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ABBREVIATIONS:
ESV = English Standard Version; ESVSB = ESV Study Bible; NIV = New International Version;
NIVSB = NIV Study Bible
Scripture quotations are from ESV unless otherwise noted.
Chapter 9 describes the
events that are initiated by the fifth and sixth trumpets (simply referred to
as “trumpet five” or “trumpet six”). The
fifth through the sixth trumpets were introduced by verse 8:13, which described
them as woeful to “those who dwell on the earth.” Most commentators consider this expression
(which might be shortened to “the earth-dwellers”) to be a technical term that
refers to the general mass of human-kind, but not to the people of God. The description of the trumpets five and six
are each considerably longer than the description of each of trumpets one
through four. This follows the pattern
of the seals, in which the description of each of the first four seals was
brief compared to the descriptions of seals five and six.
The character of the
plagues in trumpets five and six is different from that in trumpets one through
four. The first four trumpet blasts
resulted in harm to the environment: the
vegetation, the sea, the fresh water, and the heavenly lights. These no doubt would result in secondary
human suffering. The fifth and sixth
trumpets, however, bring about torment and death directly to people. The nature of this suffering appears to be
due to the activity of demons.
Verses 9:1-2—the Abyss and hell
Verse 9:1: The verse in a few words creates questions
in our minds. With the blast of the fifth
trumpet, a star falls from heaven to earth and is given the key to the
“bottomless pit.” So, the two questions
are:
·
What
is this star?
·
What
is the “bottomless pit”?
Angels are sometimes
represented by stars. See Revelation
12:4. So, this star, which behaves as a
person, likely is an angel. Which angel
is it? J. S. Russell, a nineteenth century
scholar who developed the Preterist school of interpretation, believes that
this “fallen star” is Satan himself.
(Russell, 412-413) However, Ladd
believes one should not emphasize the “fall” of the star. This is just angel doing God’s work. (Ladd,
130) Rist agrees that this is an angel sent from God. He refers to I Enoch, which names Uriel as
the angel in charge of the bottomless pit. (431) A careful reading of the passage, I believe,
concurs with Ladd and Rist. The
expression, “star fallen from heaven to earth,” describes what John saw.
It was, perhaps, like a “falling star.”
The geometry of the picture gets the angel from heaven to earth. It does not necessarily describe a
moral/spiritual event. The fact that the
angel “is given” the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit seems to indicate
that, as Ladd says, he is doing the work of God. The fact that demons will show up does not
necessarily connect this angel to the demons.
The
angel is given the key to the “shaft of the bottomless pit.” The word that is translated “bottomless pit”
is abussos or “abyss.” Some translations have “bottomless pit” and some
“abyss.” The Septuagint uses the word to
refer to the deep sea (Genesis 1:2) or to subterranean waters (Genesis
7:11). It is possible that it refers to
the realm of the dead in some places (Ladd, 130). In the New Testament it can refer to the
abode of the dead (Romans 10:7). It also
refers to a prison for demons (Luke 8:31).
Another word is also used for this prison, which is the verb form of tartaros, in II Peter 2:4. So, in that verse, God “tartarosed” the
angels who sinned: He, one might say,
made them experience Tartarus, which seems to be an alternate word for
“Abyss.” From this study, I cannot see a
justification for using the term “bottomless pit,” which, evidently, is a
traditional term used in the King James Version and followed by other versions.
If
we note the word picture carefully, we see that the angel is given the key to
the shaft of the abyss. This suggests
that there is a lockable door on the earth’s surface that gives entrance to a
shaft that leads to the Abyss.
Verse 9:2: When the angel opened up the shaft,
smoke rose and blotted out the sun. Some
consider this smoke to come from the fires of “hell.” To evaluate that idea, we should pause and
recognize the complex idea of “hell.”
According to Young’s concordance, the word
translated “hell” in the Old Testament is “sheol.” It so translated in the King James Version 31
times; it is translated “grave” 31 times and translated “pit” 3 times. I did not check many references, but those I
checked in ESV used “Sheol” rather than “hell” or “grave.” In NIV, “grave” is used. The Septuagint uses the Greek form of
“Hades.” Sheol is defined by Simpson as
follows:
The underworld, whither it was believed a man’s shade went at
death to continue an existence, colorless and without significance because it
was separated from God (cf., eg., Ps. 115:17; Eccl. 9:10b). (Simpson, 756)
However, this pessimistic understanding
was possibly an early Hebrew understanding that experienced development over
time. For example, see Jesus’ parable of
the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31).
This New Testament account used “hades,”
which was used by the Septuagint to render “Sheol.” In that parable/story Jesus depicts all the
parties, who have experienced physical death, as being fully conscious and able
to communicate. (See more on this
below.)
Wright discusses the
development of the Hebrew understanding of death. He notes at least two references to the
resurrection of the body in the Old Testament in Isaiah 26:19 and Daniel
12:2. He states: “In keeping with the unitary view of man,
this doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is the only one which would be
congenial to the biblical point of view.”
He is contrasting the Hebrew conception to the Greek view, which posited
an immortality of the soul, but no resurrection. (Wright, 370-371) This was consistent with the dualism of the
Greeks. I have observed that it is the “standard”
scholarly notion that the Hebrews could not conceive of life without the
body. However, I do note that the idea
of Sheol requires some sort of existence, extra-corporeal, after physical
death. I say this with a full knowledge
that the New Testament consistently envisions the resurrection of the body as
God’s ultimate destiny for His people.
In
the New Testament, the Greek hades is
translated in the King James Version as “hell” in all cases except I
Corinthians 15:55, which uses “grave.” NIV
translates hades as “depths,”
“hades,” “hell,” and “grave.” ESV
translates it as “hades” or “hell.” As I
noted above, the gospel writers used hades
in 16:23 as a place where the dead go.
Jesus very likely used Sheol
or an Aramaic equivalent when he told the story of the rich man and
Lazarus. Notice that hades is used in Matthew 16:18, in which
Jesus declared that the gates of hell will not overcome the church founded on
the rock. Exactly what that expression
means is not clear. Probably, Jesus
meant that the forces of death will not overcome the church.
One might note the
reasoning of Peter in Acts 2:24-32. He
quotes Psalm 16:8-11, with special emphasis on 16:10. Psalm 16:10 is translated as follows:
·
In the King James Version: “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer
thine Holy One to see corruption.”
·
In NIV:
“[Because] you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your
Holy One see decay.”
·
In ESV: “For
you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see
corruption.
Let us return to the Acts
passage. Peter quotes the Psalm. The Greek of Acts 2:27 is an exact copy of
the Septuagint Greek of Psalm 16:10. Where the Hebrew uses Sheol, the Greek uses hades. Peter makes the point that David’s body is in
the grave (David is considered the author of the Psalm that is quoted.). So, Peter says that David prophesied of the
resurrection of Christ and that the words “you will not abandon me to [hades]” apply to Christ (Acts 2:29-31). In this context, the “grave” could be a
reasonable translation of hades (as
it is translated in NIV). However, when
one considers all the uses of hades,
it seems to me that “realm of the dead” is what is meant in all instances. Simply using “Hades,” as ESV does seems to be
the best solution. I should state that
this brief discussion does not completely solve the issue of the destiny of the
dead in the “intermediate state” (the situation between physical death and
resurrection, whether of the righteous or the unrighteous).
One
question pertinent to Revelation 9 is whether Hades corresponds to the
Abyss. I cannot see that it does. We almost know nothing about Hades except
what Jesus describes in Luke 16:19ff. He
describes a place where the unrighteous dead are in torment. He also describes how the righteous dead were
in “Abraham’s bosom [or side],” which was separated from where the unrighteous
were, but within sight. Many believe
that this description is the situation of the dead until Jesus’ cross and
resurrection. Since we do have a picture
of the righteous dead in heaven (for example, Revelation 6:9ff), this probably
is correct, though evidence is slim. At
any rate, I do not see any correspondence between these descriptions of Hades
and the description of the Abyss in Revelation 9.
We
need to mention two other words that are translated “hell”—tartaros and gehenna. I have already mentioned Tartarus (or Tartaros). It is only used once, and then in verb form
(II Peter 2:4). The fact that it is used
as a verb makes one hesitant that a place is being named. It might be that a condition is being
named. In that verse, Peter describes
the sinful angels to be chained in gloomy darkness. The question would be whether Tartarus corresponds
to the Abyss. The two have some
correspondences, but the sinful angels are chained in Tartarus. The demons that come forth from the Abyss
seem to be locked up but not chained.
The demons in Luke 8 begged not to be confined in the Abyss (Luke
8:31). There is no description of that
place, but it seemed to be a prison for at least some demons. There are two possibilities. One is that when the angel unlocks the door
to the shaft, the angels that are in chains are released from their
chains. The other possibility is that
all the demons are not chained, but some are simply kept in the Abyss under
lock and key. This would make Tartarus
and the Abyss the same.
Gehenna is the other word that is
translated “hell.” Whereas the use of
Hades is ambiguous, there is no mistaking the use of gehenna. In every instance
it is a place of punishment. It is used
11 times in the New Testament, and 10 of those times are quotations of
Jesus. In 5 of those instances fire is
associated with gehenna. And in five of its mentions, the idea of
being “thrown into” gehenna is
used. The word refers to the Valley of
Hinnom. This was a valley along the
southwest boundary of Jerusalem. It had
been used for the burning of refuse and was the site for child sacrifices of
some of the apostate Israelites. (See NIVSB notes to II Kings 23:10 and Matthew
5:22) There is also a connection between
Mark 9:48 and Isaiah 66:24, which describes unending torment. (See ESVSB note on Isaiah 66:24.)
The
final place of punishment is called the lake of fire. It seems to correspond closely to gehenna.
Both have fire. Persons are
“thrown into” both. Both are definite
places of punishment. Both appear to be
final and eternal. People and demons do
not escape the lake of fire. They are
not let out of it nor kept in prison within it.
Therefore, gehenna—or the lake
of fire—is not the same as the Abyss.
It
appears to me that images from literature, which have been combined with
popular imagination, have tied together various ideas that need to be untied,
as follows.
·
Hell
is pictured as a place where the unrighteous go when they die. The Bible seems to envision a place called
Hades, which is a “holding tank” where the unrighteous experience torture, but
await the final judgment before being thrown (body and soul) into hell.
·
Hell
is pictured as the abode of Satan and his demons. The demons delight in tormenting people who
go there. But hell is a place where
Satan and demons will be punished along with the unrighteous humans.
·
The
demons that boil forth from the Abyss are thought by many to be coming from
hell. They think that the smoke is
pouring out of hell. This is not a
correct understanding of the Abyss, which is a separate prison for at least
some demons.
I propose (to recapitulate what I have already written) the
following:
·
Sheol
and Hades are the same place. Probably
Sheol was divided before Christ into Abraham’s bosom of bliss for the righteous
and a place of torment for the unrighteous.
Those in Abraham’s bosom were transferred to heaven after Christ’s
victory on the cross.
·
Tartarus
and the Abyss are probably the same place.
It is a prison for at least some demons and/or fallen angels, who await
the final judgment and eternal punishment.
·
Hell,
gehenna, and the lake of fire are all
the same. It is the place of final
punishment after the final judgment.
I have given the uses in the New Testament (hopefully
complete) of these various terms in the tables below. (I apologize for some problems with the tables.)
TERMS
SOMETIMES TRANSLATED “HELL” IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
|
||||
Greek
Trans-
Literation
Or
English
equivalent
|
KJV
|
NIV
|
ESV
|
|
Mt. 11.23
|
Hades
|
Hell
|
Depths
|
Hades
|
16.18
|
“
|
“
|
Hades
|
Hell
|
Lk. 10.15
|
“
|
“
|
Depths
|
Hades
|
16.23
|
“
|
“
|
Hell
|
Hades
|
Acts 2.27
|
“
|
“
|
Grave
|
Hades
|
2.31
|
“
|
“
|
Grave
|
Hades
|
Rev. 1.18
|
“
|
“
|
Hades
|
Hades
|
6.8
|
“
|
“
|
Hades
|
Hades
|
20.13
|
“
|
“
|
Hades
|
Hades
|
20.14
|
“
|
“
|
Hades
|
Hades
|
Mt. 5.22, 29, 10.28, 18.9, 23.15
23.33; Mk. 9.43, 45, 47; Lk. 12.5,
Jas. 3.6
|
gehenna
|
Hell
|
Hell
|
Hell
|
II Peter 2.4
|
Tartaros
|
Hell
|
Hell
|
Hell
|
Rev. 19.20
|
Lake of
Fire
|
Lake of
fire
|
Fiery lake
|
|
KJV NIV ESV
20.10
|
Lake of
Fire
|
Lake of
Fire
|
Lake of
Burning
Sulfur
|
|
20.14
|
“
|
Lake of
Fire
|
||
20.15
|
“
|
“
|
||
21.8
|
Lake
Which
Burns
With fire
|
Lake
Which
Burneth with
Fire
|
Fiery lake
Of burning sulfur
|
Lake that burns with fire
|
USE OF GEHENNA IN THE NEW TESTAMENT AND
ASSOCIATED
IDEAS
|
|||||
Fire
|
Throw into
|
Destroy
|
Jesus said
|
||
1
|
Mt. 5.22
|
X
|
X
|
||
2
|
5.29
|
X
|
X
|
||
3
|
10.28
|
X
|
X
|
||
4
|
18.9
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
|
5
|
23.15
|
X
|
|||
6
|
23.33
|
X
|
|||
7
|
Mk 9.43
|
X
|
X
|
||
8
|
9.45
|
X
|
X
|
||
9
|
9.47
|
X
|
X
|
X
|
|
10
|
Lk. 12.5
|
X
|
X
|
||
11
|
Jas. 3.6
|
X
|
|||
Verses 9:3-6—the role of the locusts
Verse 9:3: The brief scenarios of Revelation, though
bizarre and phantasmagoric, follow a definite story line. So, we have the opening of the (implied) door
to a shaft that leads to the Abyss.
Smoke pours out of the shaft.
Then, we are able to make out locusts that are swirling in the smoke and
then emerging from the smoke and landing on the earth. Then, we are jarred by a new notion: these locusts have “power like the power of
scorpions.” The word that is translated
“power” (egzousia) is often
translated “authority.” “Power” and
“authority” overlap in their meanings.
For example, a king has authority over his subjects, and that authority
enables him—gives him the power—to demand that they do certain things. The old story about the drill sergeant is
appropriate. He said to the
recruit: “I cannot make you do anything,
but I can sure make you wish had.” His
authority consisted in two things: the
authority to give orders to the recruit and the authority to give additional
orders to others that would make the recruit wish he had obeyed. In a sense, the second authority is a form of
power that can bring about physical harm (if nothing other than throwing
someone in a holding cell).
The other word for power
in the New Testament (dunamis) is
more on the order of raw physical power.
It can include the display of miraculous power. We would think that the power of the locusts,
if it is comparable to the power of scorpions, would be a dunamis kind of power. However,
when we consider verses 9:20-21, we can see that the power of the locusts was
an authority to coerce people through their torments in order to bring them
toward repentance.
Ladd considers that the
comparison of the locusts to scorpions is not only because of their ability to
inflict scorpion-like stings (which may not be physical stings) but also
because scorpions are used as symbols of demonic forces. See Luke 10:19. (Ladd, 131) Rist and Ladd see Old Testament
parallels to the plague of locusts. (Rist, 432; Ladd, 129) The eighth Exodus plague was of locusts
(Exodus 10). The whole book of Joel is
built around an invasion of locusts.
Verse 9:4: These locusts, of course, were very
different from the Old Testament locust plagues. First, of all they did not behave as ordinary
locusts, which can strip a field bare of vegetation. Their orders were to leave the vegetation
alone and to inflict their harm on people—those people who had not been sealed
by God (see 7:3). We see here a
differentiation among people. Ladd (132)
believes that these plagues of the trumpets will take place during the
Tribulation, which is the last seven years before the Second Coming, especially
the latter half of that period. He
considers that, from God’s point of view, this period is a “beginning of the
wrath of God on rebellious society.” The
people of the church, who have been sealed to mark them as belonging to God,
will not be harmed by the wrathful plagues.
This does not mean that they will not suffer persecution from the evil
society of that day. This persecution is
especially brought out in chapter 13. It
is not considered “politically correct” to differentiate among people in our
time. Yet, the Bible consistently makes
distinctions—between Cain and all others, between Noah and the rest of humankind,
between Israel and “the nations” (the goyim), between those who confess Jesus
and those who do not, between the sheep and the goats, between those who are
saved by grace through faith and the dead in transgressions and sins, and so
forth. So, the locusts were to
distinguish between those who were sealed and those who were not.
Incidentally,
Metzger’s understanding is that the target victims are the persecutors of the
church in John’s day. (Metzger, 65) This
does not mean that Metzger does not have somewhat of a futurist understanding
of Revelation, but that he considers that John understood the Second Coming
would be taking place shortly. Thus, the
persecutions that are described in Revelation, Metzger believes, reflect the
time of Domitian. (Metzger, 15-17, 18)
Verse 9:5: The locusts were allowed to torment
their victims, but not to kill them.
Their form of torture was not what a locust can inflict (a locust can
bite, but it can hardly be felt), but the sting of a scorpion, which is very
painful. And they were limited to a
period of five months. Metzger (65) and
Ladd (132) point out that locusts of that area typically flourished during the
five warmest months of the year, so this might be part of the reason for the
limitation of five months. At this point
we should pause and understand some things (with which the commentators all
concur): These are not ordinary
locusts. Most likely they are demonic
spirits that torture their victims, possibly with psychological/spiritual
suffering or possibly with physical pain or possibly some combination of the
two kinds of harm. Thus, though the
naturalistic background that commentators give is interesting and may have some
relevance, we recognize that John’s vision is not a naturalistic
phenomenon.
I
should also point out that, in these early verses of the passage, John is
describing the role or mission of the locust-demons. In the latter verses of the passage, he
explains that the locusts have scorpion-like tails and stingers. This explains how they inflict their
pain.
Verse 6: Perhaps no other verse so vividly
portrays the horrors of the plagues of Revelation than this verse: “And in those days people will seek death and
will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.” This statement, I think, tells us two
things. First, it is a portrayal of the
horror of the plagues. Second, it is a
portrayal of the spiritual condition of the people. Suicide is one of the saddest and extreme
traumas that can come to a family. One reason
for that is that suicide is just the opposite of the whole course of life. We grow up with an instinct for life. Self-preservation is as natural as breathing. Sometimes, life can push our morale to the
brink, but most of us, even without God in our lives, have resources, including
our support system, that help us through those times. Thus, when someone reaches such a low estate
that he or she contemplates suicide, the spiritual condition of that person is
quite desperate. I do not mean to say
that we should judge such a person as to their salvation. I simply mean that suicide is the outcome of
a very dark spiritual time.
I
have observed in the last several years what seems to be a suicidal tendency
among people which takes an especially demonic turn. I am referring to the epidemic of mass
killings. As one observes and learns of
the background of these individuals, it almost always obvious that their
central intention is to die in the midst of their murderous attacks. It is the nature of suicide to strike out at
what is loved and dear in a horrific perversion of love. Generally, that is accomplished through the
taking of one’s own life—an act that the perpetrator knows will be devastating
to his or her loved ones. But we see
also that same type of thinking in the mother who kills her children, the
father who kills his family, the mass slayer who takes the lives of strangers
as a prologue to his (they are almost always males) own suicide. Although some regulation of firearms is
pertinent to the discussion of these mass slayings, I think that discussion is
beside the point. What our secular
society cannot fathom is the spiritual dimension of these killings. The mass murderer screams to us all: “We are utterly destroyed in our
spirits! We have no hope, no love, no
future! Death is our only friend!” This is a Satan-inspired collapse of the
spirit, which we see in the extreme in the mass-murderer, but that is symptomatic
of who we are as a society.
I
believe that this emptiness and darkness of the hearts of people is a prelude
to the Tribulation period. When these
horrific plagues begin to take place, people are predisposed to seek
death. Jesus said that “the one who
endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13) In every era of church history, what has been
called for is endurance. I remember a
preacher’s words shot like an arrow into my heart many years ago: “The temptation is to quit!” In this time in which we live, we need to
deepen and strengthen our relationship to Jesus as never before. The times now call for endurance, and the
time to come will call for even greater endurance. As people are seeking death all around us,
let us proclaim the life that is in Jesus Christ.
REFERENCES:
Crossway Bibles (2009-04-09). ESV
Study Bible. Good News Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Ladd, George Eldon. A
Commentary on the Revelation of John.
Grand Rapids: William B.
Eerdmans
Publ. Co., 1972.
Metzger, Bruce M. Breaking
the Code. Understanding the Book of
Revelation. Nashville:
Abingdon
Press, 1993.
Rist, Martin. “The Revelation of St. John the Divine”
Exegesis. The Interpreter’s Bible. Vol.
XII.
Nolan
B. Harmon, Ed. New York: Abingdon Press, 1957.
Russell,
J. S. The Parousia, A Critical Inquiry into the New Testament Doctrine of Our
Lord’s
Second Coming.
(Google Internet Book)
London: Daldy, Isbister
&
Co., 1878.
Simpson, Cuthbert A. “The Book of
Genesis” Exegesis in The Interpreter’s
Bible. Vol. 1. Nolan B.
Harmon,
ed. Nashville: Abingdon Press,
1952.
Wright, G. Earnest. “The Faith of
Israel” in The Interpreter’s Bible.
Vol. 1. Nolan B. Harmon, ed.
Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1952.
Zondervan NIV Study Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publ., 2002
