12 Stone Art Dragon and Angel Revalations 20 14
This Sunday'southward lectionary reading is from Rev 12.7–12 in celebration of the feast of Michael and All Angels. Although the festival focusses on Michael, everything about this passages actually focussesabroad from Michael and points us to the victory of God and the lamb—even Michael's name! This is what I wrote in my Tyndale Commentary, as an introduction to chapter 12, comments on the particular verses, and a theological conclusion to the whole chapter.
We now come to what commentators universally agree is the key and pivotal affiliate in the book. Although this chapter is non styled every bit an interlude to a serial in way capacity 7 and 10–11 are, information technology stands out as distinctive in style and language. A decisive suspension with the previous narrative is marked by the opening comment, not 'And I saw…' but 'And a great sign appeared in heaven…'
The shape of this chapter and the one that follows are also distinctive. Together, Rev. 12–13 form the longest continuous narrative within the whole book. Only Rev. 12 itself has perhaps the clearest structure of any section, following into four interconnected parts:
- opening narrative about the woman, the child and the dragon (vv. 1–6)
- short narrative about war in sky (vv. 7–ix)
- poetic hymn of praise (vv. 10–12)
- resumption of the opening narrative of woman, child and dragon (vv. thirteen–17)
As we shall run across, sections 2 and three are epexegetical of each preceding section, that is, they function to explain what has gone before, until the original narrative is resumed after the hymn has made clear what this whole episode is about. And caption is needed because of the unusual nature of the main narrative in 1–half-dozen and thirteen–17, which contains many ideas that are not found in the Old Testament nor earlier in Revelation. Nosotros can recognize the characters easily enough – the adult female as the people of God awaiting deliverance, the dragon equally 'that ancient serpent called the devil', the child who is the anointed rex in Psalm 2, Michael the bang-up angelic prince of Israel – merely the plot is foreign to united states of america.
Yet, information technology would not have been foreign to John nor to his audience. It has clear connections to a myth that was widely circulated from the third century BC to the second century Advertising in a variety of forms, the best known being the story of Leto, Python and Apollo. Python, a huge dragon, was warned past an oracle that he would be destroyed by i of Leto's children. Leto was a lover of Zeus who was married to Hera. When Hera learned that Leto was significant, she banished her; Leto gave birth to her twins, Artemis and Apollo, on the island of Delos (about 40 miles (lxx km) due West of Patmos). Python pursued her in order to destroy her offspring, simply she was carried abroad past Aquilo (Latin for the north current of air) and protected past Poseidon with waves. When four days old, Apollo hunted down Python and killed him with arrows (both Apollo and Artemis were archers). [This is a summary of the version recorded by the Latin author Hyginus in his drove of mythology Fabulae(no. 140). Hyginus (ca. 64 BC to Advertizement 17) was a freedman of Augustus and the superintendent of the library on the Palatine.] This story was used every bit purple propaganda, particularly past Domitian, to portray the emperor as Apollo, the son of the gods and defeater of the anarchy monster.
John has previously blended Former Testament ideas with elements of the emperor cult, particularly in the vision of worship in Rev. 4. Here, though, is a item fashion of bringing the two together – past taking the characters from one narrative (the biblical story) and inserting them into the plotline from another narrative (the Leto myth). This is a device we go along to encounter today in many forms of political drawing. To make sense of it, we need to recognize both the characters (which come from one context, the scriptures of the Erstwhile Testament) and the plot (which comes from another context, the world of Greco-Roman mythology, particularly as appropriated in imperial propaganda). In doing this, John'south vision report inverts the story, displacing regal power from the part of Apollo past the Davidic messiah, and instead associating the empire with the chaos monster, the dragon.
Come and bring together us for the Tertiary Festival of Theology on Tuesday eighth October!
War in sky (12:7–9)
Comment
7.The register of linguistic communication now changes, and John'southward vision study switches from drawing on the Python/Leto myth to drawing on Jewish images of celestial combat. [In a related myth, Typhon, another dragon monster, fights Zeus and is cast down to Tartarus by him. Though John's audience might have been familiar with this story, the shape of information technology does non appear to have been a major influence on the text.] The war in heavenis initiated with the enthronement of the male person son, which implies a clash of authorities, even though the presence of Satan in heaven has not been previously mentioned (in contrast to the scene described in Job 1:6–8). The advent of angelic warfare was taken past Jews and pagans as a sign that human warfare was about to break out, though hither the heavenly conflict actually leads to disharmonize on globe when Satan is cast down.
Michaelwas one of the 4 or 7 ruling angels ('archangel'; Jude 9) and presumably one of those who blew the trumpets (see comment on eight:ii). His proper name (mi-cha-el) in Hebrew ways 'Who is similar God?', a question parodied in the later question 'Who is similar the animate being?' in 13:4. Though some Jewish literature gives Michael a primordial role in confronting Satan in the creation, his main function is eschatological. He is described in Dan. 10:xiii, 21;12:one as the 'master of princes' who assists other angels in their warfare against other angelic powers, and as 'the neat prince who protects your people', thus linking him with the woman as an image of God'south people. Within the narrative, it is notable that information technology is not the enthroned male son who fights against the dragon, simply one of his angels. His authority has been delegated, and victory is certain; the struggle between the forces of good and evil is in no sense a clash of equals.
8. 'Might' or 'strength' is a quality ascribed to God (7:12) and various angels (10:1; 18:21) as well as something claimed past Babylon (xviii:10); Revelation could therefore be characterised as depicting an (unequal) power struggle in which (reverse to appearance) the power of the dragon (which is behind the power of human empires) is not strong enoughto overcome the apparent weakness of the child or the slain lamb. The phrase translated they lost their place in heavenis grammatically very odd, literally reading 'nor was their place institute whatever longer in heaven'. The loss of a 'place' contrasts with the 'place' prepared for the adult female for her protection. But more importantly, the same phrase is found in i Greek version (Theodotion) of Dan. 2:35, describing the devastation of the statue which represents homo empires by the rock 'not fabricated by human hands' which symbolises the coming kingdom of God. Information technology is also found in the Greek of Ps. 37:36, virtually the wicked who 'before long passed away and were no more than'. Though the psalm reads like a reflection on the wicked in full general, in Qumran information technology was interpreted as predicting the eschatological overthrow of the Wicked Priest who opposed the Teacher of Righteousness. Michael is hither enacting the rule of the promised king, now enthroned with God, whose kingdom displaces all human empires and whose rule brings wickedness to an cease.
9.John hither draws together the diverse traditions in the One-time Testament about the primeval opponent of God. In the Greek One-time Attestation, the word for 'dragon' or 'sea monster' and 'serpent' are oftentimes the same, then this identification is natural enough, and it draws the chaotic monsters of the deep who were tamed by the ordering of God aslope the agent of evil who stands confronting the goodness of God. The serpentin the garden of Eden is non identified with Satan in the Genesis narrative, simply by the first century this identification was common, for example in Paul'due south encouragement that 'the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet' (Rom. 16:20), an allusion to Gen. 3:fifteen. Devil(diabolos) significant 'slanderer' is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Satansignificant 'accuser', and the ii terms are used interchangeably in the New Attestation. 'Satan' could refer to a human accuser (as in Ps. 71:thirteen) but came to hateful the spiritual being who was the accuser of God's people (equally in Job 1:vi–8). The devil was particularly associated with demons (who were understood as his malevolent angels) and in this capacity was chosen Beelzebub ('Lord of the flies', Matt. 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:fifteen) a name derived from a Philistine god (2 Kings ane:ii–three). He is the 'evil one' from whom nosotros pray for deliverance (Matt. 6:xiii) and is also Belial or Beliar, pregnant 'worthless 1' (2 Cor. half dozen:15). The devil is ofttimes depicted as deceiving people by luring them into temptation, as in Jesus temptations in the wilderness (Matt. 4:one–11; Luke 4:one–13). In the Johannine tradition he is 'the male parent of lies' (John 8:44) and Paul highlights his deceptive disguise (two Cor. 11:14).
When did Satan'due south fall occur, when he was thrown downwards? The account of the fall of the 'morning star' (Latin Match) in Isa. fourteen:12–xiv appears to refer to the king of Babylon just has later been read as a description of Satan'south primordial fall and corruption – though there is no clear connectedness made in this passage. When the seventy-two return from their ministry of proclamation, healing and exorcism Jesus declares 'I saw Satan fall similar lightning from sky' (Luke 10:18) – but this must exist understood every bit an apprehension of Jesus' victory over evil in his cross and resurrection rather than the attainment of it. In John's gospel, the '60 minutes' of 'judgement on this world' in which 'Satan, the ruler of this world cast out' (John 12:31) is the moment when Jesus is 'lifted upward', that is, his crucifixion. In the narrative here in Revelation, Satan's fall follows Jesus' exaltation to the throne, but we are soon told that 'the accuser' has been thrown downward and victory won in the first instance 'by the blood of the lamb' (v. 11). So in that location is a twin focus on Jesus' death andhis exaltation, expressed earlier by the presence of the slainlamb on the throne in Rev. 5.
Though Satan no longer has a place in heaven, he does proceed to do power onthe world. John is recasting the temporal paradox of the Christian life into a spatial one. The time that the followers live in is i of testimony and victory yet at the same time one in which they experience suffering and apparent defeat. In spatial terms, they are sky-dwellers who are before the throne in heaven and constitute the temple of God, and so are protected from the power of Satan who has no place there. And however they keep as members of many tribes, languages, peoples and nations, living in their various cities on earth where Satan, for a curt time (12:12), wields his limited power.
The hymn of praise (12:ten–12)
Comment
10.In the second major change of fashion within this chapter, John hears the authoritative declaration of a loud vocalism from heaven. In the at presentwe have reached the central point of the central chapter of the book – the pivot around which the whole narrative turns. John has been speaking the words of the exalted Jesus to the particular state of affairs of the Christian communities in the province of Asia. He has shared with them his vision of worship in heaven and of the slain lamb who shares the throne. He has depicted the chaos and evil unleashed on the world under the permissive authority of God. And the repeated implicit and explicit question has been 'How long will this last? What will God do nearly it?'. The preliminary answers have been offered in the two interludes – that he has formed a people for himself from every nation, that he has called John and others to practice a ministry of prophetic witness. But now the fullest respond comes to the question, the one which his people and their testimony bespeak to: that in Jesus' death, resurrection and exaltation the kingdom of Godand with it the authority of his Messiahor Christ have now come up. If the starting time half of the book has been building up to the revelation of this, not least through it frequent anticipations of it, then the second one-half of the book depicts its working out, not least in the sentence that comes to all other rival kingdoms (empires).
Salvation has been acclaimed as belonging to God by the uncountable multitude in vii:ten, and will exist acclaimed over again at the fall of Babylon in nineteen:ane. It represents a directly counter-merits to that of the Roman emperor, who claimed to bring salvation by subduing the empire's enemies and bringing peace and prosperity. Power is mentioned 12 times in the text, and (similar the language of strength in 5. eight above) expresses the rival claims of God and his spiritual opponents (cf. 13:2; 17:13). In the past, Satan's accusations of God's people could be countered (Task 1:8) or forgiven (Zech. 3:1–4) past God, merely now the accuser himself has been expelled, and no more accusations will be heard. 'Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus' (Rom. 8:ane).
xi.The language of triumph (nika ō) connects this central passage to the exhortations in the messages to the seven assemblies in Rev. ii–3. Although information technology is the lambwho has triumphed, the victory belongs besides to God's people, since they at present enjoy liberty from the fearfulness of accusation and participate in the kingdom and power that has been made available to them. The victory has two parts to it, one which is de jurewhich establishes the victory, and the other which is de facto, in that information technology makes the victory existent and visible. The get-go is the claret of the lambwhich is a metonym for his death, and the second is the discussion of their testimony, that is, their true-blue witness to the truth and transformative power of the decease of the lamb. Without the commencement, at that place is no ground for victory over Satan and the ability that he exercises; without the 2nd, at that place is no reality in it. And the two are bound closely together, since true testimony means that the witnesses do not shrink from deathwhich is precisely following the design of Jesus, the faithful witness, who 'loved us and freed us from our sins by his blood'. To follow the crucified i means to alive the cruciform live (Mark viii:34; Phil three:10). This kind of conquest, which involves suffering from tearing oppression, is in sharp and constant contrast with the conquest of the beasts who inflict violence. This does non mean either that only the martyrs are saved, or that all God's people will dice a martyrs decease, but only that this is allegorical of the kind of faith and its 'patient endurance' (1:9) to which the whole customs is called.
12.The victory of the lamb is both good news and bad news – skillful news for those who dwell inthe heavens, but bad news for the earth and the sea. This corresponds to John'due south experience of eating the scroll, which is both sweet and bitter (10:10) since his prophetic bulletin is given both to those who receive the bulletin of salvation and those who reject it. The spatial distinction betwixt heaven and globe is once again about distinctions in spiritual reality, since those post-obit the lamb are the ones who 'dwell in sky' (thirteen:6) while those who follow the beast are described as 'inhabitants of the globe' (13:eight). The earth here is bracketed with the sea, which in the Former Testament is the source of chaos and opposition to God. The devil's time(kairos) is short, not in terms of days and years so much as being limited in extent by the authorization of God.
Although it is non numbered past John, this is the adjacent announcement of woe post-obit the two which corresponded to the 5th and sixth trumpets (in nine:12 and 11:xiv). The annunciation that 'the third woe is coming presently' (11:xiv) is followed immediately by this narrative and this alert of woe, which suggests that John understands the present era, between Jesus' exaltation and his return, equally the third 'woe'. The showtime two woes establish the threats from the north and the east to the empire itself, and any other kind of threat to human peace and well-beingness; but the third woe is the threat that the empire itself presents equally an instrument of the dragon in the oppression of the people of God. From the story of catholic conflict in Rev. 12, we turn in Rev. 13 to the specific expression of that manifested in Roman imperial ability in the province of Asia.
Theology
Fifty-fifty though the effigy of Jesus (depicted in person or in an image) is not as cardinal here equally he is in chapters 1 and 5, in this pivotal chapter the claims of Jesus are brought most sharply into focus as rival claims to that of the Roman empire. In the literary equivalent of a political cartoon, John's vision report takes a piece of regal propaganda and inverts its upshot. Rome is no longer the strong hero Apollo who vanquishes the chaos monster, just is in fact allied with the anarchy monster and so is threatened with defeat. Jesus is not a marginal figure who is the inspiration for an insignificant religious movement, only is the Apollo figure who is the true bringer of victory and peace. The effect of this on John'southward audience is to button them to a crisis of conclusion; they accept in different ways been affirmed and challenged in their loyalty in the seven messages, and the seals and trumpets have confronted them with the true source of doubt and the existent answer to it. At present the crisis deepens: to marry oneself with the empire is to ally oneself with the spiritual antagonist to both God and his people.
John'south use of Old Attestation traditions, detail those of Daniel, paints this crisis of decision on a broad historical canvas. Although the particular challenge faces John's audition is one item organization of empire, his coalescing of the description of the beasts in Daniel vii portrays their situation every bit 1 amid the many that humanity faces from one era to the adjacent. Inasmuch as they are the claims that but God tin can make, all such human empires ultimately derive their power from the enemy of God. Jesus's victory by his death is not but the deprival of the claims of empire, it is also the answer to the aspirations of the people of God downward the ages to live in peace and worship God in freedom (Luke ane:69–75).
This narrative also confirms what John has already suggested about the times we live in. The followers of the lamb live in the in-between time which was inaugurated with Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension, and will be consummated with his return as depicted in Rev. nineteen – 22. This is the age of the 'third woe', when Satan is at large in this earth fifty-fifty though he has no authority in the heavenly realm. Therefore God's people will continue to experience the presence and protection of God (because Jesus' death has silenced the accuser and the (seven) Spirit(s) of God are abroad in the world) but they volition also experience suffering (tribulation) and opposition, considering Satan continues to be at large for a 'short time' until he is finally locked up and then destroyed in the final sentence. This paradoxical pattern of suffering and victory for Jesus' followers is the aforementioned thing that Jesus himself experienced; the hardships of beingness a disciple are not a error, nor a sign of the failure of God, but are part and packet of what it means to exist a faithful witness.
The chapters that follow now unfold this situation. We read in item of the trials of John's audience living under the empire and its allies in Asia in the adjacent chapter. Nosotros then read in stark dissimilarity of the security and victory of the true-blue and the certainty of God'due south judgement (Rev. 14). We read of the last plagues that are to come up on the earth (Rev. 16), and the full disclosure of the nature of the empire (Rev. 17) before leading into the unfolding significance of the return of Jesus – the certainty of the finish of evil (Rev. eighteen and nineteen) and vindication of the saints (Rev. xx), and the sparkling vision of promise for eternity (Rev. 21).
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