persecution.
(2) The establishment of the Inquisition. 150,000 persons perished by the Inquisition in thirty years; and from the beginning of the order of the Jesuits in 1540 to 1580, it is supposed that nine hundred thousand persons were destroyed by persecution.
(3) The same spirit was manifested in the attempts to suppress the true religion in England, in Bohemia, and in the Low Countries. Fifty thousand persons were hanged, burned, beheaded, or buried alive, for the crime of heresy, in the Low Countries, chiefly under the Duke of Alva, from the edict of Charles V against the Protestants to the peace of Chateau Cambresis in 1559. Compare the notes on Dan 7:24-28. To these are to be added all that fell in France on the revocation of the edict of Nantz; all that perished by persecution in England in the days of Mary; and all that have fallen in the bloody wars that have been waged in the propagation of the papal religion. The number is, of course, unknown to mortals, though efforts have been made by historians to form some estimate of the amount. It is supposed that fifty million of persons have perished in these persecutions of the Waldenses, Albigenses, Bohemian Brethren, Wycliffites, and Protestants; that some fifteen million of Indians perished in Cuba, Mexico, and South America, in the wars of the Spaniards, professedly to propagate the Catholic faith; that three million and a half of Moors and Jews perished, by Catholic persecution and arms, in Spain; and that thus, probably no less than sixty-eight million and five hundred thousand human beings have been put to death by this one persecuting power. See Dr. Bergs Lectures on Romanism, pp. 6, 7. Assuredly, if this be true, it would be proper to characterize the times here referred to, both before and after the Turkish invasion, as a time when murders would prevail.
(4) The fourth point specified is sorceries. It can hardly be necessary to go into detail to prove that this also abounded; and that delusive appeals to the senses; false and pretended miracles; arts adapted to deceive through the imagination; the supposed virtue and efficacy of relics; and frauds calculated to impose on mankind, have characterized those portions of the world where the Roman religion has prevailed, and been one of the principal means of its advancement. No Protestant surely would deny this, no intelligent Catholic can doubt it himself. All that is necessary to be said in regard to this is, that in this, as in other respects, the Turkish invasion, and the judgments that came upon the world, made no change. The very recent imposture of the holy coat of Treves is a full proof that the disposition to practice such arts still exists, and that the power to impose on a large portion of the world in that denomination has not died away.
(5) The fifth thing specified is fornication. This has abounded everywhere in the world; but the use of the term in this connection implies that there would be something special here, and perhaps that it would be associated with the other things referred to. It is as unnecessary as it would be improper to go into any detail on this point. Anyone who is acquainted with the history of the Middle Ages – the period here supposed to be referred to – must be aware of the widespread licentiousness which then prevailed, especially among the clergy. Historians and poets, ballads, and acts of councils, alike testify to this fact. It is to be remarked also, as illustrating the subject, that the dissoluteness of the Middle Ages was closely, and almost necessarily, connected with the worship of the images and the saints above referred to.
The character of many of those who were Worshipped as saints, like the character of many of the gods of the pagan Romans, was just such as to be an incentive to every species of licentiousness and impurity. On this point Mr. Hallam makes the following remarks: That the exclusive worship of saints, under the guidance of an artful though illiterate priesthood, degraded the understanding, and begat a stupid credulity and fanaticism, is sufficiently evident. But it was also so managed as to loosen the bonds of religion, and pervert the standard of morality (Middle Ages, vol. ii. pp. 249, 250; edit. Phil. 1824). He then, in a note, refers to the legends of the saints as abundantly confirming his statements. See particularly the stories in the Golden Legend. So, in speaking of the monastic orders, Mr. Hallam (Middle Ages, vol. ii. 253) says: In vain new rules of discipline were devised, or the old corrected by reforms. Many of their worst vices grew so naturally out of their mode of life that a stricter discipline would have no tendency to extirpate them. Their extreme licentiousness was sometimes hardly concealed by the cowl of sanctity.
In illustration of this we may introduce here a remark of Mr. Gibbon, made in immediate connection with his statement about the decrees respecting the worship of images. I shall only notice, says he, the judgment of the bishops on the comparative merit of image-worship and morality. A monk had concluded a truce with the demon of fornication, on condition of interrupting his daily prayers to a picture that hung in his cell. His scruples prompted him to consult the abbot. Rather than abstain from adoring Christ and his mother in their holy images, it would be better for you, replied the casuist, to enter every brothel, and visit every prostitute in the city, iii. 341. So again, Mr. Gibbon, speaking of the pope, John XII., says: His open simony might be the consequence of distress; and his blasphemous invocation of Jupiter and Venus, if it be true, could not possibly be serious. But we read with some surprise that the worthy grandson of Marozia lived in public adultery with the matrons of Rome; that the Lateran palace was turned into a place for prostitution, and that his rapes (if virgins and of widows had deterred the female pilgrims from visiting the tomb of Peter, lest, in the devout act, they should be violated by his successor, iii. 353. Again, the system of indulgences led directly to licentiousness. In the pontificate of John XXII, about 1320 a.d., there was invented the celebrated Tax of Indulgences, of which more than forty editions are extant. According to this, incest was to cost, if not detected, five groschen; if known and flagrant, six. A certain price was affixed in a similar way to adultery, infanticide, etc. See Merle DAubignes Reformation, vol. i. p. 41. And further, the very pilgrimages to the shrines of the saints, which were enjoined as a penance for sin, and which were regarded as a ground of merit, were occasions of the grossest licentiousness.
So Hallam, Middle Ages, says: This licensed vagrancy was naturally productive of dissoluteness, especially among the women. Our English ladies, in their zeal to obtain the spiritual treasuries of Rome, are said to have relaxed the necessary caution about one that was in their own custody, vol. ii. 255. The celibacy of the clergy also tended to licentiousness, and is known to have been everywhere productive of the very sin which is mentioned here. The state of the nunneries in the middle ages is well known. In the fifteenth century Gerson, the French orator so celebrated at the council of Constance, called them Prostibula meretricum. Clemangis, a French theologian, also contemporary, and a man of great eminence, thus speaks of them: Quid aliud sunt hoc tempore puellarum monasteria, nisi quaedam non dico Dei sanctuaria, sed veneris execranda prostibula; ut idem sit hodie puellam velare, quod et publice a.d. scortandum exponere (Hallam, Middle Ages, ii. 253). To this we may add the fact that it was a habit, not infrequent, to license the clergy to live in concubinage (see the proof in Elliott, i. 447, note), and that the practice of auricular confession necessarily made the tainting of the female mind an integral part of Roman priest-craft, and gave consecration to the communings of impurity. It hardly needs any proof that these practices continued after the invasions of the Turkish hordes, or that those invasions made no changes in the condition of the world in this respect. In proof of this we need refer only to Pope Innocent VIII, elected in 1484 to the papacy.
His character is told in the well-known epigram:
Octo nocens pueros genuit, totidemque puellas;
Hunc merito potuit dicere Roma patrem.
It was to Alexander VI, his successor, who at the close of the fifteenth century stood before the world a monster, notorious to all, of impurity and vice; and to the general well-known character of the Roman Catholic clergy. Most of the ecclesiastics, says the historian Infessura, had their mistresses; and all the convents of the capital were houses of ill fame.
(6) The sixth thing specified Rev 9:21 is thefts; that is, as explained, the taking of the property of others by dishonest arts, on false pretences, or without any proper equivalent. In the inquiry as to the applicability of this to the times supposed to be here referred to, we may notice the following things, as instances in which money was extorted from the people:
(a) The value fraudulently assigned to relics. Mosheim, in his historical sketch of the twelfth century, observes: The abbots and monks carried about the country the carcasses and relics of saints, in solemn procession, and permitted the multitude to behold, touch, and embrace the sacred remains, at fixed prices.
(b) The exaltation of the miracle-working merit of particular saints, and the consecration of new saints, and dedication of new images, when the popularity of the former died away. Thus, Mr. Hallam says: Every cathedral or monastery had its tutelar saint, and every saint his legend; fabricated in order to enrich the churches under his protection; by exaggerating his virtues and his miracles, and consequently his power of serving those who paid liberally for his patronage.
(c) The invention and sale of indulgences – well known to have been a vast source of revenue to the church. Wycliffe declared that indulgences were mere forgeries whereby the priesthood rob people of their money; a subtle merchandise of Antichrists clerks, whereby they magnify their own fictitious power, and instead of causing people to dread sin, encourage people to wallow therein as hogs.
(d) The prescription of pilgrimages as penances was another prolific source of gain to the church that deserves to be classed under the name of thefts. Those who made such pilgrimage were expected and required to make an offering at the shrine of the saint; and as multitudes went on such pilgrimages, especially on the jubilee at Rome, the income from this source was enormous. An instance of what was offered at the shrine of Thomas Becket will illustrate this. Through his reputation Canterbury became the Rome of England. A jubilee was celebrated every fiftieth year to his honor, with plenary indulgence to all such as visited his tomb; of whom one hundred thousand were registered at one time. Two large volumes were filled with accounts of the miracles performed at his tomb. The following list of the value of offerings made in two successive years to his shrine, the Virgin Marys, and Christs, in the cathedral at Canterbury, will illustrate at the same time the gain from these sources, and the relative respect shown to Becket, Mary, and the Saviour
| First Year | British shillings | d. | pounds |
| Christs Altar | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| Virgin Marys | 63 | 5 | 6 |
| Beckets | 832 | 12 | 9 |
| Next Year | | | |
| Christs Altar | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Virgin Marys | 4 | 1 | 8 |
| Beckets | 954 | 6 | 3 |
Of the jubilee of 1300 a.d. Muratori relates the result as follows: Papa innumerabilem pecuniam ab iisdem recepit; quia die et nocte duo elerici stabant a.d. altare Sancti Pauli, tenentes in eorum manibus rastellos, rastellantes pecuniam infinitam. The pope received from them a countless amount of money; for two clerks stood at the altar of Paul night and day, holding in their hands little rakes, collecting an infinite amount of money (Hallam).
(e) Another source of gain of this kind was the numerous testamentary bequests with which the church was enriched obtained by the arts and influence of the clergy. In Wycliffes time there were in England 53,215 faeda milltum, of which the religious had 28,000 – more than one-half. Blackstone says that, but for the intervention of the legislature, and the statute of mortmain, the church would have appropriated in this manner the whole of the land of England, vol. 4, p. 107.
(f) The money left by the dying to pay for masses, and that paid by survivors for masses to release the souls of their friends from purgatory all of which deserve to be classed under the word thefts as already explained – was another source of vast wealth to the church; and the practice was systematized on a large scale, and, with the other things mentioned, deserves to be noticed as a characteristic of the times. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the judgments which were brought upon the world by the Turkish invasions made no essential change, and worked no repentance or reformation, and hence that the language here is strictly applicable to these things: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 20. Yet repented not] The commission which these horsemen had was against idolaters; and though multitudes of them were destroyed, yet the residue continued their senseless attachment to dumb idols, and therefore heavier judgments might be expected. These things are supposed to refer to the desolation brought upon the Greek Church by the Ottomans, who entirely ruined that Church and the Greek empire. The Church which was then remaining was the Latin or western Church, which was not at all corrected by the judgments which fell upon the eastern Church, but continued its senseless adoration of angels, saints, relics, &c., and does so to the present day. If, therefore, God’s wrath be kindled against such, this Church has much to fear.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues; the two-thirds of men that should be left, for we read of one-third part destroyed; and this also must be understood of men dwelling in countries subject formerly to the Roman empire on this side of the Euphrates.
Yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils: this leaves this applicable to none but papists; for there are none else but them who worship demons, Greek, , or idols of gold and silver. By
devils are meant demons, that is, persons that are dead, whom the heathens made their petty gods, and worshipped as middle beings between them and the supreme gods, according to their notion; which is the same thing the papists are guilty of, with this only difference, (as Mr. Mede excellently observeth), that the heathens made many supreme gods, and these modern idolaters own but one in that notion, but as many deastri or demons as they did, which are all those saints to whom they pay an adoration, as to those who should present their desires to God, which, as Mr. Mede sufficiently proves from writers, was the very work the pagans allotted for those whom they canonized after death. From whence came the names of Baal and Bel, &c., but from Belus, who is said to have been the first prince, whom, being dead, they made a god, and adored? Which demons God in Scripture calleth devils. Nor do any but they now worship images, the works of mens hands, made of
gold, silver, brass, and wood, who are here described in the same words as by the psalmist, Psa 115:4; 135:15. Notwithstanding Gods great judgment executed upon the Grecian churches, yet they repented not of their idolatry and superstition; so as God hath brought them wholly under the power of those barbarous enemies; and though the Romish party seeth this, yet neither do they repent; which may give them cause to fear that God should make use of the same adversary to destroy them likewise; especially considering that neither to this day do they repent.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. the rest of the menthatis, the ungodly.
yetSo A, Vulgate,Syriac, and Coptic. B and Aleph read, “did noteven repent of,” namely, so as to give up “the works,”c. Like Pharaoh hardening his heart against repentancenotwithstanding the plagues.
of their hands (De31:29). Especially the idols made by their hands. CompareRev 13:14 Rev 13:15,”the image of the beast” Re19:20.
that they should notSoB reads. But A, C, and Aleph read “that they shall not”:implying a prophecy of certainty that it shall be so.
devilsGreek,“demons” which lurk beneath the idols which idolatersworship.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the rest of men which were not killed by these plagues,…. By whom are meant the western antichristian party; and such of them as were not plagued, harassed, and destroyed by the Turks, as in Germany, at least some parts of it, France, Spain, Italy, c.
yet repented not of the works of their hands: their idols, their images of saints departed, which their hands had made the goodness of God in saving them from the depredations of the Turks, should have led them to repentance for their idolatrous worship of images, but it did not:
that they should not worship devils; or demons, a sort of deities with the Heathens, that mediated between the superior gods and men; and here design angels and saints departed, which the Papists worship, and use as mediators of intercession for them; and this is no other than worshipping of devils, in God’s account, and is downright idolatry, and the doctrine of it is the doctrine of devils:
and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood; which are the several materials of which the Popish images are made: and what aggravates the stupidity of the worshippers of these images, and of the persons represented by them, is, that these are such
which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk; can neither see their persons, nor hear their prayers, nor stir one foot to their help and assistance; see Ps 115:4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Repented not ( ). First aorist active indicative of . The two-thirds of mankind still spared did not change their creed or their conduct.
Of the works ( ). For this use of after see Rev 2:21; Rev 9:21; Rev 16:11. By “works” () here idolatries are meant, as the next verse shows.
That they should not worship ( ). Negative purpose clause with and the future active of as in 9:5.
Devils ( ). Both in the O.T. (Deut 32:17; Ps 96:5; Ps 106:37) and in the N.T. (1Co 10:21) the worship of idols is called the worship of unclean spirits. Perhaps this is one explanation of the hideous faces given these images. “The idols” ( 1Jo 5:21, from , form, appearance) represented “demons,” whether made of gold ( ) or of silver ( ) or of brass ( ) or of stone ( ) or of wood ( ). See Da 5:23 for this picture of heathen idols. The helplessness of these idols, “which can neither see nor hear nor walk” ( ), is often presented in the O.T. (Ps 113:12; Ps 115:4).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Repented not of the works [ ] . Lit., “Out of the works.” The preposition ejk out of with repent, denotes a moral change involving an abandonment of evil works. See on Mt 3:2; Mt 21:29.
Works of their hands. Not their course of life, but the idols which their hands had made. Compare Deu 4:28; Psa 134:15; Act 7:4. Devils [] . More properly, demons. See on Mr 1:34. Compare 1Co 10:20; 1Ti 4:1.
See, hear, walk. Compare Dan 5:23.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And the rest of the men,” (kai hoi loipoiton anthropon) “And the remaining men,” of those who had not the seal of God in their foreheads, which were riding in Gentile-war making power on the monstrous horses. This verse details man’s sin against God in their turn to worship devils, (demons).
2) “Which were not killed by these plagues,” (hou ouk apektan thesan en tois plegois tautois) “Who were not (had not been) killed by these plagues,” of fire, smoke, and brimstone, with its immediate death dealing and delayed poisonous effects.
3) “Yet repented not of the works of their hands,” (oude metenoesan ek ton ergon ton cheiron auton) “Not even repented out of or from the (evil) works or deeds of their hands,” what they had done in sin, in perhaps having taken the mark of the beast, to do his service, to bow to him in obeisance, Rev 13:13-18.
4) “That they should not worship devils,” (hina me proskunesousin ta daimonia) “in order that they will not worship demons;” It is clear that men must either repent of their sins or they will worship and serve idols under the antichrist in this era of tribulation, Deu 32:16-17.
a) “and idols of Gold,” (kai ta eidala) “And the idols, they had worshipped,” (ta chrusa) “the gold ones,” (idols) of devils.
b) “and silver,” (kai to argura) “And the silver ones,” idols of silver, of the devil or devils, demons.
c) “and brass,” (kai ta chalka) “And the bronze ones,” idols of brass or bronze, of devils (demons).
d) “and stone,” (kai ta lithina) “And the stone ones,” idols of stone, of demons or devils they worship, etc.
e) “and wood,” (kai ta kailina) “And the wooden idols,”
5) “Which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk,” (ha oute blespein dunantai oute akouein oute peripatein) “Which neither has the power to see, or to walk, or to hear,” Psa 115:4-9; 1Co 10:21-22.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(20, 21) And the rest . . .Translate, And the rest of mankind who were not slain in these plagues did not even repent of (or, out ofi.e., so as to forsake) the works of their hands, that they should not worship the demons (evil spirits), and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk: and they did not repent of (or, out of) their murders, nor of (or, out of) their sorceries, nor out of their fornication, nor out of their thefts. These verses make one or two points clear. First, they show us that, whatever the nature of the plagues might be, they were afflictions designed to bring about repentance, and to rouse men, whether nominally Christian or not, from the lethargy into which long indulged sin had plunged them. Those terrible revolutions which are the growth of years, and which startle men with their apparent suddenness and violence, are the great appeals of God, asking men to see the meaning of sin; they are the trumpet blasts calling to repentance. But we are told more; the remainder of the godless did not repent. We are not, indeed, told that they did not feel terror, or remorse, or momentary qualms and misgivings, but that they did not show that which alone is regarded as genuine repentance, the repentance out of sin, the repentance which turns away from sin. We need always that wholesome caution. We need it most in times when hysterical and emotional religionism is fashionable, and it is forgotten that true repentance is a repentance whereby we forsake sins. These men repented not out of their sin. And their sins are enumerated, and the enumeration again takes us back to the history of Israel as to the historical basis which the sacred seer enlarged and vivified; for the sins are just those against which Israel was warned and into which Israel fell (Deu. 4:28; Psa. 106:34-40; Act. 7:41). The sins are demon-worship and idolatry: They served idols; they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils. (Comp. 1Co. 10:20; 1Ti. 4:1.) It is needful to trace these sins in the history of Israel, as it has been argued that these are heathen sins, and that therefore these plagues must be plagues which fall on those who are literally heathens. But if we bear in mind that the series of visions describe features which will accompany the advance of Christianity in the world, we shall remember that it is against worldliness, wherever found, idolatries, of whatever kind, murders and thefts, called by whatever name, that the true genius of Christianity makes war. Christ is king, and king of righteousness, and in righteousness does He make war, and the heathenisms which are called Christianity are as much the objects of His displeasure as the most obvious Paganism. It is needful to remember that Jews are addressed as if they were heathen, aye, very habitues of Sodom (Isa. 1:10), and that the Christian Church is warned against sins which are little else than idolatries. Covetousness, the very essence of worldliness, is by St. Paul twice over called idolatry (Col. 3:5, and Eph. 5:5). It seems, therefore, to be foreign to the purpose to try and limit these plagues only to the non-Christian world. To do this is to get a narrow, improbable (may we not say an impossible?) interpretation; for the greatest strength of the world-power would be left untouched. It is true that the visions are not showing us the plagues which fall on apostasy and fornication within the Church; but it is true that we are beholding visions which show how terribly the world-spirit avenges itself on all who harbour it, whether called Christian or not. Gross sins, gigantic frauds, complacent familiarity with crime, followed by blunted moral sense, are heathenish, whether found in Pagan or Christian society. Heavy woes must inevitably await the society which tolerates such works; but the worst omen of the coming doom is seen when society has lost the power to repent because it has lost the power to hate evil. Such an incapacity is invariably significant of advanced moral decay. It is the climax in the growth of sin which the Psalmist noticed where men lose the sacred abhorrence of evil (Psa. 36:4). To such repentance is becoming impossible.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. The rest The two thirds of the profane world, not the sealed of God, (note Rev 9:4,) remained obdurate. War punishes and reduces the number of the wicked and brings them to subjection; but it rather demoralizes than reforms the incorrigible.
Repented not Of their false religions in this verse; of their wicked practices in the next verse. The pagan adhered to his idols, the criminal to his crimes. Two classes of pagan thinkers are distinguished; those who worshipped the mere image, and those who worshipped the supposed deity it represented.
Devils Demons, which in the Greek includes both good and bad spirits.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And the rest of mankind who were not killed with these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk, and they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.’
The purpose of all God’s judgments before the end is to bring men to repentance. All these troubles which come on mankind are intended to make them consider their ways and repent. But in spite of the wholesale slaughter, they have hardened their hearts and will not do so. This is not to deny that some repent. It is an overall generalisation. It is saying that as a whole this was true of the rest of mankind. The description of idolatry is taken mainly from Dan 5:23, where it is emphasised that it prevents men from glorifying ‘the God Who gave them breath and in Whose hands are all their ways’. So anything that prevents men from this may be included within the description. Paul pointed out that ‘the things which the Gentiles sacrifice (to idols) they sacrifice to demons and not to God (1Co 10:20). John agrees.
In our day when sorcery, magic, ouija boards, planchettes, crystal gazing, contacts with spirits, witchcraft, etc. are on the increase these words are very apposite. Note that ‘demon worship’ comes first in the condemnation. The very evil spirits that men seek to contact and honour will be their destroyers. The sad thing is that the modern penchant for books on magic and sorcery, seemingly harmless in itself, is preparing the foundation for a further increase in this kind of thing, and it is thus unwise to participate in it, and it can even, for that reason, be considered evil. But we note that sexual misbehaviour and theft are also included in the denunciation. However man hurts his fellowman, for that he will be judged.
There is now a break in the text before the sounding of the seventh trumpet so that further explanation of what is going on can be introduced. As we have seen most of what has been described happened, at least to some extent, in John’s day and has happened again and again in history. Man’s repeated sinfulness results in repeated problems. Every generation is a reminder that Christ is coming. It may be that they will reoccur in greater measure as the end of the age approaches, for man has not changed and has more and more terrible weapons at his disposal. Atomic, bacterial and chemical warfare could produce much of what is described here on a huge scale, and the time may be soon. There are already nations building up reserves of these weapons and many are centred around the Euphrates.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rev 9:20-21. The rest of the men, &c. That is, the Latin church, which escaped these calamities pretty well. From the whole it is evident, that these calamities were inflicted upon the Christians for their idolatries. As the Eastern churches were first in the crime, so they were first likewise in the punishment. At first, they were visited with the plague of the Saracens; but this working no change of reformation, they were again chastised by the still greater plague of the Othmans; were partly overthrown by the former, and were entirely ruined by the latter. What churches were then remaining, which were guilty of the like idolatry, but the Western, or those in communion with Rome? And the Western were not at all reclaimed by the ruin of the Eastern; but persisted in the worship of saints, and even in the worship of images, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk; and the world is witness to the completion of this prophesy to this day, Neither repented they of their murders, their persecutions and inquisitions; nor of their sorceries, their pretended miracles and revelations; nor of their fornication, their public stews and uncleanness; nor of their thefts, their exactions and impositions on mankind: and they are as notorious for their licentiousness and wickedness, as for their superstition and idolatry. As they, therefore, refused to take warning by the two former woes, the third woe, as we shall see, will fall with vengeance upon them.
Inferences.It is exceedingly natural to reflect, while reading this representation, how exactly the mightiest princes, and most savage destroyers of mankind execute the plan of divine Providence; even while they are intending nothing but the gratification of their own ambition, and avarice, and cruelty. The angel of God holds the keys of the bottomless pit; and it is by divine permission that these voracious locusts issue forth and infest the earth. The ministers of God’s pleasure bind the messengers of destruction, and loosen them, at the divine command. And the season, wherein they should ravage the world, is here limited to a year, to a day, to an hour. ABADDON, APOLLYON, the great and mighty destroyer, cannot effect the least of his mischievous and ruinous purposes without the permission of the Preserver and Redeemer of mankind, and cannot go beyond his limits. And even the mischief which he does, is intended and over-ruled to subserve the wisest and kindest designs. But, O, how grievous it is to think of that degree of obstinacy and perverseness which so generally prevails in the world, and which renders men so incorrigible under the most painful chastisements that Satan is permitted to inflict. Send forth, O Lord, the gentle influences of thy Spirit, and melt those hearts which will not be broken by the weightiest strokes of thy vengeance; and deliver us from a temper so much resembling that of hell, and so evidently leading down to those dreadful abodes; the temper of those who are hardened by correction, and, in the time of their affliction and misery, increase and multiply their transgressions against thee.
REFLECTIONS.1st, The fifth trumpet is supposed to refer to the rise of the impostor Mahomet, who is the star spoken of in the first part of the chapter, infecting the earth like a pestilential meteor with his abominable falsehoods: permission being given him to open the bottomless pit, a cloud of errors, black as the darkness of hell itself, immediately burst out, and covered the East; innumerable multitudes of Saracens, thick as locusts, under his banners, rushed forth: they chiefly consisted of cavalry, and made dreadful incursions into the empire, with turbans like crowns on their heads; wore long hair like women; were strong as lions; defended with armour, weapon-proof; and rushed with irresistible fury on their foes. Satan, the angel of the bottomless pit, the great destroyer of men, was at their head: and such was the misery which they every where spread through the apostate church, that death appeared preferable to life. Note; (1.) The heaviest judgments upon the world are these,when God lets loose the great deceiver; and, because men turn away from the truth, he gives them up to strong delusions, to believe a lie. (2.) Heresy and important errors, like the scorpion’s sting, infuse baleful poison into the soul. (3.) Satan, and all his emissaries, are under a divine restraint; God saith unto them, Hitherto shall ye come, and no further. (4.) Whatever prevalence of delusion there may be, those who perseveringly cleave to Christ, shall be preserved in the most trying times.
One woe is now past; two more are yet to come.
2dly, On the sounding of the sixth angel, the voice of Christ is heard from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, the emblem of the prevalence of his intercession for his believing people in the four parts of the earth: his command to the sixth angel is, that he should loose the four angels that were bound in the great river Euphrates, and let them have power for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, to slay the third part of men. This may be referred to the successors of Mahomet, who carried their arms far and wide through Egypt, Africa, Spain, &c. their forces were innumerable and invincible, chiefly consisting of cavalry, and breathing forth threatening and slaughter through the earth; and, like scorpions, they infused their poisonous tenets wherever their arms prevailed. Yet all these heavy judgments reclaimed not those who bore the Christian name, but dishonoured it by the vilest abominations; nor did they repent of their idolatries, the worship of demons, and of images unable to hear or answer their stupid votaries; but continued in the practice of murder, sorcery, fornication, and theft, and all those miscalled pious frauds which priestcraft invented to beguile the superstitious: therefore more deadly woes are yet in store for them. Note; (1.) God sends his judgments that sinners may turn from the evil of their ways. (2.) They who under God’s visitations harden their hearts, must inevitably perish at the last.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rev 9:20 sq. The plagues that have been introduced cause no repentance in the survivors. [2670]
. . The contextual reference to Rev 9:18 is yet expressly marked: . . . . As the is meant to limit the , the final clause, , . . ., [2671] is explained: they repented not of the works of their hands, in order not (any more) to worship, etc. The . . . . . would have as its intention the ceasing henceforth the , . . . But by the words ., . . ., not only is the pregnancy of the clause . . . . ., which in itself is readily intelligible, explained, but an authentic interpretation is also given to the expression . . . . ., which it is here impossible to designate as the entire course of life, [2672] which by no means follows from Rev 2:22 , Rev 16:11 , since there the characteristic . is lacking, but just as Act 7:41 , in connection with O. T. passages like Deu 4:28 , Psa 135:15 sqq., must designate idols made with their own hands. [2673] It is, indeed, to be observed, that not only the expression . . . . . in itself, but also the allusion to the material whence human hands have fashioned the idols, and to their blindness and dumbness, refer to O. T. descriptions. But that the discourse is first in general concerning “the works of men’s hands,” and that then a more minute presentation follows ( ., . . .), contains what is objectionable as little as the directly opposite order of Act 7:41 .
. Cf. 1Co 10:20 . Bengel suffers here a peculiar embarrassment, because he regards “the rest of men” especially as “so-called Christians,” and then must give the explanation as to how far they worshipped devils. But he knows how to help himself. Notwithstanding the incursions of the Turks, he says that the Christians of that time retained the worship of images and of saints; and now there might be many among the worshipping saints who abode not in heaven, but in hell.
. The repetition is necessary, because the former ., Rev 9:20 , is already too remote to admit of a connection [2674] with what follows in Rev 9:21 ( . , . . .), but is entirely irrelevant for the more detailed explanation of the whole text. [2675] Concerning the sequence of the particles , , , cf. Winer, p. 457.
. Sorceries, xviii. 23. [2676] Ebrard understands it symbolically of “seductive enchantments.” He reaches this conclusion, because in Rev 9:20 he finds sins against God; in Rev 9:21 , sins against one’s neighbor, while actual sorcery, as a sin against God, does not belong in Rev 9:21 . [2677] But the established linguistic usage suits no arbitrary dispositions. It is also to be stated against those who have regarded the . in a certain combination with the preceding , [2678] or with the succeeding , [2679] that the very generally expressed idea of sorcery, the plural also should be observed, according to its nature, does not admit of a more specific determination, as the text itself does not give such.
. The sing. designates all the particular forms of manifestation [2680] of the always same kind of sins. Beng. says appropriately: “Other crimes are committed by men at intervals; alone is perpetual with those who are destitute of purity of heart.”
The entire description of sins, Rev 9:20-21 , which is to be comprehended in its unity, is manifestly directed to essentially heathenish godlessness, so that they of whom the third are killed, and two-thirds survive but are not converted, are to be regarded essentially as heathen. [2681] [See Note LXII., p. 294] It is the mass of the , [2682] in contrast with the sealed. [2683] From the fact that the latter are not affected by the plague of the sixth trumpet, it is to be inferred, according to the standard of Rev 9:4 , that the armies in this vision, like the locusts of the fifth trumpet, are of a demoniacal kind.
[2670] Cf. Rev 16:11 .
[2671] Cf. Winer, p. 428.
[2672] “All the deeds of life” (Ewald, De Wette, Ebrard).
[2673] Beng., Hengstenb.; also Ew. ii.
[2674] Ewald, etc.
[2675] Possibly as a designation of . . . (Rev 9:20 ), or a classification of sins.
[2676] Cf. Meyer on Gal 5:20 .
[2677] Cf. also Hengstenb., who, besides, notes the ten sins against the first table (Rev 9:20 )? and the four sins against the second table.
[2678] Hengstenb.
[2679] Ewald.
[2680] Cf. 1Co 7:2 .
[2681] Cf. De Wette, etc.
[2682] Cf. Rev 6:10 .
[2683] Cf. Rev 7:1 sqq.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
Ver. 20. That they should not worship devils ] As all idolaters do, 1Co 10:20 . The devil is , saith Synesius, glad to be worshipped in an idol, as he was by Israel in a calf. And as he is still by the Papists, in their mawmets (idols) and monuments of idolatry. And whereas they say they worship not the image (much less the devil) but God; they are like Clodia the strumpet, who, to excuse her incest, said she did company with Metellus as a husband, but with Clodius as with a brother.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rev 9:20-21 . The impenitence of the surviving two-thirds of men, who persist in worshipping daemons and idols (Weinel, 3, 4). Hellenic superstition (Plut. de defectu orac. 14) attributed to malignant daemons these very plagues of pestilence, war, and famine. Plutarch is always protesting against the excessive deference paid to such powers, and on the other hand against the rationalists and Christians who abjured them entirely.
., either the gods of paganism (LXX) or the evil spirits of contemporary superstition. In Enoch 19:1, the spirits of the fallen angels “assuming many forms defile men and shall lead them astray to offer sacrifices to demons as to gods”; cf. Enoch 46:7 (of the kings and rulers) “their power rests on their riches, and their faith is in the gods which they have made with their hands”. (See Clem. Strom , vi. ver 39, 4) , contracted form, as in 2Ti 2:20 (Helbing, pp. 34 f.). ., here in special sense of magic spells inciting to illicit lust (Artemid. ver 73), a prevalent Asiatic vice ( cf. Greg. Naz. Orat. iv. 31). But in the imprecatory (c. 100 B.C.) inscription of Rheneia (Dittenberger, Syll. Inscript. Graec . pp. 676 f.), punishment is invoked from tov ( cf. Rev 22:6 ) upon the hapless girl. The three vices of the decalogue occur here (as in Matt.) in the Hebrew order, not in that of the LXX (Rom 13:9 ; Mar 10:19 ; Luk 18:20 ). cf. on Rev 21:8 , and, for the connexion of polytheism and vice, Harnack’s Mission and Exp. of Christianity , i. (1908), pp. 290 f. Repentance here (as in Rev 16:9 ; Rev 16:11 ) is primarily a change of religion, but the prophet has evidently little hope of the pagan world. There is no polemic against the Egyptian worship of animals, and, in spite of the Jewish outlook upon the dolores Messiae , the Apocalypse ignores family disturbances and false messiahs as harbingers of the end. Once more ( cf. Rev 7:1 f.) between the sixth (Rev 9:13-21 ) and the seventh (Rev 11:15-19 ) members of the series, a passage (this time of some length) is intercalated (Rev 10:1 to Rev 11:13 ), in which the personality of the seer now re-emerges (on earth, instead of in heaven). The object of Rev 10:1-11 is to mark at once a change of literary method and a transition from one topic to another. The passage, which certainly comes from the prophet’s own pen (so Sabatier, Schon, and others), looks backward and forward. Now that the preliminaries are over, all is ready for the introduction of the two protagonists (Rev 9:11-13 .) whose conflict forms the closing act of the world’s history (Rev 15:1 to Rev 20:10 ). One of these is Jesus, the divine messiah, who has hitherto (Rev 9:5-9 .) been depicted as the medium of revelation. Since his rle is now to be more active, the prophet expressly alters the literary setting of his visions. The subsequent oracles are not represented as the contents of the book of Doom (which is now open, with the breaking of its last seal). Dropping that figure (contrast Rev 5:2 and Rev 10:1 ) the writer describes himself absorbing another roll of prophecy received from an angel. Evidently he intends to mark a new departure, and to introduce what follows as a fresh start. This new procedure is accompanied by an explicit assurance intended to whet the reader’s interest that the Apocalypse has now reached the verge of the final catastrophe; the prophet apparently makes this eagerness to reach the goal the reason for omitting a seven-thunders vision (or source) which otherwise he might have been expected to include either at this point or subsequently. It is quite in keeping with the wider outlook and rather more historical atmosphere of 11 f., that a freer and less numerical method pervades these oracles. In short, Rev 10:1-11 is a digression only in form. It serves to introduce not simply the Jewish fragment (Rev 11:1-13 ) whose strange contents probably required some express ratification but the rest of the oracles (13 f.), which are thus awkwardly but definitely connected with the foregoing design (through the closing trumpet-vision: Rev 10:7 = Rev 11:15 f.).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rev 9:20-21
20The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; 21and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.
Rev 9:20 “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands” This is a clear, unambiguous statement of the redemptive purposes of these plagues (cf. Rev 9:21; Rev 14:6-7; Rev 16:9; Rev 16:11; Rev 21:7; Rev 22:17).
As God used the plagues on Egypt as a motivation for (1) Egyptians to believe and serve Him and (2) Israel to stay faithful and serve Him (cf. Deuteronomy 27-28), so these similar plagues were meant to turn unbelieving mankind back to their creator, but they refused. Their stubborn unbelief had become a settled state of rebellion (cf. Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26).
“the works of their hands” This an allusion to idolatry (i.e., the worship of demons, cf. Deu 32:17; Psa 106:37; 1Co 10:20) mentioned so often in the OT (cf. Deu 4:28; Deu 28:36; Deu 28:64; Deu 29:17; Deu 32:17; Psa 115:4-8; Psa 135:15-18; Isa 2:8; Isa 37:19; Isa 40:19-20; Isa 44:17; Jer 1:16; Jer 10:3-5; Dan 5:23; Mic 5:13). Notice in the NT that idolatry is linked to the demonic (cf. Rev 16:14; 1Co 10:20; 1Ti 4:1).
Rev 9:21 These four things (idolatry, murder, sorceries, immorality) are condemned in the OT (cf. Deu 18:10-11; Deu 18:14; Deu 18:20; Exo 22:18; Lev 20:6) and they characterize the immoral lifestyle of the unbelievers (cf. Romans 1-2; 1Ti 4:1; Rev 18:23). This same inclusive group of unrepentant unbelievers is mentioned in Rev 13:15-17; Rev 14:9; Rev 16:2; Rev 16:9; Rev 16:11.
NASB, NKJV,
NRSV”sorceries”
TEV”magic”
NJB”witchcraft”
We get the English term “pharmacy” from this Greek word for sorceries (pharmakeia, cf. Gal 5:20). This may have been a reference to magical potions or poisoning, like the wormwood mentioned earlier (cf. Rev 8:11). In the ancient world drugs were often used to induce “religious” experience.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
rest. App-124.
plagues. See note, Rev 9:18.
repented. App-111.
that . . . not. See Rev 9:5.
worship. App-137.
devils = demons. A worship which is widespread over the world at this hour, despite the Divine warnings. Distinguished from worship of idols.
idols = the idols. Greek. eidolon. Only occurrence in Rev. Not found in the Gospels.
neither, nor. Greek. oute.
see. App-133. Compare Psa 115:4-8.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Rev 9:20-21. – ) A Predicate of two members-in Latin, neque, neque (neither, nor). There are similar particles, Joh 4:11; 3 John Rev 9:10; Mar 5:3-4. [Their repentance had been the aim of the plagues.-V. g.]- , idols) The worship of images was solemnly established in the East, A. 842.- ) The plural, , is used, 1Co 7:2; and yet in this place the singular number is placed between plurals. Other acts of wickedness are performed by men at intervals: there is one perpetual in the case of those who are without purity of heart.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
And the: That is, those of the Latin and Greek churches, who escaped destruction, still persisted in their idolatrous worship of demons, etc.
yet: Rev 9:21, Rev 2:21, Rev 2:22, Rev 16:8, Deu 31:29, 2Ch 28:22, Jer 5:3, Jer 8:4-6, Mat 21:32, 2Co 12:21
worship: Lev 17:7, Deu 32:17, 2Ki 22:17, 2Ch 34:25, Psa 106:37, Isa 2:8, Jer 25:6, Jer 44:8, Act 7:41, Act 19:26, 1Co 10:20, 1Co 10:21, 1Ti 4:1
and idols: Psa 115:4-8, Psa 135:15-18, Isa 40:19, Isa 40:20, Isa 41:7, Isa 42:17, Isa 42:18, Isa 44:9-20, Isa 46:5-7, Jer 10:3-5, Jer 10:8, Jer 10:9, Jer 10:14, Jer 10:15, Jer 15:19, Jer 15:20, Jer 51:17, Dan 5:23, Hab 2:18-20, Act 17:29, Rom 1:21-23
Reciprocal: Exo 10:27 – General Exo 20:4 – General Isa 8:21 – curse Isa 44:15 – he maketh a god Isa 47:9 – for the multitude Jer 2:30 – In vain Eze 20:32 – to serve Dan 3:1 – made Dan 5:4 – praised Dan 12:10 – but the wicked Amo 4:6 – yet Amo 4:11 – yet Hag 2:17 – yet Mat 11:20 – because Act 15:20 – from pollutions Rom 1:23 – an image 1Jo 5:21 – keep Rev 2:5 – and repent Rev 12:9 – the Devil Rev 13:4 – And they Rev 16:9 – and they Rev 22:9 – worship God Rev 22:15 – without
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rev 9:20. The worship of devils and other “forms of idolatry that are mentioned refers to the worship of dead “saints” that was practiced by the members of the apostate church. They also introduced images into their churches and they would fall down before them (even as they do in our day) which constituted the idol worship condemned here. Repented not. Notwithstanding all the hardships that had been brought upon the leaders and many of their followers by their corrupt practices, the others (rest of the men) did not “learn their lesson” so as to be induced to repent.
Rev 9:21. These are literal crimes which doubtless many of them comwitted, for it is well established that the apostate church deals in all of such means to further the interests of the corrupt institution.
Comments by Foy E. Wallace
Verse 20-21.
The demon worshiper: “The rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues, repented not of the works of their hands–neither repented they of their murders, fornication, sorceries, nor their thefts”–Rev 9:20-21.
The rest of the men: This referred to the residual number specified to be survivors of this second woe, pronounced on “the third part of men.” They are described as being guilty of the “worship of devils,” which covered all the idolatrous objects immediately mentioned–“which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk,” classified as “idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood”–all of which declared to be “the works of their hands.” To include all these categories of idolatry under the blanket indictment of “the worship of devils” was in keeping with the law of the Jews, which proscribed all idol worship as homage “unto devils,” and was branded as religious whoredom in the Mosaic law. “They shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute forever unto them throughout their generations.” (Lev 17:7) Again, in the song of Moses it is said: “They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared (worshiped) not.” (Deu 32:17)
The apostle Paul upholds the Mosaic statute on that point, having himself lived under it as a Jew: “But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God, and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.” (1Co 10:20)
Those survivors here designated as “the rest of the men” were evidently that residue of Jewish people who were classed as adherents of Jezebel, and as holding the doctrine of Balaam in the letters to the seven churches (Rev 2:14 Rev 2:20)–the apostate Israelites “of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie.” (Rev 3:9)
Reference to the comments on these verses in chapters two and three will spare further discussion of the symbolic names of Jezebel and Balaam here. Because of her determination to exterminate the prophets of Israel and to sabotage the nation of Israel by idolatrous worship, her name stood for infamy among the people of Israel, and was used in the apocalypse of Revelation to symbolize the Judaizers in the churches. The name Balaam carried a similar symbolic connotation, because of that mongrel prophet’s seductive schemes to destroy the people of Israel by means of heathen practices. Thus the figurative phrases “the doctrine of Balaam” and “that woman Jezebel” originated, as representative of that element in the churches “which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie.”
In the present context the phrase “the rest of the men” apparently referred to that residue classed as adherents of Jezebel, and further identified with “the doctrine of Balaam”–chapter 2:14–“who taught Balak to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.” The language of this vision describing those Jew–Israelites as practicers of these prohibited things was largely an adaptation of the language of Isaiah in forecasting an extolling allegiance to the Holy One of Israel amid the idolatries of the nations:
“At that day shall a man look to his maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. And he shall not look to the altars, the works of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves or the images. In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation. Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation.” (Isa 17:7-10)
These “men” who avoided the plagues of the second woe were those Jews who were affiliated with those things defined in verse 20, and the parallel passages cited, and “repented not” of these “works of their hands”; but their escape from the tribulations of the woe did not secure immunity from the condemnation of disloyalty to the God who recompensed to all men their evil.
Neither repented . . . murders, sorceries, fornication, thefts: The category of evil things were the flagrant crimes of Jezebel, recorded in 1Ki 21:14-15 and 2Ki 9:22, and again connects “the rest of the men” of these verses with the Jezebel apostates. While the idolatries of verse 20 and the crimes of verse 21 were all in violation of both tables of the decalogue, they were not to be applied literally in this vision-their idolatries, murders, sorceries and thefts belonged to the spiritual category for which those sensual things stood. Abandoning Christianity for the praise of princes was as idolatry; deserting Christ to escape malediction was murder of his Cause; turning from the principles of the faith to the arts of magic was a broad definition of sorcery (Act 13:6; Act 19:13), of which there seemed to be a rather numerous party. (Col 2:18-23) And theft does not consist only in the violation of the eighth commandment–seducing men was spiritual theft. (Joh 10:8-10; Mat 15:9; Jer 23:30; 1Ti 1:10) That fornication has a figurative as well as physical meaning goes without saying. (Rev 2:21; Rev 19:2; 2Ch 21:11; Rev 17:5) Apostasy is spiritual fornication. Thus “the rest of the men” is a phrase designating apostate Israelites, guilty of the entire category of spiritual crimes, of which they “repented not”–verse 20; “neither repented” –verse 21. This dual emphasis on the impenitence of these apostates was for the four things representative of apostasy both under the decalogue of Moses and the gospel of Christ.
First, murder: This crime exists in fact in the malicious act of taking human life (2Sa 13:28; 1Ki 21:19; Mar 15:7; Exo 22:2-3; Deu 18:9; Num 35:27-31) It exists in principle in seeds of wrath, hate, retaliation, oppression, and all of its evil consequences. (Jas 4:2; Jas 5:6; Rom 1:29; 1Jn 3:15) It exists in effect in vicarious sufferings, reproaches, and afflictions. (Psa 44:22; Rom 8:36; 1Co 15:30-32; 2Co 6:9; Joh 8:44; Job 5:2; Job 24:14) It was a flagrant, odious and abominable crime. For intentional murder there was no legal pardon, nor ceremonial remission. (Deu 19:13; Deu 21:9; Exo 21:14; Exo 21:28-29; Num 35:30-34) Figuratively, it represented a spiritual degeneracy of the emotions of love and loyalty which leads to betrayal and destruction of righteous causes and men. It is a fitting characterization here.
Second, sorceries or magic: This was a professional part of divination, described in Exo 7:11; Deu 18:10; Act 8:9; and Act 13:6. It was a system of pseudo-divinity belonging to the dark demon world, as mentioned in Act 16:16-18. It was an essential element in false religions and was held in opposition to the true religion of the Jews, as in Lev 20:27; Deu 18:9-14; Jer 14:14. It was prevalent among Jews, many of whom believed in it and resorted to it, as stated in Samuel 28:3-20. In whatever form it was regarded or practiced it was reproachful to the Mosaic religion and to Christianity, and was reprobated in both the law and the gospel. The writings of the prophets are full of invectives against Israelites who consulted diviners and of the false prophets seducing the people by means of it, examples of which are Jer 14:14, and Eze 13:6-7. Again, here was a fitting characterization of the Jewish apostasies.
Third, fornication: This is a term of frequent occurrence in all the sacred writings to denote acts of lewdness and of incontinency. It is used for the sin of impurity in 1Co 6:13; 1Co 7:2 and Jud 1:7. It is used for the sin of adultery in Mat 5:28-32 and 1Th 4:3. It is used for the sin of incest in 1Co 5:1. It is used for spiritual and religious infidelity, apostasy from truth and right in 2Ch 21:11 and Rev 19:2. In the spiritual sense it denotes the unfaithfulness of the Israelites because the union between God and Israel was set forth as marriage. (Jer 3:9; Eze 23:37; Isa 23:17) Jesus upbraided a faithless God-denying and Christ-rejecting age as “an adulterous generation” in Mat 12:39. The mingling of error and evil with that which was true and pure in teaching, worship and practice was spiritual adultery. It applied to participation in heathenism or affiliation with any false system or practice. (Jas 4:4) It was truly an apt use in this present scene.
Fourth, theft: The term here referred to the deceptions of any form of stealing. It was applied physically to the unlawful taking of anything that belongs to another, as in Exo 20:15; Job 30:5 and Luk 10:30. It was applied morally, or ethically, to fraudulence, as in Mat 21:13. It was applied doctrinally and spiritually to seduction, to seducers of doctrine, as in Jer 7:9; Jer 23:30, Eze 13:10; 1Ti 4:1; 2Ti 3:13 ; 1Jn 2:26 and Mar 13:22.
In this sixth trumpet scene these words are employed figuratively, not literally. It was spiritual murder, in the sense of traitors to the Jewish cause, and betrayers of their brethren. It was spiritual sorcery in the magical influence exercised over the Jewish population. It was spiritual fornication in adulterous affiliation with the false systems of deism, pantheism and paganism. It was spiritual theft in the stealing of the truth from men’s hearts and God’s way from their lives.
The correctness of the characterization of the “rest of the men which were not killed by the plagues,” and who “repented not” of the category of figurative crimes, as the residual number of the Jewish people, is supported by the corresponding Jewish history of the same period. The sins listed in the category of verses 20 and 21 were typical of all Jewish apostasies from the law of Moses promulgated from Mount Sinai and which was preached in all the synagogues. “Thou camest down upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments . . . by the hand of Moses thy servant.” (Neh 9:13-14) “For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.” (Act 15:21) But the residue of this nation were those to whom John said, “0 generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come,” (Mat 3:7 f); and whom Jesus called an “offspring of vipers” (Mat 23:28-33).
These were condemnations of which hypocrisy and iniquity made them deserving. Among them arose a legion of false prophets and seducers to lead them astray, particularly true in the very period of the calamities portrayed in the vision of these trumpet visions and of corresponding description in the records of Matthew, Mark and Luke on the destruction of Jerusalem. “And there shall arise false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” (Mat 24:24) “And they shall show signs and wonders to seduce.” (Mar 13:22) “And ye shall be betrayed . . . and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.” (Luk 21:16) Later, before these things came to pass that were thus foretold to mark the latter part of that period ending with the fall of Jerusalem, inspired apostles were issuing warnings against all such seducers and their doctrines, with all the resulting wickedness. “Now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” (2Ti 4:1) “This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come.” (2Ti 3:1)
These apostolic admonitions correspond with the warnings of the Lord in the discourse on Jerusalem, and are descriptive of the same Jewish apostasies of the residual number in the closing scene of the sixth trumpet vision. The drawing of these parallels was in full accord with the teaching of the passages cited in reference to the times, with the history of that period, and with the purpose of the apocalypse.
The voice from the four horns of the altar commanded the angel of the sixth trumpet to “loose” the four agents which were “bound” in or at “the great river Euphrates” (verse 14) was the ominous announcement of encompassing desolation. It is a geographical fact that the Euphrates river formed the boundary of the Roman empire at the time of the Jewish-Roman war, and their army installations and concentrations were there where the legions of this vision were said to be “bound.” It was therefore in harmony with all the facts, scriptural and historical that the mighty cavalry of the Euphrates portrayed in this trumpet was the immense Roman army which marched against Jerusalem and initiated the terrible siege resulting in all the desolation foretold by Daniel and depicted by the Lord in pointing up the fulfillment.
Matthew’s account reads: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, (whoso readeth let him understand), then let them which be in Judea flee.”– Mat 24:15-16.
Luke’s record reads: “And when ye shall see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Jerusalem flee to the mountains.”– Luk 21:20-21.
Here Daniel’s vision, in chapters 9 and 12 of his prophecy, were merged with the signs of the Lord’s Jerusalem discourse and with the like symbols of John’s apocalypse. To search the distant future for a fulfillment of these symbolic descriptions, not only reduces both the text and the context of Revelation to confusion, but renders meaningless all of the passages which apply with such clarity and so full of force to that period. The interpretations which remove these events of the symbolic history from the Neroan period of the apostolic century, and assign them to centuries later and yet to come are rank anachronisms. Any attempt to explain these visions by the rise and fall of the successive monarchies, through the centuries from them till now and on to the end of time, would necessarily continue the existence of the armies symbolized in this vision for periods ranging from five to twenty centuries, which not only destroys all practical applications of the symbolic descriptions to the people to whom they were addressed, rendering them impossible to understand, but it furthermore declares an open season for the maneuvering, manipulation and juggling of events of history to fit a manufactured theory. But viewed in the light of the application of the symbols of Revelation to the period of time in which the people lived to whom the visions were addressed, all such anachronisms disappear.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rev 9:20-21. The vision is over, but the guilt of the world which was now under judgment has to be set forth with greater fulness, in order that we may better understand the evil of sin and the justness of the judgments that overtake it. And the rest of men which were not killed in these plagues repented not. Men here are obviously the ungodly, the same as those of Rev 9:4, or as those spoken of in chap. Rev 8:13, in the words they that dwell on the earth. By the works of their hands it is generally agreed that we are to understand not their course of life but the idols mentioned immediately afterwards. As a natural consequence of not repenting of their idol-worship these men also repented not of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. Four sins are mentioned, implying universality, and leading our thoughts to both Jew and Gentile. Nor does even the mention of idols entitle us to confine the obstinate hardness of heart spoken of to the heathen. Idolatry is chargeable against all the enemies of God, whether Jew or Gentile (comp. 1Jn 5:21). Again we see that the sealed, upon whom this plague certainly does not fall, must belong to both these divisions of mankind.
We may here pause for a moment to make one or two general remarks upon the sixth trumpet. In general characteristics it greatly resembles the fifth, but the climax of the Apocalypse may be easily marked in the progress from the latter to the former. Not only are the horses of the sixth trumpet more powerful than the locusts of the fifth, but the terribleness of the one is much greater than that of the other. To quote the words of an old commentator (Bishop Forbes of Aberdeen), the horses are said to have heads of lions to denote open rage and professed cruelty, whereas the locusts covered their lions teeth with faces of men and hair of women. Their destructive energy too is more fatal, for the power of the locusts to hurt (Rev 9:10) becomes in them a power to kill. In other respects no distinction need be drawn between the two trumpets. Special forms of judgment visiting the earth at different periods of its history can hardly with propriety be sought in them. The judgments which they represent are peculiar to no people or age. They are rather those judgments of a general kind which always have followed, and always will follow, sin. These spring in every form from the same causes, and are designed to promote the same ends. The misery with which earth is filled, whether from war or pestilence or famine, whether showing itself in poverty or crime or death, is to be traced to one and the same root,that evil of the human heart which leads men to reject the revelation of the love of Him who willeth not that any of His creatures should perish, who would stanch all their wounds and heal all their sorrows. Upon this we are to fix our thoughts, not only under the last two, but under all the trumpets, noting only further, as we do so, that the longer mercy is despised the greater is the judgment which follows, and that the later messengers of Divine wrath are more dreadful than the earlier.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Like Pharaoh of old, these wicked people do not know when to yield to the Almighty. The one-third of mankind killed clearly did not include Christians since this description of those remaining lets us know they were idol worshipers. ( Rom 1:18-28 ) The word demon goes with idols because they were false deities and evil spirits would be associated with this worship. ( Deu 31:17 ; Psa 106:37 ; 1Co 10:19-20 ) When one turns away from proper respect for God, he will next turn to abuse of man whom God made. “Sorceries” comes from the Greek word pharmakeia, which is translated witchcraft in Gal 5:20 , and means the use of drugs in association with the worship of the occult.
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Rev 9:20-21. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues That is, the Latin Church, which pretty well escaped these calamities; yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils Daimonia, demons, or second mediatory gods, as it hath largely been shown before, saints and angels; and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and wood From hence it is evident, that those calamities were inflicted upon the Christians for their idolatries. As the eastern churches were first in the crime, so they were first likewise in the punishment. At first they were visited by the plague of the Saracens, but this working no change or reformation, they were again chastised by the still greater plague of the Othmans; were partly overthrown by the former, and were entirely ruined by the latter. What churches were then remaining, which were guilty of the like idolatry, but the western, or those in communion with Rome? And the western were not at all reclaimed by the ruin of the eastern, but persisted still in the worship of saints and (what is worse) the worship of images, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk And the world is witness to the completion of this prophecy to this day. Neither repented they of their murders Their persecutions and inquisitions; nor of their sorceries Their pretended miracles and revelations; nor of their fornications Their public stews and uncleanness; nor of their thefts Their exactions and impositions on mankind: and they are as notorious for their licentiousness and wickedness, as for their superstition and idolatry. As they therefore refused to take warning by the two former woes, the third wo, as we shall see, will fall with vengeance upon them.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
9:20 {15} And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
(15) Now remains the event (as I said on the first verse), see Geneva “Rev 9:1” which followed so many grievous judgments in the most wicked world, namely an impenitent affirmation of the ungodly in their impiety and unrighteousness, though they feel themselves most vehemently pressed with the hand of God: for their obstinate ungodliness is showed in this verse: and their unrighteousness in the verse following Rev 9:21 . So far has been the general history of things to be done universally in the whole world: which because it does not so much belong to the Church of Christ, is therefore not so expressly distinguished by certainty of time and other circumstances, but is woven, as they say, with a slight hand. Also there is no other reason why the history of the seventh angel is passed over in this place, then for that the same more properly appertains to the history of the Church. But this is more diligently set out according to its time, Rev 11:16 as shall appear on those places.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The survivors’ response 9:20-21
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
These three severe judgments (fire, smoke, and brimstone, Rev 9:17-18) will not move the remaining unbelievers as a whole to repent (cf. Exo 7:13; Exo 7:23; Exo 8:15; Exo 8:19; Exo 8:32; Exo 9:7; Exo 9:12; Exo 9:35; Exo 10:20; Exo 11:10).
"In all cases in the apocalyptic portion of the book, the word about repentance is negative as here." [Note: Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. 52. Cf. Rev 9:21; Revelation 16:9, 11.]
"Metanoeo ek (’I repent of’) in Revelation denotes a change of mind in rejection of something that is anti-God (cf. Rev 2:21-22; Rev 9:21; Rev 16:11)." [Note: Ibid.]
Elsewhere in Scripture the phrase "the works of their hands" refers to idolatry (cf. Deu 4:28; Deu 27:15; Deu 31:29; 2Ki 19:18; 2Ki 22:17; 2Ch 32:19; 2Ch 34:25; Psa 115:4; Psa 135:15; Isa 2:8; Isa 17:8; Isa 37:19; Jer 1:16; Jer 10:3; Jer 10:9; Jer 25:6-7; Jer 25:14; Jer 32:30; Jer 44:8; Hos 14:3; Mic 5:13; Hag 2:14; Act 7:41). Idolatry is ultimately worship of demons (cf. Deu 32:17; Psa 106:37; 1Co 10:20), an understanding that John reflected here. Ironically, these earth-dwellers refuse to stop worshipping demons who are responsible for their misery under this sixth trumpet judgment. In his day people fashioned idol images out of the materials that John mentioned. Today objects that people venerate made of these same materials can be bought in stores, and materialists idolize them. John reminded his readers of the helplessness of these idols (cf. Deu 4:28; Psa 115:5-7; Psa 135:15-17; Isa 44:12-20; Dan 5:23).