Reading for May 15th

Read Revelation 20.1-6 In 20.1-6: The Thousand year peace. This short scene has been of enormous significance; it is the only reference to a thousand year reign of peace in early Christiatian literature, but the idea of a millennium has dominated much later thought. Angel, see 2.1; 12.7-12. In verse 2: Dragon, see 12.2. Bound , see Mk 3.27. In verse 3: The bottomless pit is the locus of chaos, the antithesis of the throne of God (see 9.1-11; 11.7; 17.8). In verse 4: A thousand years is a complete time. Thrones see 4.2. Souls, see 6.9-11. Mark see 13.11-18. In verse 5: The rest of the dead could mean the righteous who were not martyrs or, more likely, the unrighteous. In verse 6: The second death implies that those raise later will face only the prospect of a second death. Comments or Questions...

Reading for May 14th

Read Revelation 19,17-21 In 19.17-21: The battle against the beast. The scene opens and closes with the gory spectacle of vultures feasting on the corpses after the battle, but no battle is ever portrayed. The false prophet is the same as the beast from the earth (13.11-18). The lake of fire combines the image of Dan 7.11 with Greek idea of hell as a place of torment after death. In verses 20-21: Here only the beasts are consigned to the fire; the rest were killed by the sword; but see 20.15. While the image is violent, the nonviolent meaning is emphasized: the wicked are slain by the word of Jesus (also his testimony; see 12.11; 20.4). Comments or Questions..

Reading for May 13th

THE FINAL BATTLE In 19.11-20.10: This is the climax of the third story, where the war launched by the dragon at 12.17 comes to its devasting conclusion. Still, the sequence is complex and unexpected: After the introduction of the heavenly warrior, the final battle is reported, followed by a thousand-year reign of peace, then anew battle. Read Revelation 19.11-16 In 19.11-16: The heavenly warrior. The heaven opened or the sky opened. The white horse symbolizes victory, but with nearly the opposite meaning as the white horde at 6.2. There the meaning was the one who starts wars; here the victory ends war. Elements of the description were used earlier: Faithful and True are the names connected with the death of Jesus at 3.14. In verse 12: Eyes like a flame and the sword remind us of the exalted human of the opening vision (1.14). In verses 13-16:The robe dipped in blood and the wine press echoes the judgment scene at 14.20. The rod of iron was the mark of the woman's son (see 12.5). The name no one knows signals the person is beyond ordinary understanding (see 2.170. The word of God is the third name given this figure, and the most revealing; it is connected with the image of the sword that comes from his mouth, for this ishow the victory over evil will be won; by the word (19.21). Comments or Questions..

Reading for May 12th

Read Revelation 18.20-19.10 In 18.20-19.10: This passage is a disturbing call to rejoice at the destruction of Babylon, indicating a deep hostility. In 18.20: They rejoice like someone who has won a lawsuit: God has given judgment for you against her. In verses 21-24: The millstone was a common image of judgment (see Mk 9.42); such prophetic-symbolic actions were common. This is now the third image of Babylon's desructon: 17.16; 18.2; there will be a fourth at 19.3. The blood of all the prophets is found in one city, but it is found in the great city. In 19.1: In response to the command of 18.20, the heavenly multitude shout hallelujah, joined by the 24 elders (see 4.4; 11.14), The scene echoes the throne scene in chs. 4-5; see also 11.15-18. In verse 6: The Lord ... reigns echoes 11.15. In verse 9: The angel said to me introduces a short exchange between John and the angel, in which John tries to worship the angel and is rebuked (see similar scene at 22.8-9). In verse 10: The spirit of prophecy or the spirit that inspire prophecy; john must not worship the messenger because the source of the message is the testimony of Jesus (Jesus' life and word). Comments or Questions..

Reading for May 11th

Read Revelation 18.1-19 In 18.1-19.10: The songs over Babylon lament and rejoicing. In verse 2: Fallen, fallen is repeated from 14.8. Babylon (Rome; see 14.6;17.5) is now portrayed as deserted and desolate. In verse 4: Another voice because it now addresses the faithful. Come out is a call for separation; the seven messages give some sense of what such sepearation entailed (see 2.13-16; 3.20-25). In verse 6: Render ... as she ... rendered is a call to appropriate justice (see 16.6). In verse 7: As ... so is a similar call, but adding the notion that the accumulation of wealth and privilege is itself worthy of retribution. In verses 9-19: A dirge in three parts. The kings of the earth mourn the destruction of the great city (see comments on 11.8; 17.18). In verses 11-13: The merchants mourn her lost of wealth; notice how the list ends; slaves-and human lives. There is an implicit indictment of wealth and oppression in these poems. In verses 17-18: The shipmasters mourn the loss of commerce. The image of the great city here is appropriate only to a city like Rome (not Jerusalem, an inland city). Comments or Questions..

Reading for May 10th

Read Revelation 17.1-18 In 17.1-18: The vision of the woman in purple. Once again the story moves from summary in detailed narrative, as the destruction of Babylon is acted out. The mention of the seven angels consciously connects this scene with the previous one (chs. 15-16). The great whore is a new character, but strongly reminiscent of the prophetic charge against God's people: Isa 1.21; Jer 3.1-9; Ezek 16; and throughout Hosea. At the end of the scene John will explicity identify her with the great city (Jerusalem at 11.8) that rules over the kings of the earth, which can only mean Rome. This is also the power of the name Babylon-the city that, like Rome, destroyed Jerusalem. Nevertheless, the violence of thebeast against the whore (v.16) is strongly suggestive of the destruction of Jerusalem in the Jewish-Roman war (with imagery drawn from Ezek 16.36-42). All who sleep with the beast will be devoured. In verse 3: In the spirit is John's way of signaling the spiritual nature of the vision, see 1.10, 4.2, and 20.10. The beast was introduced in ch. 13.4: The purple, scarlet, and goldmark the woman as senatorial class, for only they could wear those colors. In verse 5: Jeremiah saw Babylon as a golden cup in God's hand, making the nations drunk (51.7-8). Forehead (see 13.6). In verse 6: Being drunk with blood echoes the third bowl, 16.6. In verse 8: The beast who was, and is not and is to come is often understood with reference to the ancient myth of the return of Nero, but that myth did not involve Nero's death. Another possibility is that while the present Roman government might not seem so bad, both its past (the death of Jesus) and its future (the final battle) show its beastly or demonic underpinnings. The description satirizes the description of jesus at 1.17-18. In Verse 9: The seven kings are symbolic: There are to be seven emperors (a complete series), but the present emperor is always a sixth (see 666 at 13.11-18). None of the many attempts to count actual rulers has proven convincing. Comments or Questions..

Reading for May 9th

Read Revelation 16.1-21 In 16.1-21:The pouring out. The effects of the seven bowls mirror those of the seven trumpets-earth, sea, rivers, sun, abyss, throne of the beast, Euphartes River-only now destruction seems to be complete (compare 15.3 with 8.9). In verse 6: It is what they deserved indicates a kind of intrinsic divine justice, evil suffers the inevitable consequences of it actions. In verse 12: The Euphrates marked the eastern border of the Roman Empire, beyond which lay Rome's powerful enemy, the Parthians. In verses 15-16: Harmagedon (Hebrew for Mount Magedon) by contrast is not a place on any map; efforts to identify it with Megiddo in Palestine fail because Megiddo is a plain, not a mountain. This is a spiritual war, as the reference to coming like a thief indicates. In verse 17: It is done; the forces of evil are defeatd but no battle is ever shown. The saying is reminiscent of Jesus' cry from the cross in John's Gospel: It is finished (Jn 19.30). Both rest on the conviction that the death of Jesus is the victory over evil. Traditional signs of divine presence follow (see 4.5). In verse 19: The great city is primarily Rome (17.18) but can also be Jerusalem (11.8). In verse 21: The hundred-pound hailstones are meant to seem impossiblly large, even as the other disasters here are of unimaginable proportions. Comments or Questions..