THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST TO HIS SERVANT JOHN
The Unveiling of the Kingdom on Earth and in Heaven
Lesson 13
Sanctions of the Covenant Treaty Lawsuit
Chapter 10
The Angel of the Oath and the Little Book
Eternal Father,
From the beginning of the
history of humankind, You have guided us for the sake of our well-being, assured
us of Your love, and warned us concerning the dangers of rejecting both Your
guidance and Your love. Protect us, Lord, from Satan's temptation to seek our selfish
wills and the desire to fulfill our own destinies. Those paths are the same
lures that Satan offered to Adam and Eve to become gods themselves that ended
in their expulsion from the paradise that was Eden. Give us the wisdom to
avoid the same disastrous choice that for us would end in our exclusion from
the paradise of Heaven. We pray in the name of God the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. Amen.
+ + +
Yahweh's
voice over the waters, the God of glory thunders; Yahweh over countless [many] waters,
Yahweh's voice in power, Yahweh's voice in splendor; Yahweh's voice shatters
cedar, Yahweh shatters cedars of Lebanon, he makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
Sirion like a young wild ox. Yahweh's voice carves out lightning-shafts,
Yahweh's voice convulses the desert, Yahweh convulses the desert of Kadesh,
Yahweh's voice convulses terebinths, strips forests bare. In his palace all
cry, "Glory!"
Psalm 29:3-9 ("Yahweh's voice" is repeated seven times)
Yahweh
roars from Zion and makes himself heard from Jerusalem [...] The lion roars; who
will not be afraid! The Lord Yahweh speaks; who will not prophesy!
Amos 1:2b; 3:8
(Yahweh to the prophet Daniel) ~ "But you, Daniel, must keep these words secret and keep the book
sealed until the time of the End." (Daniel to God and God's reply) "How long until these wonders take place?" I heard the
man speak who was dressed in linen, standing further up the stream: he raised
his right hand and his left to heaven and swore by him who lives forever, "A
time and two times, and half a time: and all these things will come true, once
the crushing of the holy people's power is over." I listened but did not
understand. I then said, "My Lord, what is to be the outcome?" "Go Daniel," he
said. "These words are to remain secret and sealed until the time of the End.
Many will be cleansed, made white and purged; the wicked will persist in doing
wrong; the wicked will never understand; those who are wise will understand.
From the moment that the perpetual sacrifice is abolished, and the appalling abomination
set up ... But you, go away and rest; and you will rise
for your reward at the end of [your] days."
Daniel 12:4 and 7-11
(Yahweh's instructions to the prophet Daniel concerning the
visions he received in the 6th century BC, before the return of the people
of Judah from exile in Babylon. In the prophecy, "the End" refers to the end
of the Tamid sacrifice, Sinai Covenant, and Temple worship.)
As this prophetic book unfolds, we see the symbolic imagery of John's revelation that pointed to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70. But the symbolism might also cause us to think of the Second Advent of Christ. That is not a misdirected connection. We can see the connection between John's visions and the prophecy and events of the destruction of the First Temple in 587 BC. Therefore, John's revelations, historically fulfilled in the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70, can also connect us to the Second Advent of Christ.
The visons of disasters in Revelation (sun, moon, and stars turning dark, water turning to blood, etc.) are symbolic. The same symbolic imagery was in Ezekiel's messages from Yahweh before the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC. For example, in February/March 585 BC, God told Ezekiel concerning His judgment on Egypt: When I extinguish you, I shall cover the skies and darken the stars. I shall cover the sun with clouds, and the moon will not give its light. I shall dim every luminary in heaven because of you and cover your country in darkness, declares the Lord Yahweh (Ez 32:7-8). Also, see God's similar cosmic disaster messages to Isaiah (i.e., 13:9-11, 19; 24:19-23; 34:4-5), Joel (2:10, 28-32), Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew (24:29) and Peter in Acts (2:16-21).
Imagery like the failure of light from sun, moon, and stars appears in the books of the prophets to depict the fall of nations and national rulers and not as real natural phenomena. Water probably did turn to blood in the plague on Egypt in Exodus to convince the Pharaoh that the God of the Israelites wanted the release His people from slavery. However, the reference to water turning to blood in Revelation and the imagery of the other plagues and cosmic signs are meant to connect us to the Old Testament events. The purpose of the symbolic signs is to remind us WHY the Old Testament events happened. John is witnessing God's judgment once again falling on those who stand in opposition to Him in the same way as those prior judgments. History records some unusual phenomena during the time of the Jewish Revolt that ended in the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. However, if the 1st century AD Christians had only focused on the literal instead of the symbolic fulfillment of the signs, they would have missed the warning to leave before the destruction of Jerusalem.
Just as we had an interlude between the Sixth and Seventh Seals, we now have a pause between the Sixth and Seventh Trumpets. This interlude will begin in Chapter 10 and continue through Chapter 11. In the previous two chapters, we discussed that the primary symbolic connection to the Seven Trumpets is that seven trumpets also sounded the destruction of Jericho. The city was the stronghold of the Canaanites, which was keeping God's people from their inheritance, the Promised Land. First-century AD Jerusalem has symbolically become the new Jericho. Rejecting Christ and holding on to the old covenant rituals while adopting pagan practices was in opposition to God's plan. The Jews were a hindrance to God's people receiving their promised eternal inheritance in the New Covenant, the Kingdom of heaven on earth, that is the Universal Church. Just as the power of God, not the Israelites, brought down the old Jericho, so too will God bring about the destruction of Jerusalem. It becomes a city symbolically connected to Sodom and Babylon in the blowing of the first Six Trumpets.
The angel voice in Chapter 9 revealed to John that neither God's mercy nor His discipline would bring those who suffered through the judgments of trumpets five and six to repentance. Those who survived the destruction of the invading army would still not repent and turn back to God. Instead, they refused either to abandon their own handiwork or to stop worshipping devils, the idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood that can neither see nor hear nor move. Nor did they give up their murdering, or witchcraft, or fornication, or stealing (Rev 9:20-21). The Greek word that the New Jerusalem scholars translated as "witchcraft" is pharmakon. The Greek word means "drugs." It is the word from which we get the English word "pharmacy." In their practices of the "magic arts," the people of Judea were inhaling the smoke of hallucinatory substances to give them false visions. The people of Judah and Jerusalem in John's time were involved in idol worship as well as these other mortal sins.
There is a parallel to John's revelation in the Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel sees a vision of the elders in the Temple, and others in Jerusalem practicing idolatry and witchcraft/pharmakon just before the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians in 587 BC (Ezekiel 8:6-18). Compare the literal Greek of Revelation 9:21 concerning the use of drugs in the "magic arts with the parallel passage in Ezekiel 8:17c, look at them now putting that branch to their nostrils. The men and women in both passages were inhaling a drug-laden smoke to put them into a drug-induced trance as part of their practice of witchcraft.
Question: What similarities do you see between the practices of
the people of Jerusalem in 586/7 BC and the people of AD 70 and the events that
unfolded connected to the prophecies of Ezekiel and John? See Ezekiel 3:1-3;
12:24-28; and Chapters 25-32 compared to Revelation 10:7-11
Answer: The people were engaged in the same sins without
repentance, and God's righteous wrath fell on these two generations leading to
the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. In the case of the generation of
Ezekiel's time, their judgment was the destruction of Solomon's Temple, and their
deportation into exile in Babylon. In John's time, the Romans rounded up the defeated
Jews, sold them into slavery, and dispersed them into the nations of the Roman
Empire. In both cases, according to the historical record, the Temple in
Jerusalem was destroyed on the 9th of Ab in 587/6 BC and AD 70.
| Ezekiel | Revelation | Prophetic Action |
| Ezekiel 12:24-28 | Revelation 10:7 | There is no more delay; the time for waiting is over! |
| Ezekiel 3:1-3 | Revelation 10:8-10 | The eating of the little scroll sweet as honey. |
| Ezekiel 25-32 | Revelation 10:11 | The prophecy against the nations. |
Revelation 10:1-7 ~ The
Angel of the Oath, the Small Scroll, the Mystery of God, and the Imminence of Punishment
1 Then I saw another powerful angel coming down from
heaven, wrapped in cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the
sun, and his legs were pillars of fire. 2 In his hand he had a
small scroll, unrolled; he put his right foot in the sea, and his left foot on
the land, 3 and he shouted so loud, it was like a lion roaring.
At this, the seven claps of thunder made themselves heard, 4 and when
the seven thunderclaps had sounded, I was preparing to write, when I heard a
voice from heaven say to me, "Keep the words of the seven thunderclaps secret
and do not write them down." 5 Then the angel that I had seen, standing on the sea
and the land, raised his right hand to heaven, 6 and
swore by him who lives forever and ever, and made heaven and all that it
contains and the earth and all it contains, and the sea and all it contains, "The
time of waiting is over; 7 at the time when the seventh angel is heard sounding
his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled just
as he announced in the Gospel to his servants the prophets."
In Chapter 7, there was an interlude of two visions following the opening of the sixth seal in the sealing of the one hundred and forty-four thousand and the white-robed heavenly multitude. Now, there is another interlude of two visions following the sixth trumpet and before the blowing of the climactic seventh (Rev 11:15).
1 Then I saw another powerful angel coming down from
heaven, wrapped in cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the
sun, and his legs were pillars of fire. 2 In his hand he had a
small scroll, unrolled
The first vision of the
interlude reveals a "powerful angel," bringing the scroll/codex, now opened
without its seven seals. He will commission John to begin another series of
prophecies. Related Old Testament prophecies for Revelation 10:1-7 are in
Daniel 12:1-9, Amos 3:4-8, and Habakkuk 2:3-4.
Compare Revelation 10:1-7 with Romans 16:25-27 and Hebrews 10:35-39 in the New Testament.
Some scholars interpret the other "powerful angel coming down from heaven" as another angel/messenger, or as one of the seven Angels of the Presence; however, he has several divine attributes:
Because of these divine
attributes, some scholars interpret this mighty angel as Christ. The
Scriptural evidence that supports this interpretation is compelling, and the
key to understanding the connection lies in the description of this figure.
Question: How is this personage described? Can you name five
attributes or characteristics?
Answer: The angel/messenger is powerful, clothed with a cloud,
with a rainbow over his head, a face like the sun, and legs like pillars of
fire.
All five attributes of the angel/messenger can relate to Christ. Then too, there is support for the angel/messenger John sees as Christ in the passage from the book of the prophet Daniel that Jesus quoted to the High Priest at His trial. Jesus connected Himself to the Glory-Cloud, saying: "But I tell you that from this time onward you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Mt 28:64 quoting Dan 7:13). Finally, compare the description of the figure in Revelation 10:1 with Christ in Revelation 1:13-16. The next verse also gives a clue to the identity of the powerful angel/messenger that supports the interpretation that He is Christ.
2 In his hand, he had a small scroll, unrolled; he put
his right foot in the sea, and his left foot on the land, 3a and he
shouted so loud, it was like a roaring lion.
Question: How is this scroll/codex unlike the one with the
seven seals in Revelation 5:1?
Answer: It is small and without seals; therefore, it is open.
The Greek word for the "small scroll" is biblaridion, literally "a very small book," instead of biblion, "small book" in 5:1. Biblaridion is the diminutive form of biblion that is the diminutive for biblos. However, at the end of the first century AD, the words biblaridion and biblion were used interchangeably. Revelation 10:8, referring to the same very small scroll/book in verse 2, uses biblion. Biblion is the word used in 5:1-8, for the scroll/book with the seven seals that is now unsealed.1 Is this the same scroll/codex that had seven seals, or is it another book entirely?
Question: What two phrases in this passage point to Christ as
the other "powerful angel" connected to earlier verses in Revelation
Answer: 1. "He had a small scroll," and 2. His shout was "like
a lion roaring," recalling the description of the Lamb/Christ as the "lion of
the tribe of Judah," taking the scroll in Revelation 5:1-8.
The loud voice or great shout also recalls the sound that issued from the Glory-Cloud in Exodus Chapter 19 when God came down upon Mt. Sinai and the description of God's voice in Amos 3:8, The lion roars: who is not afraid? Lord Yahweh has spoken: who will not prophesy? Notice how the angel/Christ is standing on the sea and the land, suggesting authority over both land and sea. "Sea and land" is usually an Old Testament formula for the entire earth. Who else except Christ has dominion over the whole earth? But another aspect of His posture is that it indicates He is standing on Israel/Judea (the land) and the Gentile nations (the sea). This understanding becomes clear in verses 5-7.
4 At this, the seven claps of thunder made themselves
heard, and when the seven thunderclaps had sounded, I was preparing to write,
when I heard a voice from heaven say to me, "Keep the words of the seven
thunderclaps secret and do not write them down."
Here is another group of sevens
to add to our list: the seven claps of thunder. Verse 4 reminds us that John is
not just "hearing and seeing." He is also writing down everything he sees and
hears as Christ commanded him in his first vision: "Now write down all that
you see" (Rev 1:19). It is significant that in verse 4, for the first time,
the angel/Christ commands him not to write down what he has heard in the
thunderclaps!
Verses 4 causes us to ask why the seven thunderclaps, and from where do the thunders come? Perhaps they were responding to the sound "like a lion roaring" that is the voice of Christ. Some scholars suggest that the seven thunders represent the response of the host of heaven to the voice of Christ. The thunders could also be the voice of God the Holy Spirit. Seven is the number usually represented as spiritual perfection and related to God the Holy Spirit in the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit as the seven lampstands in Rev 1:13. For two Old Testament verses that refer to God's voice like thunder see:
Question: Do you see a manifestation of the Trinity in verses 3-7?
Answer: There appears to be a manifestation of the Trinity in
the three voices: the lion (God the Son), the seven thunders (God the Holy
Spirit), and the voice from heaven (God the Father).
The burning question is, what did the thunders say, and what is on the small scroll? Biblical scholars disagree as to what the seven thunders spoke. The book of the prophet Ezekiel may help us understand the significance of the small scroll. However, before addressing that mystery, let's answer the question, why was John told not to write down or reveal the secret of the seven thunders?
The Old Testament prophet Daniel was also told not to write down or reveal a secret
that would take place in the future. Read Chapter 12 in the Book of Daniel.
Questions: 1. What was Daniel's commanded to do in 12:4? 2. Who
is the man dressed in linen in verse 7, and what was he doing? 3. Why was Daniel
told to seal the scroll/book (see verse 9)? 4. What similarities do you see
between the secret of the seven thunders in Revelation and the secret Daniel is
commanded to seal up? 5. What was "the End" in Daniel according to Daniel 12:9-11?
Answers:
As in the book of Daniel, the hidden words of the seven thunders must be in the distant future and not taking place within the lifetime of the prophet. Five times John was told that the other events revealed to the seven churches were "soon to take place" (Rev 1:1; 1:3; 1:4; 1:9; 22:8). That is further evidence that what was revealed to John in Revelation up to this point are events that took place during John's lifetime and fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. The events of the distant future (beyond John's lifetime) had to be kept secret just as the events of the sealed book in Daniel were to take place in the distant future beyond Daniel's time. Perhaps the secret of Daniel was the First Advent of Christ and the establishment of the universal New Covenant Church. Can John's secret concerning the message of the seven thunders be the mystery of the Second Advent of Christ that must remain a secret until the end of time? We will return to the mystery of the little scroll in verses 8-10.
5
Then the angel that I had seen,
standing on the sea and the land, raised his right hand to heaven, 6 and
swore by him who lives forever and ever, and made heaven and all that it
contains, and earth and all it contains, and the sea and all it contains.."
Question: What does the angel/messenger do in Revelation 10:5-6 recalls
a similar action by the "man dressed in linen" in Daniel 12:7?
Answer: Both the man dressed in linen in Daniel 12:7 and the
powerful angel swore an oath "by him who lives forever and ever."
By the way, a seamless, white linen tunic was the garment a priest of Yahweh wore during a liturgical service in the Temple. It was what Jesus wore to the Last Supper and crucifixion (see John 19:23-24). Many of the scholars who do not believe the "powerful angel" is Christ point to verse 6 as a proof text. Their premise is that God does not swear oaths to man; man swears oaths to God. Not according to the Old Testament! The creation of a covenant requires oath swearing by both parties! For example, see these passages where God swears an oath (bold added for emphasis):
The oath-swearing in Daniel Chapter
12 is a prophecy of the end of the Great Tribulation and the coming of the end
of Temple worship prophesized by Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels. An angel told Daniel
in 12:11-12, From the moment that the perpetual sacrifice is abolished and
the appalling abomination set up [...] But you, go away and rest; and you
will rise for your reward at the end of [your] days."
Question: What was the
perpetual sacrifice? See Ex 29:38-42.
Answer: The twice-daily
sacrifice two lambs, one in the morning and a second in the evening (afternoon)
for the atonement and sanctification of the covenant people.
The relevance of animal sacrifice ended the moment Jesus gave up His life on the altar of the Cross. However, it ended historically on the 9th of Ab in AD 70 when the Romans destroyed the Jerusalem Temple. There is a reference to 3 ½ (a time and two times, and half a time) in Daniel 12:7, repeated in Revelation 11:9, and to Michael, the archangel in Daniel 12:1, repeated in Revelation 12:7. The angel told Daniel: "These words are to remain secret and sealed until the time of the End." AD 70 was the End for the Old Covenant Jews.
Old Testament evidence supports that God does swear an oath when He makes a covenant, and this is what is happening in Revelation 10. Swearing an oath that there will no longer be any delay, the angel/God the Son announces, with the blowing of the Seventh Trumpet, that all is now ready. The time has come to fulfill the New Covenant, and Christ is swearing the oath of the New Covenant as God had sworn the oath of the Old Covenant. The Hebrew word for "to swear an oath" is literally to "seven oneself," which underscores the importance of the repetition of sevens in Revelation. The sevens are related to oath swearing and covenant forming. Look at Revelation 10:6-7, where the mystery of God will be fulfilled just as he announced in the Gospel to his servants the prophets. Its fulfillment will be in establishing the covenant oaths sworn by Christ and revealed to us in the seven Sacraments. Our word "sacrament" comes from the Latin word sacramentum, meaning "oath."
6b "The time of waiting is over; 7 at the
time when the seventh angel is heard sounding his trumpet, the mystery of God
will be fulfilled just as he announced in the Gospel to
his servants the prophets."
Question: What oath did the angel/messenger/Christ swear? For
your answer, see Revelation 10:3 and 6b-7, also look up Amos 3:7 to help you
understand what is significant of this revelation.
Answer: The Angel of the Oath shouted like the roar of a lion
and said: "The time of waiting is over;
at the time when the seventh angel is heard sounding his trumpet, the mystery
of God will be fulfilled, just as he announced in the gospel to his servants
the prophets" (Rev 10:6b-7).
Amos 3:7 reads: No indeed, Lord Yahweh does nothing
without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets. The lion roars, who
is not afraid? Lord Yahweh has spoken, who will not prophesy?
Look at the connection between Revelation 10:6b-7 and Amos 3:7 with the secret/mystery revealed to the servants of God and the roaring lion (Rev 10:3). It is more evidence that helps to identify the "powerful angel" as Christ, who announced the Gospel to his servants the prophets.We should also reflect upon what Jesus told His disciples when He said, "To you is granted the secret of the kingdom of God" (Mk 4:11).
Question: What is the "mystery" (mysterion in Greek) that
is the secret of God to be fulfilled when the seventh angel blows the Seventh
Trumpet Judgment to usher in the Kingdom of God on earth? See Romans 11:25-26;
16:25-27; and Ephesians 1:9-10; but especially Ephesians 2:17-18 and 3:1-13.
Answer: The hidden mystery is that Gentiles are welcomed back
into the family of God as covenant partners with the Jews. To the Ephesians,
St. Paul wrote (bold emphasis added): You have surely heard the way in which
God entrusted me with the grace He gave me for your sake; He made known to me by
a revelation the mystery I have just described briefly, a reading of it
will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. This
mystery, as it is now revealed in the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets,
was unknown to humanity in previous generations: that the gentiles now have
the same inheritance and form the same Body and enjoy the same promise in
Christ Jesus through the Gospel (Eph 3:2-6).
The Gentiles called back into the family of God, are united with the physical descendants of Abraham, and have become adopted heirs through the blood of Christ. With the revelation of the mystery, the time of waiting is over (end of 10:6)! Now is the time for the fulfillment of the New Covenant that cannot take its place until the old "tent" of the Temple is torn down (Heb 9:8). And when was that mystery revealed? In the 1st century AD!
Revelation 10:8-11 ~ The Small Scroll
8 Then I heard the voice I had heard from heaven speaking
to me again. "Go," it said, "and take that open scroll from the hand of the
angel standing on the sea and land." 9 I went to the angel and asked
him to give me the small scroll, and he said, "Take it and eat it; it will turn
your stomach sour, but it will taste as sweet as honey." 10 So I
took it out of the angel's hand, and I ate it, and it tasted sweet as honey,
but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. 11 Then I
was told, "You are to prophesy again, this time against many different nations
and countries and languages and kings."
In verses 9 and 10, some translations used the word "bitter" instead of "sour." Verses 8-11 command what in Hebrew is a prophetic ot. An ot is a dramatic, prophetic act in keeping with Old Testament prophetic tradition. God commanded prophets like Zedekiah (i.e., 1 Kng 22:11-12), Jeremiah (i.e., Jer Chapters 13 and 16), and Hosea (i.e., Hos 1:2-7) to perform an ot in connection with different aspects of their prophetic ministries, but the prophet who employed the ot most frequently was Ezekiel. In the introduction to the lesson, there was a quote concerning the burning of his hair and dividing it into thirds in connection with the one-third destruction prophecies of the six trumpets. However, in Ezekiel Chapter 2, the prophet performs the ot of eating a scroll handed to him. Please read Ezekiel chapter 2.
Question: Focusing on Ezekiel 2:8-15, what did Ezekiel eat, and
what is significant about this ot compared to what John was told in Revelation 10:8-11?
Answer: Ezekiel ate a little scroll that tasted sweet as honey
with lamentations, dirges, and cries of grief written on it. Eating this
scroll was followed by the prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC.
John's prophetic ot in eating the little scroll that tasted sweet as honey is in the same prophetic setting as the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC, but now pointing to AD 70. Another important observation is that Ezekiel's scroll tasted sweet, but the contents were bitter (lamentations, dirges, etc.). In John's case, the scroll turned sour or bitter in his stomach. First-century AD Jerusalem (like the Jerusalem of Ezekiel's time) indulged in the "sweetness" of forbidden sins, but the consequence, as John demonstrates, was that what seemed sweet at first turned to bitterness. The initial "sweetness" of sin and the "bitterness" of its consequences is a concept found in Proverbs 20:17 and Job 20:12-14. Perhaps the words written on John's scroll/codex were the same bitter prophecies as Ezekiel's scroll: the covenant judgment/destruction of Jerusalem.
The key to the interpretation of both Ezekiel and John's scroll in Revelation Chapter 10 is probably in Numbers 5:12-13, which is the Law testing a wife accused of adultery. In the test, the wife was forced to drink water in which a scroll containing a ground-up list of her adulterous sins. If she were guilty, the water would turn bitter in her stomach. It was called the "ordeal by bitter (sour) water." The connection is that Israel (Judea/Jerusalem) had been the unfaithful wife of Yahweh. She had sinned in adultery through idol worship, and now through the "ordeal of bitter water," symbolized by the scroll, she has been found guilty, and the punishment is death. There is also oath-swearing in the "ordeal of bitter water" compared to the oath of the "ordeal of bitter waters" and the angel/messenger's oath swearing. There is also a chiastic structure in the passage to emphasize the bitterness of the scroll in verse 10:
Numbers 5, Ezekiel 3, and Revelation 10 are the only Biblical passages that refer to eating words on a scroll. The fact that the adulteress theme continues in Revelation Chapters 11, 12, 14, 17, and 18 supports this interpretation. Could it be that the seven times sealed document of Jesus' testament in Revelation Chapter 5:1 is the New Covenant inheritance/marriage document between Christ and His Bride the Church? The seven times it is sealed indicates its perfection. And is the little scroll a second document representing the condemnation/covenant lawsuit against the adulterous Old Covenant people of Judea/Jerusalem. Does it point to the adulterous Old Covenant Bride who must drink the bitter waters of destruction because, according to Hebrews 9:8, the Holy Spirit means us to see that as long as the old tent stands, the way into the holy place is not opened up; it is a symbol for this present time. As long as the Temple stood, the way into the presence of God for the New Covenant Church remained closed.
However, it wasn't only Judah and Jerusalem that God called the prophet Ezekiel to give prophecies of judgment. In December 589 BC-January 588 BC (just a year and a half before Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 587 BC), Ezekiel received his last prophetic announcement of the siege of Jerusalem (Ezekiel Chapter 24). And then in Chapters 25-32, God told Ezekiel to prophesy against the nations of the Ammonites, Moab, Edom, Philistia, the cities of Tyre and Sidon, and Egyptians. Revelation 10:11 repeats the command to prophesy against Gentile nations.
11 Then I was told, "You are to prophesy again, this time against many different nations and countries and languages and kings." The Old Sinai Covenant excluded the Gentile nations unless individual Gentiles submitted to the rituals of conversion. But now, in the Age of the Messiah, all the Gentile nations will be included in the New Covenant. The Gentiles are no longer exempt from the Law of the Covenant. They have been "grafted in" (Rom 11:17, 19, 23, 24) with the promise to receive God's gift of eternal salvation through submitting to baptism into the New Covenant in the blood of Christ. It was a "mystery" that remained hidden in past ages.
St. Paul wrote to the faith communities of Jewish and Gentile Christians in Rome concerning the revelation of that mystery hidden for "endless ages" and what it meant to them: And now to Him who can make you strong in accordance with the gospel that I preach and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, in accordance with that mystery which for endless ages was kept secret but now (as the prophets wrote) is revealed, as the eternal God commanded, to be made known to all the nations, so that they obey in faith (Rom 16:25).
Appendix I contains a list of the historical "main players" involved in the Jewish Revolt against Rome that began in AD 66. There were two Roman invasions to suppress the revolt. The Roman Syrian legate, Gallus, brought in the Syrian army, based on Legion XII Fulminate, to quell the rebellion in AD 66. The Jewish rebels ambushed and defeated Gallas' army at the Battle of Beth Horon, ending with the massacre of 6,000 Romans and victory for the Jews. In AD 67, General Vespasian and his son Titus led the second invasion with four legions assisted by the forces of King Agrippa II.
Appendix II contains evidence from non-biblical sources that Jesus was a historical person executed by the Romans in the first century AD. There is more evidence for the historical proof of Jesus' existence than there is for that of Pontius Pilate! See the document "The Oldest Secular Accounts and Historical Evidence on the Existence of Jesus of Nazareth" at the end of the lesson.
APPENDIX I:
Biographies of the Main Players in the Jewish Revolt of AD 66-70
Flavius Josephus (AD 37-96): As a young priest who was initially opposed to the Jewish Revolt, he nevertheless accepted command of the rebel forces of the Galilee. In AD 67 AD, Roman General Vespasian captured Josephus after the battle of Jotopata. He was about to be sent to Rome in chains, when he caught the attention of Vespasian, convincing him that he had the gift of prophecy. Josephus told Vespasian that he would become the next Roman emperor and that his son, Titus, would succeed his father as Roman emperor. Vespasian released Josephus from his chains and kept him as part of his entourage. When the army proclaimed Vespasian Roman Emperor in AD 69, Josephus' job as resident Jewish advisor was assured. He accompanied Titus to the siege of Jerusalem and returned with Titus to Rome after the war, where he spent the rest of his writing four books. His best-known works are The Jewish Wars, the only eyewitness account of the First Jewish Revolt that survives, and Antiquities of the Jews, a history of the people of Israel. In his book on the Jewish revolt, Josephus estimated the dead from the siege of Jerusalem and its aftermath as 1,197,000. An estimated 97,000 Jews were caught after the war and sold into slavery. Many young Jewish men died as unwilling gladiators in the triumphal games celebrated after the war, and the rest were sold into slavery and dispersed across the Roman Empire. The wealth from the looted Temple treasury in Jerusalem built the magnificent Coliseum in Rome, which came to be known as the Flavian Coliseum.
Gessius Florus: The Roman procurator from AD 64-66 in the years leading up to the revolt whose governance of Judea went from bad to worse. Of all the corrupt and incompetent Roman administrators, none was worse than the last one, Gessius Florus. He proudly paraded his outrages upon the nation and did not abstain from robbery or violence upon the citizens of Judea. Flavius Josephus wrote: "No man has ever poured greater contempt on truth; none invented more crafty methods of crime" (Antiquities of the Jews, 20.11.1; also see The Jewish Wars, 2.14.3, 6; 2.151ff; Life 6). His actions had become so notorious that the Sanhedrin (Jewish law court) and the aristocracy complained to Florus' superior, Cestius Gallas, the governor of Syria. Josephus accuses Flores of doing everything possible to incite a revolt to obscure the charges that were against him. In the fall of AD 66, Florus stole 17 talents ($61,200) from the Temple treasury, claiming they were overdue taxes. When protest ensued, Florus ordered his soldiers to attack the crowd and allowed them to plunger hundreds of homes, killing men, women, and children. Roman soldiers murdered 3,600 Jews. 2,000 Jewish men suffered crucifixion. Some of them were Roman citizens for which crucifixion was against Roman law. The revolt began in earnest in May of AD 66 after Florus fled Jerusalem when the Jews massacred the Roman garrison.
Cestius Gallus: Governor of the Roman province of Syria and Florus' superior. He ignored the protests against Florus administration as prefect of Judea. When the revolt started, he amassed an army of seasoned Roman veterans and marched across the Euphrates River to invade Judea. In October, the Jews managed to band together to fight the Roman forces and successfully expelled Gallus, who withdrew his troops in November AD 66. At this point, all the citizens of Judea united in the revolt except for the Christians who had fled the country during the months between May and October.
Titus Flavius Sabinus Vespasianus (AD 9-79): The ablest of Roman Emperor Nero's generals, Vespasian was sent to put down the Jewish Revolt. In AD 67, he assembled four Roman legions north of the Euphrates River and led the attack into Judea along with his very able son, Titus. In the fall of 69, his soldiers proclaimed him the Roman Emperor, which the Roman Senate hurriedly confirmed. He arrived in Rome in October of AD 70 and began a reign marked by good sense and stability for the Empire. One of his many accomplishments was to establish the first system of state education in classical antiquity. However, he is most often remembered as the builder of the Roman Coliseum (built with the money looted from Judea). His able and much-admired son, Titus, succeeded him. Vespasian rewarded Christians for not taking part in the revolt against Rome by permitting them to practice their faith without persecution. When petitioned by Simon, Bishop of Jerusalem, he allowed the return of the Christian refugees to Judea and Jerusalem. He was also the life-long patron of Josephus, who accepted Vespasian's reward of Roman citizenship by taking Vespasian's surname as his own.
Titus Flavius Vespasianus: Elder son of the General/Emperor Vespasian. He is best known as the conqueror of Jerusalem. The Arch of Titus in Rome was his father's gift in appreciation for his accomplishments. Titus fell deeply in love with the Jewish princess Bernice (great-great-granddaughter of Herod the Great) who returned with him to Rome after the fall of Jerusalem. When his father opposed his wish to marry Bernice, he bowed to his father's wishes and chose Rome over love. He succeeded his father as Emperor in AD 79 but died two years later of a fever. All Rome mourned him. Titus was also favorably disposed toward Christians. His nephew Flavius Clemens became a Christian and suffered martyrdom by Titus' brother Domitian in AD 95 when he refused to offer sacrifice to Domitian as a god.
The leaders of the different Jewish factions, many of whom claimed to be the Messiah:
Eleazar: He was a chief priest and son of the High Priest Ananias. Eleazar was the leader of the aristocratic priestly revolutionary party. In AD 66, he suspended the daily sacrifice in the Temple offered for the welfare of the Roman emperor and the Empire. This act was tantamount to a declaration of war.
Menahem: He was a leader of the Sicarii, a splinter group of Jewish Zealots who vigorously opposed Roman rule. In the fall of AD 66, his forces entered Jerusalem. In addition to fighting the Roman soldiers that remained in the city, the Sicarii also attacked the Jewish aristocracy, looted the homes of the well-to-do, and massacred many of the nobility and priests, including High Priest Ananias.
John of Gischala: He was a leader of the Jewish Galilean rebels. He was also an ally of the Zealots until he turned on his former allies, killed their leader, and took over control of the Zealot forces.
Eleazar ben Yair: He was another leader of the Sicarii. He held out the longest against the Romans. With 960 of his men and their families, he held off four Roman legions at the stronghold of Masada. On the last night before the Romans broke through their fortifications, Eleazar and his men killed their families, and then ten men were chosen by lot to kill the rest. Finally, one man was selected to kill the remaining nine and then himself. When the Romans broke through barricades the next day, they found the Jews had escaped them in death.
Simon bar Giora: He drew much of his support from freed slaves. He was captured alive by Titus and beheaded in Rome.
APPENDIX II:
The Oldest Secular Accounts and Historical Evidence on the Existence of Jesus of Nazareth
1. Cornelius Tacitus (AD 55-120): He was a Roman historian whose most acclaimed works are the Annals and the Histories. The Annals cover the period from Augustus Caesar's death in AD 14 to the suicide of Emperor Nero in AD 68. The Histories begin after Nero's death and proceed to the reign of Domitian in AD 96. In the Annals, Tacitus alludes to the death of Christ and the existence of Christians living in Rome. In Annals XV,44, Tacitus wrote: "But not all the relief that could come from man, not all the bounties that the prince could bestow nor all the atonements which could be presented to the gods, availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the conflagration, the fire of Rome. Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt and punished with most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time, broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated but through the city of Rome also." The misspelling of Christ as "Christus" was a common error by pagan writers.
No other surviving pagan document mentions Pilate except a stone inscription discovered at Caesarea Maritima. It is an irony of history that the only surviving reference to him in a pagan text names him because he passed a sentence of death on Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ (Messiah).
2. Suetonius: He was a Roman historian and court official during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. Suetonius wrote in Life of Claudius: "As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from Rome" (Life of Claudius, 25.4). Chrestus is a misspelling of Christus that probably assumed the spelling of Jesus' title "Christos" was the same as the ChiRho symbol, which was also a literary device indicating a quote that was "worthy of note" = the "chrestus" symbol. Acts 18:2 mentions Claudias' expulsion of the Christians from Rome. This event took place in AD 49.
In his work Lives of the Caesars, Suetonius also wrote: "Punishment by Nero was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition." Assuming Jesus suffered crucifixion in circa AD 30, Suetonius placed Christians in the Roman capital less than twenty years later. He reports that they were suffering for their faith and dying for their conviction that Jesus had lived, died, and had risen from the dead!
3. Pliny the Younger: He was the Roman governor in Bithynia AD 112, who wrote to Emperor Trajan, seeking advice as to how to treat Christians. He recounts that he had been busy killing Christian men, women, and children. Pliny expresses his concern that so many Christians chose death over submition to bowing down to a statue of the emperor or being made to "curse Christ, which a genuine Christian cannot be induced to do" (Epistles X, 96)
4. Thallus: He was a secular Greek writer. In circa AD 52, he composed a history of the Eastern Mediterranean from the Trojan War to his own time. The document no longer exists but was quoted by other writers like Julius Africanus, a Christian who wrote in circa AD 221. He quotes Thallus' comments about the darkness that enveloped the land during the late afternoon hours when Jesus died on the cross. Julius wrote: "Thallus, in the third book of his histories, explains away this darkness as an eclipse of the sun; unreasonably, as it seems to me. It was unreasonably because a solar eclipse could not take place at the time of the full moon, and it was at the season of the Paschal full moon that Christ died" (Julius Africanus, Chronography, 18.1). The importance of Thallus' comments is that they show the Gospel account of the darkness that fell across the earth during Christ's crucifixion was well known and required an explanation from non-Christians.
5. Phlegon: Julius Africanus also quoted another secular scholar whose works are now lost. Phlegon wrote a history called Chronicles. He also commented on the darkness at the time of Christ's crucifixion: "During the time of Tiberius Caesar, an eclipse of the sun occurred during the full moon" (Julius Africanus, Chronography, 18.1). The 3rd-century Christian apologist Origen also refers to Phlegon's record of this event in his work Celsum, 2.14, 33, 59, and so does the 6th-century writer Philopon (De.opif.mund. II, 21).
6. Mara Bar-Serapion: He was a Syrian stoic philosopher who wrote a letter from prison to his son circa AD 70. He compares Jesus to the philosophers Socrates and Pythagoras.
7. Josephus ben Mattathias (Flavius Josephus, AD 37-100): He was a Jewish chief priest, general and historian. He wrote four books, including two great works of Jewish history: The Jewish Wars, written in the early 70s and Antiquities of the Jews, which was finished about AD 94. In Antiquities of the Jews, there is a passage mentioning Jesus that has created heated debate among scholars for many decades. Josephus write: "Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day" (Antiquities of the Jews, 18.33).
8. Lucian of Samosata: Greek satirist later half of 2nd century spoke scornfully of Christ and the Christians but never argued that Jesus never existed. "The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day "the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account" (The Death of Peregrine, 11-13).
9. The Babylonian Talmud: "It has been taught: On the eve of Passover they hanged Yeshu. And an announcer went out, in front of him, for 40 days (saying): He is going to be stoned, because he practiced sorcery and enticed and led Israel astray. Anyone who knows anything in his favor, let him come and plead in his behalf.' But, not having found anything in his favor, they hanged him on the eve of Passover" (Sanhedrin 43a; df.t.Sanh. 10:11; y. Sanh 7:12; Tg. Esther 7:9). Another version of this text reads: "Yeshu the Nazarene." Yeshu (Yeshua) is Hebrew (or Aramaic) for Jesus. Hanged is another way of referring to a crucifixion; see Luke 23:39 and Galatians 3:13.
"No serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non-historicity of Jesus." Otto Betz
Endnote:
1. The second century AD work
Shepherd of Hermes uses biblion and biblaridion interchangeably (Catholic
Commentary on Scripture: Revelation, Peter S. Williamson, page 180).
Catechism references for this lesson (* indicated Scripture is quoted or paraphrased in
the citation):
Daniel 12:1-13 (CCC 992*);
12:2 (CCC 998*)
Ephesians 3:4 (CCC 1066*); 3:8 (CCC 424); 3:9-12 (CCC 221*) 3:9-11 (CCC 772*); 3:9 (CCC 1066); 3:12 (2778*)
Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2000, revised 2019 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.