And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
The Seven Trumpets. Chap. Rev 8:2 to Rev 11:19
2. the seven angels which stood ] Should be, which stand. It is probably a designation of seven Angels (commonly, perhaps correctly, called Archangels) who permanently enjoy special nearness to God. We have in Tob 12:15 an evidence of popular Jewish belief as to these Angels; St John’s vision is expressed in terms of that belief, and, it may fairly be thought, sanctions it with his prophetic authority.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And I saw the seven angels which stood before God – Prof. Stuart supposes that by these angels are meant the presence-angels which he understands to be referred to, in Rev 1:4, by the seven spirits which are before the throne. If, however, the interpretation of that passage above proposed, that it refers to the Holy Spirit, with reference to his multiplied agency and operations, be correct, then we must seek for another application of the phrase here. The only difficulty in applying it arises from the use of the article – the seven angels – tous as if they were angels already referred to; and as there has been no previous mention of seven angels, unless it be in the phrase the seven spirits which are before the throne, in Rev 1:4, it is argued that this must have been such a reference. But this interpretation is not absolutely necessary. John might use this language either because the angels had been spoken of before; or because it would be sufficiently understood, from the common use of language, who would be referred to – as we now might speak of the seven members of the cabinet of the United States, or the thirty-one governors of the states of the Union, though they had not been particularly mentioned; or he might speak of them as just then disclosed to his view, and because his meaning would be sufficiently definite by the circumstances which were to follow – their agency in blowing the trumpets.
It would be entirely in accordance with the usage of the article for one to say that he saw an army, and the commander-in-chief, and the four staff-officers, and the five bands of music, and the six companies of sappers and miners, etc. It is not absolutely necessary, therefore, to suppose that these angels had been before referred to. There is, indeed, in the use of the phrase which stood before God, the idea that they are to be regarded as permanently standing there, or that that is their proper place – as if they were angels who were particularly designated to this high service. Compare Luk 1:19; I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God. If this idea is involved in the phrase, then there is a sufficient reason why the article is used, though they had not before been mentioned.
And to them were given seven trumpets – One to each. By whom the trumpets were given is not said. It may be supposed to have been done by Him who sat on the throne. Trumpets were used then, as now, for various purposes; to summon an assembly; to muster the hosts of battle; to inspirit and animate troops in conflict. Here they are given to announce a series of important events producing great changes in the world as if God summoned and led on his hosts to accomplish his designs.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rev 8:2
The seven angels seven trumpets.
Trumpets
1. These seven angels stand waiting before the throne, and till they be called to the service that is subjoined, they go not: teaching men who are so called to wait in like manner for the Lords vocation of them, and not to run before they be sent.
2. Those who are thus called have trumpets given them: even so whom the Lord calls and sends out to any work, He furnishes them with gifts meet for the work, which neither man nor angel can have until the same be given them from above.
3. By trumpets the Lord forewarns the world of the judgments to come upon them, before they come, that they might repent: wherein the great mercy of God is seen to the very wicked, forewarning them to flee from His wrath to come.
4. As by the trumpets of these angels He forewarned the world, even so does He yet by the ministry of those who are called angels, and by the trumpets of the law and gospel (Isa 58:1). (Wm. Guild, D. D.)
The trumpet-symbol
I. God has a message for us.
II. The manner of that message. Such truths as these are suggested by this trumpet-symbol.
1. How urgent! It is no mere matter of indifference, but life and death hang upon it.
2. How warlike! The trumpet-note was emphatically the music of war.
3. How terrible! The hosts of Midian fled in dismay when the blast of Gideons trumpet burst on their startled ears. And Gods Word is terrible to those who know Him not. The Bible is a dreadful book to the impenitent man when awakened, as one day he will be, to his real condition before God.
4. How animating to the hearts of the people of God! Gods Word is full of heart-cheering truth to all them that trust in Him.
5. How joyful was the sound when it proclaimed, as so often the trumpet did, the advent of some glad festival, some acceptable year of the Lord, the jubilee especially!
6. How irresistible is the trumpet-sound! The lofty, massive walls of Jericho fell down flat before the trumpet-blast. (S. Conway, B. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. The seven angels which stood before God] Probably the same as those called the seven Spirits which are before his throne, Re 1:4, where see the note. There is still an allusion here to the seven ministers of the Persian monarchs. See Tobit 12:15.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The seven angels which stood before God; the seven mentioned hereafter, which blew with the trumpets; for we presently read, that
seven trumpets were given to them. Trumpets were used to call the people together, to proclaim festivals, and in war. The use of these trumpets we shall hereafter read, which was to proclaim the will and counsels of God, as to things to come.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. the seven angelsComparethe apocryphal Tobit 12:15, “I am Raphael, one of theseven holy angels which present the prayers of the saints, and whichgo in and out before the glory of the Holy One.” Compare Lu1:19, “I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God.”
stoodGreek,“stand.”
seven trumpetsThesecome in during the time while the martyrs rest until their fellowservants also, that should be killed as they were, should befulfilled; for it is the inhabiters of the earth on whomthe judgments fall, on whom also the martyrs prayed that they shouldfall (Re 6:10). All theungodly, and not merely some one portion of them, are meant, all theopponents and obstacles in the way of the kingdom of Christ and Hissaints, as is proved by Rev 11:15;Rev 11:18, end, at the close ofthe seven trumpets. The Revelation becomes more special only as itadvances farther (Rev 13:1-18;Rev 16:10; Rev 17:18).By the seven trumpets the world kingdoms are overturned to make wayfor Christ’s universal kingdom. The first four are connectedtogether; and the last three, which alone have Woe, woe, woe(Re 8:7-13).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And I saw the seven angels,…. Not the seven spirits of God, Re 1:4; their names, as well as their office, differ; nor the ministers of the word, though these are often called angels in this book, and blow the trumpet of the Gospel, and lift up their voice like a trumpet; but the angelic spirits, and these either evil ones, since they are the executioners of wrath and vengeance, and bring judgments on the earth; and who, are sometimes said to stand before God, 1Ki 22:21; or rather good angels, who are sometimes ministers of divine wrath; see 2Sa 24:16; “seven” of them are mentioned, as being a proper number for the blowing of the seven trumpets, which would complete all the woes that were to come upon the world, and in allusion to the seven princes the eastern monarchs used to have continually about them, Es 1:14, as it follows:
which stood before God; and denotes their nearness to him, and familiarity with him, they always behold his face; and their service and ministrations, and their readiness to execute his will: the allusion is to the two priests standing at the table of fat, with two silver trumpets in their hands, with which they blew, and another struck the cymbal, and the Levites sung, which was always done at the time of the daily sacrifice p:
and to them were given seven trumpets: everyone had one; and which were an emblem of those wars, and desolations, and calamities, which would come upon the empire, and upon the world, at the blowing of each of them; the trumpet being an alarm, preparing for, proclaiming, and introducing these things; Jer 4:19; these are said to be given them; either by him that sat upon the throne, about which they were; or by the Lamb that opened the seal; and shows that they did nothing but what they had a commission and order to do. Here is manifestly an allusion to the priests and Levites blowing their trumpets at the close of the daily sacrifice, and at the offering of incense q as before observed.
p Misn. Tamid. c. 7. sect. 3. q Maimon. Hilch. Tamidin, c. 6. sect. 5.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Stand (). Perfect active of (intransitive). Another “hebdomad” so frequent in the Apocalypse. The article (the seven angels) seems to point to seven well-known angels. In Enoch 20:7 the names of seven archangels are given (Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Sariel, Gabriel, Remiel) and “angels of the Presence” is an idea like that in Isa 63:9. We do not know precisely what is John’s idea here.
Seven trumpets ( ). We see trumpets assigned to angels in Matt 24:31; 1Thess 4:16; 1Cor 15:52; Rev 4:1; Rev 4:4. See also the use of trumpets in Josh 6:13; Joel 2:1. These seven trumpets are soon to break the half hour of silence. Thus the seven trumpets grow out of the opening of the seventh seal, however that fact is to be interpreted.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Stood [] . Rev., correctly, stand.
Trumpets [] . See on chapter Rev 1:10.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
THE SEVEN TRUMPETS PREPARE TO SOUND, v. 2-7 HIGH PRIEST, CHRIST
1) “And I saw the seven angels,” (kai eidon tous hepta angelous) “And I saw (perceived) the seven angels; as the “Seven Spirits” of God signifies unified completeness of the Holy Spirit in all his manifestations, and the seven churches of Asia represent the one true church in her functions, so the seven angels signify that all angels are now ready to do God’s bidding and the will of the Lamb, Heb 1:14; Rev 1:4.
2) “Which stood before God,” (hoi enopion tou theou hestekasin) “Who stood before (in the presence of). God as ready to do him service, to do his bidding, in matters of pending judgment upon the earth. They “stood” as ready for his inspection, review, and instruction for service, as every child of God should do, Rom 12:1-2.
3) “And to them were given seven trumpets,” (kai edothesan autois hepta salpinges) “And seven trumpets were given (over) to them; for their use, their service to the Lamb who held and opened the seven seal book, and had now opened the seventh and last seal, where final disclosures of end time events shall be described with increased tempo and rising crescendo judgment cries.
As the seven horns and seven eyes of the Lamb represent his omnipotent might and omniscient penetrating sight, Rev 5:6; so the seven seals, seven trumpets and seven vial-bowels represent his final
judgments, so mingled and overlapping that they are one “The Great Day of His wrath,” Rev 6:17. Seven as a sacred number represents absolute fullness or completeness.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(2) THE VISIONS INTRODUCED BY THE SOUNDING OF SEVEN TRUMPETS.The series of visions which is now introduced extend to the close of the eleventh chapter. There are some features which may be noticed here. There is a marked correspondence of arrangement between these and the visions of the seals. As there, so here, there are introduced two subordinate visions towards the end of the series. The sixth seal was followed by the vision of the one hundred and forty-four thousand and the countless multitude: the sixth trumpet is followed by the vision of the little book and the seven thunders and the measurement of the temple of God (Revelation 10 and Rev. 11:1-14). The general intention of these interposed visions is similar. In both cases they seem designed to give us an insight of the life within the life of Christs Church. The main visions give us more external aspects; the interposed visions show the inner and more spiritual aspects. Thus the seals show the great outer features of world and Church historythe war, controversies, the famine and barren dogmatism, the death, and deathlike externalism, the persecutions and sorrows and revolutions of on-coming history; the interposed visions of Revelation 7 show us the calm and strength and the victory of the children of God. So also with these visions of the trumpets. The main visions give us the trumpet-voices of Gods manifold providences summoning the world to surrender to Him; the subsidiary visions point to the witness and work of the true children of God in this world, and the more secret growth of the Church of Christ. Another similarity between the seals and the trumpets is to be found in the separation between the first four and the last three. The first four trumpets, like the first four seals, are grouped together. The first four seals are introduced by the cry Come; the first four trumpets are followed by judgments on natural objectsthe earth, the sea, the rivers, the lights of heavenwhile the last three have been described as woe trumpets, being introduced by the thrice repeated cry of Woe (see Rev. 8:13). There is thus a correspondence of arrangement in the two series of visions; but their general import is very different. We reach in the seventh seal the eternal quiet of Gods presence. Through a series of visions we have been shown that the way to rest is not easy, that we must be prepared to see the great features of earths troubles remain till the close, and that the children of God must through tribulation and even persecution enter into the kingdom of Gods peace. The seals answer the question, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom? But the kingdom will be restored. The Church may find her way a way of difficulty, delay, danger; but it will be a way to triumph. The kingdoms of the world will become the kingdoms of the Lord. Let the people of God go forward; let their prayers be set forth as incense; let them blow the trumpet, and summon men to repentance; they are not alone; the Lord still fights for His Israel. This is the assurance which we gather from the trumpets. In all l he wondrous providences which the history of the world discloses we may hear the trumpet-voice which heralds the kingdom of Christ, to which the Church is hearing constant and sufficient witness (Rev. 11:3-4). The seals close with peace; the trumpets close appropriately with victory (Rev. 11:15). The visions are not scenes of events which chronologically succeed one another. The one set shows us the way through trouble to rest; the other shows the way through conflict to triumph: the one set shows us the troubles which befall the Church because of the world; the other shows us the troubles which fall on the world because the Church advances to the conquest of the world, as Israel to the possession of the land of promise.
And I saw the seven angels . . .Better, And I saw the seven angels which stand (not stood) before God; and there were given to them seven trumpets. The seven angels: Who are these? The usual answer is that they are seven angels (or, according to some, archangels) distinguished among the myriads round the throne. The passages referred to in support of this view are twoone from the Apocryphal Book of Tobit, I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One (Tob. 12:15); the other, the well-known passage from St. Luke, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God (Luk. 1:19). This may be true, and the emphatic article (the seven angels) gives the view some support, but seeing that the number seven is to be taken throughout the book as symbolical, and not literal, it is perhaps better to view the seven angels as representatives of the power of God over the world. They are the seven, the complete .circle of Gods power in judgment; for as we do not take the seven-spirits to be literally seven spirits, but symbols of the complete and manifest influence of the one Holy Spirit, the third person in the glorious Trinity, so neither need we infer from the mention of the seven angels here that they are literally seven preeminent angelic personages, but rather regard them as symbols of that complete and varied messenger-force which God evermore commands.
Seven trumpets.It will help our understanding of the symbol here employed to recall the occasions on which the trumpet was used. It was used to summon the people together, whether for worship, or festival, or war, for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps. When they shall blow with them (the trumpets), all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee (Moses) at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation (Num. 10:4-8). For journeying an alarm was to be blown (Num. 10:6). And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies (Rev. 8:9). And as for war, so also on festival days the trumpets were blown: Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the Lord your God. The reader will remember other illustrations. When the people were assembled to hear the Ten Commandments the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder (Exo. 19:19). The feast held on the first day of the seventh month was a day of blowing the trumpets (Num. 29:1) among the people who would blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on their solemn feast day (Psa. 81:3). At the siege of Jericho seven priests bore before the ark seven trumpets of rams horns, and on the seventh day the priests blew with the trumpets (Jos. 6:4-5). For assembling, for journeying, for war, the sound of the trumpets was heard. The judgments which follow the blowing of the trumpets in this series of visions are the trumpet-toned calls of God, summoning mankind to assemble to the true tabernacle, bidding His people go forward, and announcing the overthrow of His adversaries. Every judgment, on earth, or sea, or river, by war, or by invasion, is a call which bids men listen to the still small voice, which they have neglected, perhaps resisted. Every judgment should rouse the true servant to greater vigilance and further advance: it is an alarm sounded on the great battle-field of life. Miracles have been called the alarm bells of the universe; no less are the strange and startling events of the worlds history the alarm notes blown by Gods angels across the world, to remind us of the war in which every citadel of evil must inevitably fall. It is mainly, then, as an alarm of war that these angel- trumpets are sounded. The land of promise is to be rescued from the tribes and peoples who corrupt it. As the Canaanites of old were swept away lest their wickedness, increasing beyond measure, should spread abroad a moral death, so are the judgments of these trumpets sent to undermine, purge away, and finally to destroy all evil powers which destroy the earth (Rev. 11:18). We may hear, then, in each blast of the symbolical trumpet a promise and instalment of the victory for which the groaning and travailing creation yearns, and which will be the banishment of earths destroyers, and the manifestation of the sons of God.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. I saw seven angels which stood From this phraseology, Stuart identifies them with “the seven presence-angels,” or amshaspends of the Persians. He quotes the words of Raphael, in the apocryphal Book of Tobit: “I am one of the seven angels which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One.” And so, also, he quotes the seven “watchers” of the Book of Enoch, who wait and watch for the divine commands. Alford draws the strong inference that the existence of these angels is a part of the additional revelation derived by the Jews from the captivity. See our note on Mat 1:20. Hengstenberg takes a different view. He shows that there are, indeed, ranks and gradations of angels: “For God’s creations are no democratic chaos.” He quotes the seraphim of Isaiah 6; the “ angel-princes” of Dan 10:13; the “thrones, dominions, principalities, powers,” of St. Paul; also 1Pe 3:22, and Jude Rev 8:8, in proof of these ranks. Yet this particular seven he believes to be only occasional, arising from the sevenfold arrangements of the book, and this seven would indeed have been ten, had there been ten trumpets. Agreeing with Hengstenberg in this occasional character of the seven, and in the existence of angel ranks, we doubt whether this standing implies any permanent rank of this seven. The seven had been standing before John saw them; and they had stood before the throne for a definite purpose; namely, the receiving and blowing the trumpets. They stood before the theophanic throne just as the another angel, Rev 8:3, stood before the altar, both to perform a given task. The Greek for stood is in the perfect tense, who have stood, or have been standing. Just so in Rev 8:5, took is perfect has taken. The seer’s eye watches and tells what has been done, as soon as it is done. So, “I saw the seven angels who have been for some time standing” to receive the trumpets.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.’
The seven angels are the ones mentioned in Rev 1:4 and Rev 4:5. They have been waiting for this very moment. The blowing of the seven trumpets, like the opening of the seven seals of which they are a part, will cause God’s purposes to go forward. Like the seven seals, the trumpets overlap with each other, so that the events described in one may occur while others are going on, although also to some extent consecutively. They announce publicly God’s next actions. Just as the New Year was inaugurated with the blowing of trumpets and hope for the future (Lev 23:24; Num 29:1), and the year of Jubilee was inaugurated with trumpets which signalled release and freedom (Lev 25:8-10), so each of God’s new actions is inaugurated in the same way. The seven trumpets were given to the angels by God, as the passive tense ‘were given’ makes clear. Their being seven indicates the divine completeness of the judgments they cover.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rev 8:2-5. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God, &c. “And I saw the seven angels which I have before mentioned, and which then stood before the throne of God; and seven trumpets were given to them, that they might each of them successively sound an alarm; which I understood to be the symbol of some very important and awakening events, which were, in order of time, to succeed those which had been expressed by the seals. And while they were preparing to execute the orders they had received, another angel, whom I understood as a typical representation of the great High-Priest of the church, came and stood before the altar which I saw in this celestial temple, having a golden censer; and there was given to him much fragrant incense, consisting of a variety of excellent perfumes mingled together, that he might present it with the prayers of all the saints, upon the golden altar which was before the throne; just as the Jewish high priest used to burn incense on the golden altar in the temple, while the people were praying in the courts of it at the hour of morning and evening sacrifice. And the smoke of the perfumes went up in a thick and odoriferous cloud,together with the prayers of the saints, from the hand of the angel as he stood before God; and seemed thereby emblematically to signify, how grateful to the Divine Being those prayers were which proceeded from holy hearts, being recommended by the intercession of that great High-Priest, whom this glorious angel had the honour, on this occasion, to represent; as Aaron and his sons did in the Jewish tabernacle of old. And when the angel had performed this office, in order to shew the awful manner in which God would avenge the injury which his praying people upon earth received from its tyrannical and oppressive powers, he took the censer, and, advancing towards the brazen altar of burnt offerings, he filled it with fire of the altar, and threw it upon the earth; and as soon as this action was performed, there were long and terrible voices, and thunders, and lightnings, which seemed to break out from the Shechinah, the glorious token of the Divine Presence; and there was also the sudden and violent shock of an earthquake, which seemed to shake the foundation of the world.” There was no fire upon the golden altar, but that which was in the censer, in which the incense was burnt; so that we must necessarily, by this fire of the altar, understand that of the brazen altar, though it is not expressly declared to be so; and this may intimate, that in some other places the samewords may, by comparing different circumstances, have different ideas annexed to them.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rev 8:2 . . By the same formula, John has indicated what the seals previously opened enabled him to behold. [2410] What he describes in Rev 8:2-6 , he has therefore beheld, not after the conclusion of the silence, Rev 8:1 , [2411] but during it. [2412] The entire scene is silent, until (Rev 8:5 ) by the fire cast into the earth, thunderings and voices (from beneath, from the earth) are aroused, which then, interrupting the silence in heaven, give the signal, as it were, to the angels who are to use the trumpets received already in Rev 8:2 .
. Doubly incorrect, Luther: “ Sieben Engel, die da traten vor Gott ” [“Seven angels who appeared before God”]. The words, as they sound, are to be understood in no way otherwise than that John, just as Tob 12:15 , [2413] speaks of seven particular angels, who, with a certain precedency above all the rest, stand before God. They are not called “archangels.” [2414] They can be identified [2415] with the seven spirits of God [2416] only by misunderstanding that expression. But when Hengstenb. and Ebrard assert that the number of angels who stand before God is fixed at seven only because of the seven trumpets, and do not hinder us from thinking of more than just seven to whom belongs the prerogative of “standing before God; “and when Ebrard, in order to give another application to the definite article which conflicts with this, attempts to contrast the seven. angels, Rev 8:2 , to the four angels, Rev 7:1 , they are only useless pretexts, in order to avoid the unambiguously expressed idea of just seven angels standing before God. The older interpreters, as Luther, Vitr., reached the same conclusion more readily by regarding the article as a Heb. redundancy; yet many also [2417] have without prejudice recognized the thought required by the text.
. The purpose becomes immediately manifest to John; cf. Rev 8:6-7 sqq. To the inhabitants of heaven, who, after the opening of the seal, see how to those chief angels trumpets are given, the vast significance of this matter is clear in advance: hence their silence.
[2410] Cf. Rev 6:1-2 ; Rev 6:5 ; Rev 6:8 ; Rev 6:12 .
[2411] Ebrard.
[2412] Arct., Herd., Rinck.
[2413] “I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One.”
[2414] De Wette, Stern.
[2415] Aret., Ew.
[2416] Rev 4:5 .
[2417] C. a Lap., Beng.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
IX
THE SOUNDING OF THE TRUMPETS
Rev 8:2-10:1
We now take up that section of the book of Revelation that relates to the sounding of the seven trumpets, which commences at Rev 8:2 , and extends to the end of chapter II. But I shall not be able to expound the entire section in one chapter; I will try, however, to cover so much of it as extends to Rev 10:8 , leaving for the next study the most of Rev 10 and the whole of II. You will observe that, as in the seals, here there are two groups, four and three. There was quite a distinction between the first group of seals and the three that followed; and so there will be quite a distinction between the group of four trumpets and the three that follow.
The general meaning of the sounding of the trumpets is the gospel as prayed from John’s time to the second coming of Christ. The seals, you will remember, were the gospel as preached from John’s time to the second advent. Every sounding of a trumpet comes as a response, not to a sermon, but to a prayer. We make a great mistake when we limit the power of the gospel to its preaching, for a very large part of its power is dependent upon its praying. The preaching is more conspicuous, and oftentimes a preacher takes credit to himself for the power of his sermons, when perhaps the power came from some obscure member of the church who prayed while he preached. Realizing this, I made it a habit of my pastoral life to engage a number of the most spiritually minded members of my church to enter into a covenant to pray for me every Sunday while I preached. Even the apostle Paul felt his great dependence upon the prayers of his brethren and sisters, and earnestly solicited their prayers. Just so I would count the friends of the seminary who prayed for its endowment as upon the agents who worked for its endowment. It is an old saying that “Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees.”
The key passage of this section is as follows (Rev 8:3-5 ) : “And another angel came and stood over the altar” that means not the brazen altar of sacrifice, but the golden altar of incense “having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel taketh censer and he filled it with the fire of the altar and cast it upon the earth: and there followed thunders and voices and lightnings and an earthquake.”
A Bible student should understand the relative positions and distinctive purposes of the brazen altar and the golden altar. The first was in the outer court and for sacrifices. The other was in the holy place, and was for prayer based on the preceding sacrifice. Hence, the prayer “for Christ’s sake” that is because he died for us. Prayer without expiation has no foundation.
It is evident from this key passage that what the trumpets will tell us about comes as a response to prayers offered to God, and when that censer is emptied upon the earth, then the trumpets begin to sound, each trumpet a response to prayers.
Let the reader note that this angel standing over the golden altar with the golden censer, which holds the incense, representing prayers on earth coming up before God in heaven, is the great high priest Jesus Christ himself, the angel of the covenant. Throughout the Old Testament the offering of incense before the mercy seat symbolizes prayers offered in the outer court. David says: “Let the lifting up of my hands be as the incense.” And when the high priest entered into the holy of holies he carried that golden censer filled with frankincense, and kindled it with a coal from the brazen altar, and as it kindled the smoke went up in a fragrant cloud; it represented the prayers ascending to God. You are to understand that the prayers are uttered on earth, but this is a picture of their presentation in heaven the reception accorded these petitions and the responses given, and you must distinguish between the martyr cry of the last lesson and these prayers here. That martyr cry was for a single thing it came from martyrs only. These are the prayers of all God’s people continually going up.
Now, seven angels stood, each with a trumpet, prepared to sound just as the high priest, having offered these prayers poured out on the earth coals of fire from the altar. The first angel sounded (Rev 8:7 ): “And there followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth, and a third part of the earth was burned up, and a third part of the trees was burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.” In telling you what I conceive to be the meaning of these seven trumpets I speak with great diffidence I will not be as dogmatic about it as I am about some of my interpretations. The wisest men and the greatest scholars on the earth may well differ in interpreting some of the imagery of this wonderful book. I am satisfied in my own mind, however, that I am giving you the true meaning.
In order, then, to get at the meaning of this first trumpet you are to ask: What, or who, was the great enemy in John’s time oppressing the church? It was pagan Rome that fourth great world empire that Daniel saw, and that was terrible. At this particular time, Rome had commenced a worldwide persecution of the Christians; John himself was in exile on account of it, and not a church in the empire was safe from its cruel hands. Now, of course, the Christians prayed about that; they could not help it. And the first trumpet sounded. I understand that first trumpet to mean the judgment upon the Roman Empire the pagan Roman Empire that caused its decline. And thus judgment means the invasion of nations from the North; Scandinavia, Germany, and beyond the Danube even from the shores of the Baltic out of their forests came the untamed Germans and Goths, and across the Danube came the Vandals and Huns. Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , shows how the invasion of these hordes from the German forests and across the Danube broke over all the boundaries of the Roman power, and carried their wasting influence with fire and sword into Italy itself. That is the meaning of the first trumpet.
Rev 8:8 : “And the second angel sounded, and as it were, a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood, and there died a third part of the creatures that were in the sea, even them that had life, and a third part of the ships were destroyed.” Now, a mountain in Revelation means a city, and near to the city of Rome was that great volcano, Vesuvius, whose eruptions, when they poured into the sea have attracted the attention of the world. Pompeii and Herculaneum, two cities, were buried under one of these eruptions (A.D. 79). So this second trumpet signifies the downfall of the state of Rome itself. The first trumpet prepared for it; the second trumpet strikes at the Roman Empire in its heart and center. Dr. Lyman Beecher says it took Rome 300 years to die, and Gibbon, as he writes about the decline, writes also about the fall the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire . I shall not attempt here to give the number or order of the irruptions of Northern barbarians that first shattered and then completely wrecked imperial Rome. That empire, according to the prophecy of Daniel, divided into ten kingdoms. But, anyhow, this great civilization that built roads that are good today, and walls that stand today, and whose iron organization held the whole civilized world in its sway, went down at last because poor women and children and fathers, Christians, prayed.
The third angel sounded, “and there fell from heaven a great star, burning as a torch, and it fell upon a third part of the rivers and of the fountains of waters, and the name of the star is called Wormwood; a third part of the waters became wormwood and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter.” That word “torch” really means a lamp “There fell from heaven a great star, burning as a lamp.” A lamp in this book stands for a church, and hence the meaning of this passage is that one of the luminaries that God intended for enlightening the world became apostate, this is the symbol of the paganized church, which succeeded pagan Rome, and hence after that it was called the “Holy Roman Empire.” In a later revelation we will find similar reference (Rev 13:3 ) where, when the pagan head of the empire was wounded unto death, it was healed by an ecclesiastical head.
You will notice its effect upon the fountains and the rivers, that this apostasy poisoned the sources of life the very sources of thought and reason and life among the people. The imagery of casting wormwood into water which all must drink is very striking. It reverses the miracle of Moses, who cast a tree into the bitter waters and made them sweet (Exo 15:23-25 ). There was great glorification when Constantine, the Roman emperor, united the church and state, and gradually the state became subordinate to the church. And when the state perished, the church survived, claiming that it held both ecclesiastical and civil swords. The Pope today demands that nations send their ambassadors to him, because of his claim to be a civil as well as ecclesiastical ruler. For quite a while there were many papal states that is, states under the Pope, who was as much their ruler as the English king is the ruler over England; Lombardy, Venice, Tuscany, and quite a number of others, and that civil power was exercised more or less until Garibaldi arose, and until Victor Emmanuel established a free church in a free state that is, he separated the civil from the ecclesiastical power.
The fourth angel sounded, “and a third part of the sun was smitten, and a third part of the moon, and a third part of the stars, and that a third part of them should be darkened, and the day should not shine for a third part of it, and the night in like manner.” What does that mean? That following the establishment of the apostasy of the Romish church, the sources of light were eclipsed and the dark ages followed. Our book commences with luminaries sun, stars, lamps, appointed to lighten the world. But apostate churches and preachers lose their shining power. Here he is not referring to the material sun, moon, and stars, they are symbols. The dark ages, so thoroughly known in history, followed the establishment of the papacy as a Holy Roman Empire. There were hundreds and thousands of nominal churches and nominal preachers, but the preachers did not preach the gospel, and these socalled churches did not shine; the light that was in them was darkness. The virgin Mary supplanted Christ, and so the sun of chapter I was darkened. Ordinances were fearfully perverted and sacraments added. The saddest volumes of the annals of time that I read today are the volumes that tell about the dark ages following this assumption of power by the papacy.
I read Rev 8:13 : “And I saw and heard an eagle” or as some versions, and better ones, have it, an “angel” flying in mid-heaven, saying with a great voice: Woe, Woe, Woe” that is, three woes “for them that dwell on the earth by reason of the voice of the trumpet of the three angels that are yet to sound.” This is a prelude to the second group a group of three, distinguished by a “woe” for each trumpet. It means that when a perverted ecclesiasticism, such as the papacy was, dominates the world, woes of incalculable horror are sure to follow. So we note the next (Rev 9:1 ): “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from heaven fallen unto earth”, now, don’t read that: “I saw a star falling unto the earth,” that is not what it says; that star used to belong to heaven, but it was already fallen when seen here. Satan was once called Lucifer that means brightness of the morning, and he is so styled in the Old Testament before his downfall. He is the fallen star here, and as the church lights are eclipsed through apostasy, so this apostate angel. He will get in a subtle, malicious piece of work here, as we will see, “And there was given to him the key of the pit of the abyss” you might say the key to hell itself “and he opened the pit of the abyss, and there went up smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun was darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And out of the smoke of the pit came forth locusts upon the earth, and power was given them as scorpions of the earth have power, and it was said unto them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only [notice whom they are to hurt] but only such men as have not the seal of God on their foreheads; and it was given them that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months.” Any one who has studied the history of the locusts knows that the locust period is five months. But if we follow the numbers of Revelation we will find that every day represents a year. The five months, therefore, would represent about 150 years, though the five months are put in here because they correspond to the locust period. “And their torment was as the torment of scorpions when it striketh a man. And in these days men would seek death but should in no wise find it, and they shall desire to die and death fleeth from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto a horse prepared for war, and upon their heads crowns like unto gold; their faces were as man’s face; they had hair as the hair of a woman; their teeth were as the teeth of lions; and they had breastplates, as it were, of iron, and the sound of their wings was as of the sound of chariots of many horses rushing to war, and they had tails like unto the scorpion and stung, and in their tails was their power to hurt men five months. They had over them as a king the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek Apollyon, which means destroyer” which also means the devil.
The special points to note here are:
1. This hell smoke darkened the sun and the air. That is, by darkening the atmosphere, the medium through which sunlight shines on the earth, the sun could not be seen. See account in Genesis I, where the heavenly luminaries, though existing, do not appear until the atmosphere is created. As in this book, the spiritual lights are Christ, the churches, and the pastors. Any smoke the devil may send will prevent the earth from being illumined by them.
2. That the haze of this smoke generates tormentors, compared to locusts.
3. That those tormented are not the children of light, but the children of darkness. They hurt not Christians, but torment infidels and atheists.
4. The connection between a corrupt ecclesiasticism and atheism. The latter follows the former as a natural result.
5. The meaning of the locusts. When we were in the Old Testament, in the prophecy of Joel, under the imagery of locusts a great evil was symbolically presented. And in this symbolic language you should not look for real locusts, but what they symbolize. The devil is their king; they come out of hell itself. It is not their purpose to kill men, but to torment them. They are not allowed to torment a Christian, for he has light; but only those who by the smoke are hindered from seeing the light; those that have not the seal of God on their foreheads. Whatever these tormentors are, they trouble only infidels and atheists.
Some interpreters very foolishly construed these locusts to represent the Saracens or Mohammedans, but when the Saracens struck they killed and the chief objects of their vengeance were the Christian nations. They did not seek so much to torment as to kill, and so that interpretation fails to fit the case. What, then, is the thought symbolically presented in this cloud of locusts that torment men who were not Christians? My answer is, a corrupt ecclesiasticism, especially when united with the state, breeds atheism and theism breeds restlessness and torment. It looses the tiger. The Jews have a proverb: When the tale of brick is doubled then comes Moses. It is also a proverb: Given the ecclesiastical corruption in France then comes Voltaire. Given Voltaire and then the tiger is loosed. The testimony is abundant that the Romanist hierarchy became corrupt from Pope to priest. Monasteries and nunneries were as cages of unclean birds. In the interest of morality nations suppressed them. See the history of them in England. The priests had no gospel. The churches and cathedrals were full of idolatry. When men go to church to find Christ and see only the virgin Mary; when preachers are substituted by priests; the gospel exchanged for ritualism; there comes in a revulsion of public sentiment from the Christian religion, embodied in the only form they see it. Infidelity in France, voiced by Voltaire; rationalism in Germany, or in England led by Bolingbroke, Hume, and Taylor, in America by Paine and Ingersoll all of it is a rebound from corrupt ecclesiasticism. All sacred things become profane; they are without God and hope in the world.
Now we are coming to the locusts. Take God away from man power away from prayer, no church to visit, no sermons to hear, turned away from all supernaturalism, the ship of life hails from no port and is bound to none, drifts on uncharted seas without helm or compass, at the mercy of winds and tides and sunken reefs; when all standards of authority are lost, when no solution of life’s problems can be found in the conflicting vagaries of philosophy the mind preys on itself. Restlessness and discontent pervade the masses. Then swarm those tormenting locusts of atheism. There were certainly in dark ages, and even later, periods of awful horror. Maniacs filled the forests. All law was gone. Freebooters, banditti, free companies, roved at their own will and nowhere were peace and safety. It was a time of torment. The devil delighted to torment the very people he had beguiled. He agreed with them that their church was bad, and suggested that they follow him. Such was the first woe.
The author adds: “Behold, there come yet two woes hereafter,” but it gives only one of them, as the woe of the seventh trumpet is reserved for the latter part of the book. Rev 9:13 : “And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God, and one saying to the sixth angel that had the trumpet: Loose the four angels that are bound at the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, that had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month and the year, that they should kill the third part of men. And the number of the armies of the horsemen was twice ten thousand times ten thousand: I heard the number of them [that means two hundred million]. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and they that sat on them, having breastplates of fire and hyacinth and of brimstone: and the heads of the horses are as the heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceeded fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three plagues was the third part of man killed, by the fire, and the smoke and the brimstone, which proceeded out of their mouths. For the power of the horses was in their mouths, and in their tails, for their tails are like unto serpents and have heads, and with them they hurt. And the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons and 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 repented not of their murders and their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”
Now, I have twice in my life changed my own mind as to what is symbolized by that great army of horsemen, coming from the Euphrates, from over the east. I once thought that it symbolized the European wars commencing with Napoleon Bonaparte and lasting to the present time. But I do not now think that is right. There was a power in history that did come from the East, and it was an army of cavalry of uncounted numbers, and they did sweep over the fairest part of the earth, and particularly did they strike hard against apostate churches, both the Roman and the Greek Catholics. They were the Saracens. Mohammed, who was the founder of their religion, arose in the sixth century. As it grew in power it swept over all Asia from the Euphrates to Constantinople, captured the Holy Land, all Asia Minor, including the territory of these seven churches, crossed the Bosphorus and the Balkan mountains to thunder at the gate of Vienna. They captured Greece and the eastern Mediterranean islands, captured North Africa, crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, and founded a kingdom in Spain, entered France and would have swept all Europe but for the disastrous defeat at Tours by Charles Martel. Against their strongholds in the Holy Land the Crusades of confederated Europe were broken. It is yet a great power, kindling today its fires of war in the Balkans. God used the Mohammedans to strike the apostate Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic churches. These, as I think, were the horses of the sixth trumpet, the second great woe.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the general meaning of the trumpets? And what is the key passage disclosing this meaning?
2. Where in tabernacle and Temple was the golden altar and what its relation to the brazen altar of sacrifice, and what did incense symbolize?
3. Who was the angel with the censer?
4. What great enemy at this time, by cruel and worldwide persecution, was driving Christians to prayer?
5. What, then, probably, the meaning of the first trumpet?
6. In this book what does a mountain symbolize?
7. What natural prodigy in Italy probably suggested the imagery of a volcano overturned in the sea?
8. What is, probably, the meaning of the second trumpet?
9. What is the meaning of a torch in Rev 8:10 ?
10. When, a fallen luminary like a burning lamp, poisons the fountains and rivers, sources of life, making the waters bitter, and causing the death of many what probably is meant by the third trumpet?
11. What miracle of Moses reversed the thought here?
12. What probably is the meaning of the fourth trumpet?
13. What is the meaning of the prelude to the second group of trumpets (Rev 8:13 )?
14. Who is the fallen star of Rev 9:1 ? Cite his Old Testament name and two names here.
15. What effect on the luminaries by this hell smoke? And how brought about?
16. What then, probably, the locusts?
17. What is probably the meaning of the sixth trumpet and second woe?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
2 And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
Ver. 2. Which stood before God ] In a waiting posture, ready pressed to do his pleasure.
Seven trumpets ] To be sounded several times, to show that God suffereth not his whole wrath to arise at once against his creatures, but piecemeal and by degrees; proving if peradventure they will repent and recover out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2 .] First appearance of the seven trumpet angels . And I saw (viz. during the symbolic silence, at the end of the half-hour. What now follows is not to be considered as in the interpretation chronologically consequent upon that which was indicated by the seals, but merely as in the vision chronologically consequent on that course of visions. The evolution of the courses of visions out of one another does not legitimately lead to the conclusion that the events represented by them are consecutive in order of time . There are other and more important sequences than that of time: they may be independent of it, or they may concur with it) the seven angels which stand before God (cf. Tob 12:15 , , . The agreement is not entire, inasmuch as here another angel , and not one of the seven, presently offers the prayers of the saints. These are not the archangels, as De W. and Stern, nor are they the seven spirits of ch. Rev 4:5 , as Aret. and Ewald: nor again are they merely seven angels selected on account of the seven trumpets, as Hengstb. and Ebrard: this is entirely precluded by the article . It is clear that the passage in Tobit and the words here refer to the same matter, and that the fact was part of that revelation with regard to the order and employments of the holy angels, which seems to have taken place during the captivity), and there were given to them seven trumpets (understand, with intent that they themselves should blow them). And another angel (not to be identified with Christ , as is done by Bed [103] , Vitringa, Calov., al., and recently by Elliott: for thus confusion is introduced into the whole imagery of the vision. In ch. Rev 5:8 , we have the twenty-four elders falling down with vials containing the prayers of the saints: here we have an angel offering incense that it may mingle with the prayers on the heavenly altar. Any theological difficulty which belongs to the one belongs also to the other; and it is a canon which we must strictly observe in interpretation, that we are not, on account of any supposed doctrinal propriety, to depart from the plain meaning of words. In ch. Rev 7:2 we have in the sense of a created angel (see note there): and would it be probable that St. John would after this, and I may add with his constant usage of throughout the book for angel in its ordinary sense, designate our Lord by this title? There is something to me far more revolting from theological propriety in such a supposition, than in an angel being seen in the heavenly ministrations offering incense to mix with the prayers of the saints. It ought really to be needless to remark, in thus advocating consistency of verbal interpretation, that no countenance is hereby given to the invocation of angels: the whole truth of their being and ministration protesting against such an inference. They are simply , and the action here described is a portion of that their ministry. Through Whom the prayers are offered, we all know. He is our only Mediator and channel of grace) came and stood over ( with gen., not simply juxta , nor ante , but super ; so that his form appeared above it; the altar being between the Apostle and him) the altar (viz. the altar named ch. Rev 6:9 , as the repetition of the word with the art. shews: see below on Rev 8:5 ), having a golden censer (the word is elsewhere the frankincense itself : so ref. 1 Chron.: so also Schol. on Aristoph. Nub., cited by Grot., . : and Ammonius (ib.), . But here it unquestionably means a censer : cf. below, Rev 8:5 , . . . . No argument can be derived from the censer being a golden one, as Elliott, partly after Sir I. Newton. The spirit of the heavenly imagery will account for this without going farther: we have, throughout, crowns (ch. Rev 4:4 ), incense-vials ( Rev 5:8 ), vengeance-vials ( Rev 15:7 ), girdles ( Rev 15:6 ), a measuring-reed ( Rev 21:15 ), &c., all of the same costly metal). And there was given to him (viz. by divine appointment, through those ministering: not, by the saints who offered the prayers (Ell.), for two reasons: 1) because the incense is mentioned as something distinct from the prayers of the saints; see below: 2) because no forcing of will extract this meaning from it. It is a frequent apocalyptic formula in reference to those things or instruments with which, or actions by which, the ministrations necessary to the progress of the visions are performed: cf. Rev 8:2 , ch. Rev 6:2 ; Rev 6:4 bis. 8, 11, Rev 7:2 , Rev 9:1 , &c.) much incense (see ch. Rev 5:8 , and on the difference of the imagery, below), that he might (if we read , which after all is not really a various reading, , and , being in the MSS. perpetually confused with , we must remember that the fut. with is a mixed construction, made up of and . We are compelled in English to choose one of these) give it to (various renderings and supplyings of the construction have been devised: but the simple dative after appears the only legitimate one: and the sense as expressed by Calov., “ut daret ., orationibus sanctorum, eadem, i. e., ut redderet eas boni odoris preces.” This object was, to incense the prayers of the Saints: on the import, see below) the prayers of all the saints (not only now of those martyred ones in ch. Rev 6:9 ; the trumpets which follow are in answer to the whole prayers of God’s church. The martyrs’ cry for vengeance is the loudest note, but all join) upon (the with accus. carrying motion ; which thus incensed were offered on the golden altar, &c. From what follows it would seem that the prayers were already before God: see below) the altar of gold which was before the throne (this may be a different altar from that over which the angel was standing; or it may be the same further specified. The latter alternative seems the more probable. We must not imagine that we have in these visions a counterpart of the Jewish tabernacle, or attempt to force the details into accordance with its arrangements. No such correspondence has been satisfactorily made out: indeed to assume such here would perhaps be inconsistent with ch. Rev 11:19 , where first the temple of God in heaven is opened. A general analogy, in the use and character of the heavenly furniture, is all that we can look for). And the smoke of the incense ascended to (such again seems to be the only legitimate rendering of the dative. The common one, “ with ,” cannot be justified: see Winer, edn. 6, 31. 6. The prayers, being already offered, received the smoke of the incense. The whole imagery introduces the fact that those prayers are about to be answered in the following judgments) the prayers of the saints out of the hand of the angel, before God (these latter words belong to , or rather to . . . Notice, that no countenance is given by this vision to the idea of angelic intercession. The angel is simply a minister. The incense (importing here, we may perhaps say, acceptability owing to the ripeness of the season in the divine purposes, so that the prayers, lying unanswered before, become, by the fulness of the time, acceptable as regards an immediate reply) is given to him: he merely wafts the incense up, so that it mingles with the prayers. Dsterd. well remarks, that the angel, in performing sacerdotal offices, is but a fellow-servant of the saints (ch. Rev 19:10 ) who are themselves priests (ch. Rev 1:6 , Rev 5:10 , Rev 7:15 )).
[103] Bede, the Venerable , 731; Bedegr, a Greek MS. cited by Bede, nearly identical with Cod. “E,” mentioned in this edn only when it differs from E.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rev 8:2 . “The seven angels who stand before God” are introduced as familiar figures ( cf. Lueken 36 f., R.J. 319 f.); they belonged to pre-Christian Judaism ( Tob 12:15 , “I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and go in before the glory of the Holy One”), and are associated with trumpets (1Th 4:16 ). According to the Targ. on 2Ch 33:13 when Manasseh prayed, all the angels who superintend the entrance of prayers went and closed every approach, to prevent his petition reaching heaven; in Chag. 13 b the prayers of the righteous are offered by Sandalphon ( cf. Longfellow’s Sandalphon , and contrast Heb 7:25 ). This septet of distinguished angels belongs to the circle of ideas behind Rev 1:4 , Rev 4:5 , Rev 5:6 ; but the author as usual prefers vividness and variety to homogeneity. He uses them for minatory purposes, assigning to “another angel” their characteristic function (Rev 8:3 ) in Jewish tradition. The alteration of figure at this point is deliberate. The certainty of divine decrees is suggested by the figure of seals; but now that the prophet is describing the promulgation of the actual events presaged in the book of Doom, he, like the author of 4 Esdras (? cf. Lat. of Rev 5:4 ), employs the figure of angels with trumpets of hostile summons and shattering alarm. The final series (ver 15 16.) in which these decrees are executed, is aptly described under the figure of bowls or vials drenching the earth with their bitter contents ( cf. Bovon, Nouv. Test. Thol. ii. 503). The trumpet, as a signal for war, is naturally associated with scenes of judgment (reff.). “ Power , whether spiritual or physical, is the meaning of the trumpet, and so, well used by Handel in his approaches to the Deity” (E. Fitzgerald’s Letters , i. 92). Trumpet to lip, the angels now stand ready. They are set in motion by a significant interlude (Rev 8:3-5 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
saw. App-133.
stood = stand.
God. App-98.
trumpets. Compare Num 10:9, &c.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
2.] First appearance of the seven trumpet angels. And I saw (viz. during the symbolic silence, at the end of the half-hour. What now follows is not to be considered as in the interpretation chronologically consequent upon that which was indicated by the seals, but merely as in the vision chronologically consequent on that course of visions. The evolution of the courses of visions out of one another does not legitimately lead to the conclusion that the events represented by them are consecutive in order of time. There are other and more important sequences than that of time: they may be independent of it, or they may concur with it) the seven angels which stand before God (cf. Tob 12:15, , . The agreement is not entire, inasmuch as here another angel, and not one of the seven, presently offers the prayers of the saints. These are not the archangels, as De W. and Stern, nor are they the seven spirits of ch. Rev 4:5, as Aret. and Ewald: nor again are they merely seven angels selected on account of the seven trumpets, as Hengstb. and Ebrard: this is entirely precluded by the article . It is clear that the passage in Tobit and the words here refer to the same matter, and that the fact was part of that revelation with regard to the order and employments of the holy angels, which seems to have taken place during the captivity), and there were given to them seven trumpets (understand, with intent that they themselves should blow them). And another angel (not to be identified with Christ, as is done by Bed[103], Vitringa, Calov., al., and recently by Elliott: for thus confusion is introduced into the whole imagery of the vision. In ch. Rev 5:8, we have the twenty-four elders falling down with vials containing the prayers of the saints: here we have an angel offering incense that it may mingle with the prayers on the heavenly altar. Any theological difficulty which belongs to the one belongs also to the other; and it is a canon which we must strictly observe in interpretation, that we are not, on account of any supposed doctrinal propriety, to depart from the plain meaning of words. In ch. Rev 7:2 we have in the sense of a created angel (see note there): and would it be probable that St. John would after this, and I may add with his constant usage of throughout the book for angel in its ordinary sense, designate our Lord by this title? There is something to me far more revolting from theological propriety in such a supposition, than in an angel being seen in the heavenly ministrations offering incense to mix with the prayers of the saints. It ought really to be needless to remark, in thus advocating consistency of verbal interpretation, that no countenance is hereby given to the invocation of angels: the whole truth of their being and ministration protesting against such an inference. They are simply , and the action here described is a portion of that their ministry. Through Whom the prayers are offered, we all know. He is our only Mediator and channel of grace) came and stood over ( with gen., not simply juxta, nor ante, but super; so that his form appeared above it; the altar being between the Apostle and him) the altar (viz. the altar named ch. Rev 6:9, as the repetition of the word with the art. shews: see below on Rev 8:5), having a golden censer (the word is elsewhere the frankincense itself: so ref. 1 Chron.: so also Schol. on Aristoph. Nub., cited by Grot., . : and Ammonius (ib.), . But here it unquestionably means a censer: cf. below, Rev 8:5, . … No argument can be derived from the censer being a golden one, as Elliott, partly after Sir I. Newton. The spirit of the heavenly imagery will account for this without going farther: we have, throughout, crowns (ch. Rev 4:4), incense-vials (Rev 5:8), vengeance-vials (Rev 15:7), girdles (Rev 15:6), a measuring-reed (Rev 21:15), &c., all of the same costly metal). And there was given to him (viz. by divine appointment, through those ministering: not, by the saints who offered the prayers (Ell.), for two reasons: 1) because the incense is mentioned as something distinct from the prayers of the saints; see below: 2) because no forcing of will extract this meaning from it. It is a frequent apocalyptic formula in reference to those things or instruments with which, or actions by which, the ministrations necessary to the progress of the visions are performed: cf. Rev 8:2, ch. Rev 6:2; Rev 6:4 bis. 8, 11, Rev 7:2, Rev 9:1, &c.) much incense (see ch. Rev 5:8, and on the difference of the imagery, below), that he might (if we read , which after all is not really a various reading,-, and , being in the MSS. perpetually confused with ,-we must remember that the fut. with is a mixed construction, made up of and . We are compelled in English to choose one of these) give it to (various renderings and supplyings of the construction have been devised: but the simple dative after appears the only legitimate one: and the sense as expressed by Calov., ut daret ., orationibus sanctorum, eadem, i. e., ut redderet eas boni odoris preces. This object was, to incense the prayers of the Saints: on the import, see below) the prayers of all the saints (not only now of those martyred ones in ch. Rev 6:9; the trumpets which follow are in answer to the whole prayers of Gods church. The martyrs cry for vengeance is the loudest note, but all join) upon (the with accus. carrying motion; which thus incensed were offered on the golden altar, &c. From what follows it would seem that the prayers were already before God: see below) the altar of gold which was before the throne (this may be a different altar from that over which the angel was standing; or it may be the same further specified. The latter alternative seems the more probable. We must not imagine that we have in these visions a counterpart of the Jewish tabernacle, or attempt to force the details into accordance with its arrangements. No such correspondence has been satisfactorily made out: indeed to assume such here would perhaps be inconsistent with ch. Rev 11:19, where first the temple of God in heaven is opened. A general analogy, in the use and character of the heavenly furniture, is all that we can look for). And the smoke of the incense ascended to (such again seems to be the only legitimate rendering of the dative. The common one, with, cannot be justified: see Winer, edn. 6, 31. 6. The prayers, being already offered, received the smoke of the incense. The whole imagery introduces the fact that those prayers are about to be answered in the following judgments) the prayers of the saints out of the hand of the angel, before God (these latter words belong to , or rather to . . . Notice, that no countenance is given by this vision to the idea of angelic intercession. The angel is simply a minister. The incense (importing here, we may perhaps say, acceptability owing to the ripeness of the season in the divine purposes, so that the prayers, lying unanswered before, become, by the fulness of the time, acceptable as regards an immediate reply) is given to him: he merely wafts the incense up, so that it mingles with the prayers. Dsterd. well remarks, that the angel, in performing sacerdotal offices, is but a fellow-servant of the saints (ch. Rev 19:10) who are themselves priests (ch. Rev 1:6, Rev 5:10, Rev 7:15)).
[103] Bede, the Venerable, 731; Bedegr, a Greek MS. cited by Bede, nearly identical with Cod. E, mentioned in this edn only when it differs from E.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rev 8:2. [90] , seven trumpets) By these trumpets the kingdom of the world is shaken, until under the trumpet of the seventh angel, after the most formidable hindrances, it is reduced to the Lord and to His Christ. The trumpets of the first, the second, the third, and the fourth angel, are closely connected with one another; and so likewise the trumpets of the fifth, the sixth, and the seventh angel, which alone have woe, woe, woe.
[90] , the seven angels) These are honoured with great prerogative. One of them is Gabriel: Luk 1:19.-V. g.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
angels (See Scofield “Heb 1:4”).
trumpets These are trumpets of angels; contrast “the trump of God” 1Th 4:16; 1Co 15:52; Joe 2:1; Amo 3:6.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
seven angels: Rev 15:1, Rev 16:1, Mat 18:10, Luk 1:19
trumpets: Rev 8:6-12, Rev 9:1, Rev 9:13, Rev 9:14, Rev 11:15, Num 10:1-10, 2Ch 29:25-28, Amo 3:6-8
Reciprocal: Jos 6:4 – seven times Isa 27:13 – the great Zec 4:10 – those 1Co 15:52 – last Rev 10:1 – another
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rev 8:2. The events of the seventh seal will include several verses, for there are seven angels involved in the events and all that transpires in connection with them is what was revealed when the seventh seal was broken. The angels were given each a trumpet but they will not all be used in the same series. Four of them will sound one after the other, then will come a halt after which the remaining three will sound. (See verse 13.) Doubtless the first four angels correspond with the four that were holding the four winds that were to bring consternation upon the persecutors of God’s people, which is the reason why the seven angels are divided into separate groups, four and three.
Comments by Foy E. Wallace
Verse 2.
“And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.”–Rev 8:2.
The angels were the announcers; the trumpets the signals for what had been announced to begin. It followed the vision of “the day of wrath” in the sixth seal, and was a further vision of judgments, of things “shortly” to come to pass, which had been set forth in the six preceding seals. The trumpets of the seventh seal were the signals to proceed to the accomplishment of that which the seals signified.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rev 8:2. The seven angels spoken of stand before God ready to execute His will. It is implied that this is their usual position, and not merely that they are there for the moment.
And there were given unto them seven trumpets. These trumpets are neither those of festal proclamation, nor are they, with some recent commentators, to be regarded as a mere manifestation of will. They are trumpets of war and battle, like those whose sound brought down the walls of Jericho, or those whose blast struck terror into the hosts of Midian (Jdg 7:22). This alone is sufficient to show us that in them we have an advance upon the seals. The seals only announce judgment. The trumpets indicate action, which at the same time they arouse and quicken.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
THE SEVEN TRUMPETS
We have here another illustration of the law of recurrence, for in these chapters we are going over the ground of the last, though certain features are being added which were not then revealed. In other words, it is still the Tribulation Period.
INTRODUCTION (Rev 8:2-5)
In the previous lesson the Introduction included the vision of The Throne, the Lamb and the Book, while here it is the revelation of the angel and the incense. There is no satisfactory interpretation of this feature any more than of the silence in heaven revealed previously. Some would say that the prayers of all saints are those of the martyrs of the earlier chapter crying out for avenging, not for their own sakes but that the honor of God might be maintained in the face of His enemies. The incense is identified with the intercession of Christ on their behalf, and the answer is symbolized in what follows not only in Rev 8:5, but all which results therefrom in the remainder of this chapter and the next.
PROGRESSION (Rev 8:6 to Rev 9:21)
The first trumpet (8:7) symbolizes a judgment falling on the earth through the ordinary powers of nature. The blood may be caused by the destructive power of the large hailstones. The second trumpet (Rev 8:8-9) symbolizes judgments resulting from extraordinary acts of nature, volcanic and marine? The third (Rev 8:10-11), seems to point to suffering superinduced by superhuman agencies a great star from heaven. Is it identical with the allusion to Satan (Rev 12:7-9)? The fourth (Rev 8:12-13) is suffering caused by the diminished influence of the heavenly bodies, while the fifth and sixth trumpets (Rev 9:1-21) again specifying superhuman agencies, indicate their tormenting power as particularly directed toward men. In the other instances while humanity felt the infliction yet it was indirect, whereas here it is direct.
PARENTHESIS (Rev 10:1 to Rev 11:14)
In chapter 10, the revelation of the mighty angel and the little book does not easily lend itself to any definite interpretation. Some identify the angel with our Lord Himself, and make the little book mean the supplemental revelation of the beast soon to follow (Rev. 11:13) together with the whole story of the awful period of his reign. Chapter 11 is plainer. It refers to Jerusalem during the reign of the beast or man of sin, forty and two months being equivalent to the last 3 1/2 years of Daniels seventieth week already referred to. The two witnesses testifying with supernatural power during this time have been identified with Moses and Elijah returned to the earth in the flesh for that ministry. Rev 11:6, strikingly parallels the illustrations of their earlier power, while the mysterious manner in which they were taken away from earth, the one buried by Gods own hand and the other translated having never seen death, add their contribution to the probability of this application of the chapter.
CONSUMMATION (Rev 11:15-19)
Corresponds somewhat to the ending of the revelation of the seven seals (Rev 8:1); i.e., it seems to bring us up to the end or final climax, and yet to halt just short to it in order to retrace the ground for fuller detail.
Throughout these visions frequent allusions are made to the destructive forces of the heavens, the power of the air, and also to conflicts of armies on the earth which suggests modern methods of warfare. Military airships stagger men not so much by their spectacle as by their slaughter. They seem to be faint gray linear objects silhouetted against the sky, but some of them carry torpedoes, and are able to pursue a battleship and send it to the bottom. Was Tennyson also among the prophets, when he wrote:
Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new; That which they have done but earnest of the things that they shall do; For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be; Saw the heavens filled with commerce, argosies of magic sails, Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales; Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew From the nations airy navies, grappling in the central blue; Far along the world-wide whisper of the south wind rushing warm, With the standards of the people plunging through the thunder storm.
Till the war drum throbbed no longer, and the battle flags were furled In the parliament of man, the federation of the world.
QUESTIONS
1. What familiar law of rhetoric is illustrated in this lesson?
2. How do some interpret what we call the Introduction?
3. Interpret the six trumpets.
4. How do some interpret the little book?
5. Locate the forty and two months.
6. With whom are the two witnesses identified?
7. What modern invention of warfare is suggested by a part of the vision?
8. What modern poet is quoted?
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
Observe here, 1. The readiness of the holy angels to execute the will of God at all times: They stand before God, namely, to minister at his pleasure, and to execute judgments at his command; whether these were good angels or bad, it is not material to dispute, seeing God makes both the executioners of his judgments when he pleases.
Observe, 2. The number of these angels, they were seven, and no more, because it pleased not God to pour down his whole wrath at once upon the rebellious world, but at divers times, and gradually.
Observe, 3. That to these seven angels were given seven trumpets to publish God’s judgments to the world. These trumpets signified that God would proceed against the world in fearful hostility, and appear against it as an enemy to battle, proclaiming as it were open war, with sound of trumpet, and beat of drum, and hanging out a flag of defiance against it.
The patience of God, though lasting, will not be everlasting. These sounding the alarm of judgments before they did inflict these following dreadful judgments upon the world, shows that God warns before he strikes: he doth usually pre-admonish before he punisheth. Judgment is his strange work, he delights not in it: but when sin calls upon him to arise out of his place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, he doth it with unspeakable reluctancy and regret, like a tender-hearted father, with a rod in his hand, and tears in his eyes.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Seven angels stand ready to sound the seven trumpets which bring down judgments from God upon the wicked.
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Rev 8:2-3. And I saw the seven angels I beheld further in my vision seven chief angels, instruments especially designed of God for a very important service, now to be declared; which stood Or were standing; before God To receive and execute his commands, after the manner of the great princes of the East, who used to be so attended by the chief officers of their courts. And to them were given seven trumpets To sound an alarm, and give warning to the nations of approaching judgments. And another angel came Representing, it seems, the great High-Priest of the church. The Lamb was emblematical of Christ, as a sacrifice for us, and this angel represented him in his priestly office as offering up to God the prayers of all the saints, recommended by his intercessions; having a golden censer Signifying his mediatorial office. And there was given unto him much incense An emblem of his great merits, and power with God; that he should offer it with, or add it to, the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar The altar of incense; which was before the throne There being in this representation of the divine presence no veil, and so no distinction between the holy and most holy place The great angel of the covenant, says Bishop Hall, came and stood as the High-Priest of his church before the altar of heaven, and many holy and effectual prayers were offered unto him, that he might by his merciful mediation present them to God the Father. Some have thought, says Doddridge, that this is a plain intimation of the doctrine of the intercession of the angels, which is urged to have been an erroneous Jewish notion; and those who imagine it to be taught here, have made it an argument against the inspiration of this book. But I rather agree with those interpreters who consider this angel as an emblem of Christ. If we were indeed to consider Christ as appearing in the shape of a lamb, this would be a difficulty; but it does not appear at all absurd to me, that while the efficacy of Christs atonement was represented by a lamb slain, his intercession consequent upon it should be represented by an angel offering the incense; which seems only a symbolical or hieroglyphical declaration of this truth, that the prayers of the saints on earth are rendered acceptable to God by the intercession of one in heaven, who appears as a priest before God: just as the vision of the Lamb represents to us that a person of perfect innocence, and of a most gentle and amiable disposition, eminently adorned and enriched with the Spirit of God, has been offered as a sacrifice; and is, in consequence of that, highly honoured on the throne of God. But who this important victim and this intercessor is, we are to learn elsewhere; and we do learn that both these offices met in one, and that this illustrious person is Jesus the Son of God. As the golden altar made a part of the scene, there was a propriety in its appearing to be used, and the time of praying was the hour of incense. This vision may probably be designed to intimate, that considering the scenes of confusion represented by the trumpets, the saints should be exceeding earnest with God to pour out a spirit of wisdom, piety, and zeal upon the churches amidst these confusions.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Verse 2
Trumpets. The trumpet, being used chiefly to excite and animate bodies of soldiery going into action, is the proper symbol of alarm; and the visions introduced by the sounds of these seven trumpets, plainly denote destructive wars, and great public calamities.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
8:2 {2} And I saw the seven angels which {a} stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
(2) Now follows the third branch of the common history, as even now I said: which is the execution of the judgments of God on the world. This is first generally prepared, down to Rev 8:3-6 . The administers of the execution are seven angels: their instruments, trumpets, by which they sound the alarm at the commandment of God. They are seven in number, because it did not please God to deliver all his wrath on the rebellious world at once, but at various times, in segments, and in slow order, and as if unwilling to exercise his judgments on his creatures, so long called on both by word and signs, if perhaps they should decide to repent.
(a) Who appear before him as his ministers.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Introduction to the seven trumpet judgments 8:2-6
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
John saw someone, perhaps God, give seven trumpets to a group of seven angels standing before the heavenly throne (cf. Rev 1:4; Rev 3:1; Rev 8:6; Rev 15:1). Exactly who these angels were is not clear. Some interpreters have identified them with seven archangels in Jewish tradition (cf. Book of Jubilees 1:27, 29; 2:1-2; 2:18; 15:27; 31:14; Tob 12:15; Enoch 20:2-8), but there is no basis for this in Revelation. They are apparently simply seven other angels who have great authority. These trumpets appear to be different from the trumpet of God (1Co 15:52; 1Th 4:16) and other trumpets mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament (Heb 12:19; Rev 1:10; Rev 4:1), though they too announce God’s working (cf. Eze 33:3).
Trumpets play a major role in God’s dealings with His people (cf. Exo 19:16; Exo 20:18; Isa 27:13; Jer 4:5; Joe 2:1; Zep 1:16; Mat 24:31; 1Co 15:51-52; 1Th 4:16). They were part of Israel’s ceremonial processions (e.g., Jos 6:4; Jos 6:13-16; 1Ki 1:34; 1Ki 1:39; 1Ch 15:24), and they assembled the Israelites for war, journeys, and special feasts (e.g., Num 10:9-10). They also warned of the coming day of the Lord (e.g., Joe 2:1), and they announced the new year in Israel (e.g., Num 29:1). Here they announce divine judgment in the day of the Lord (cf. Zec 1:14-16).