CHAPTER 12
1. Then a great sign was seen in the heaven: a woman clothed [about] with the sun and beneath her feet, the moon, while upon her head was a crown of twelve stars.
Following Leo (identified with the tribe of Yehudah) in the cycle of constellations is Virgo, the virgin, and because the three innermost planets (“wandering stars”) are in Leo, supplementing its own nine stars, we have Leo on that particular day as a crown of twelve stars. The only time stars projectors identify this ever occurring is at the autumnal equinox of 2017, which also coincides with Yom T’ruah, the day of sounding the alarm—exactly what a sign is meant to do. (Liam Mcglone)
2. And, having a child in her womb, she shrieks in labor-pains, and being in torment to give birth.
Compare Yeshayahu 37:3, Yeshayahu 66:8-9, Mat. 24:8-15, Yirmeyahu 30:6-7, and possibly Yochanan 16:21, where the child being born is the Messiah, and by extension his Kingdom (v. 5 below as well as Yeshayahu 66:7, where the “first birth” is contrasted with this time, when he will accomplish something different). The planet Tzedeq (Jupiter), long associated with the Messiah, was by this date in the “abdomen” of Virgo for 40 weeks, the time of gestation, due to repeated retrograde motion (because earth moves around the sun more quickly than it), and it exits the “womb” during the week of Sukkoth (the feast that has always been seen as typifying the Messianic Kingdom) in 2017, hinting that other events may begin shortly, and reminding us that this time of year is to be carefully watched and these events rehearsed in the appointments YHWH gave us during the fall, the second set of feasts which foreshadow the stages of Messiah’s second coming.
3. Then a different sign was seen in the heaven—a large, flame-colored dragon having seven heads and ten horns, with seven crowns on its heads,
Flame-colored: or possibly, fiery-red. This is exactly how the brown dwarf star-planet Nibiru, expected to pass near the earth within two weeks after that day (see v. 1) has appeared on some of the few rare photographs its dimness permits. The crowns here are diadems—thin golden crowns like those worn by ancient emperors, versus a stefanos (garland)—a Greek-style, woven crown (verse 1).
4. and its tail dragged [away] a third of the stars of the heaven and threw them onto the earth. This dragon also stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she should bring forth her child, he might swallow it completely.
This planet-star has a ring of debris orbiting it, which would produce a shower of meteors if it gets close enough to earth. But there is more to this, because a planet cannot target particular individuals; YHWH alone can direct whom and what the meteors hit. But haSatan, also often known as the dragon and Leviathan, an ancient name for the Counterfeit Messiah, can aim their wrath at particular people.
5. And she brought forth a male descendant, who is appointed to shepherd all the nations with a scepter of iron. Then her child was snatched up toward Elohim and toward His throne.
Appointed to: or almost, ready to, about to. This alludes to Psalm 2:9, which is clearly a reference to the Davidic king of Israel.
6. And the woman escaped into the wilderness, and there she was given a place which had been prepared for her by Elohim, that there they should nourish her for 1,260 days.
The woman is Tzion/Yerushalayim (Yeshayahu 66:8-11) and by extension the entity of Israel, of which it is the capital. It is specifically said that Efrayim would be wooed into the wilderness to be brought back into the proper relationship with YHWH. (Hos. 2:14) 1,260 days is three and a half years—half of the time of Yaaqov’s Trouble. (Yirmeyahu 30:7)
7. Then there was war in heaven: the Mikha’el and his messengers battled the dragon, and the dragon and his messengers fought back.
The Mikha’el: One of the chief (heavenly) princes (Dan. 10:13), particularly assigned to protect Israel (Dan. 10:21), but also possibly also a group from the House of David (Zkh. 12:7-8) who rise up at a time when Yerushalayim is about to be besieged. (See note on Dan. 12:1.)
8. but they could not prevail, nor was a place found for them in the sky any longer.
In the sky: that is, the atmosphere, which has been haSatan’s abode since he was cast out of YHWH’s throne room (Y’hezq’El/Ezek. 28:12) and Eden. (28:13) This is why he is called “the prince of the power of the air”. (Ephesians 2:2; 6:12) Thus this is at least the third time he was deposed from his position of authority. (Compare ) But it is not his last demotion. (See 20:1-3 and 7-10 below.)
9. Thus the great dragon, the ancient serpent, was thrown down—[the one] who is called the slanderer and the adversary, the [one who] deceived the whole inhabited world: he was thrown down into the earth, and his messengers were thrown down with him.
Ancient serpent: as seen in the Garden of Eden. (Gen. 3)
10. And I heard a loud voice in the heaven, saying, “Now have the deliverance, the power, and the Kingdom of our Elohim emerged, along with the authority of His Messiah, because the accuser of our brothers (who brought charges against them day and night before our Elohim) has been thrown down,
Emerged: transitioned into a new stage of existence, now that the heavens are cleared of all evil effects. Accuser: the Greek equivalent of haSatan, which means “prosecutor” in Hebrew. Thrown down: forcefully ejected. Some examples of the kind of charges he brings are seen in Iyov (Job) 1:6-12 and 2:2-7. But we have already had an advocate to counter him. (1 Yochanan 2:1; Romans 8:33ff.)
11. and they have overcome him through the blood of the Lamb and through the word of their testimony, and they did not give preference to their own lives, even as far as the [point of] death.
Overcome: conquered, been victorious, prevailed over. This is the way to effect those seven aspects of overcoming Yeshua told us about in chapters 2 and 3. Part of this requires exertion on our part, but part of it requires appropriating what he has already done on our behalf. But it also requires trusting with certainty that he has already conquered death and will bring us back with him if we lose our own lives in the process of following him and expressing his life in this “present evil age”. (Galatians 1:4)
12. “Because of this, celebrate, you heavens and you who dwell in them! Woe to the earth and sea, because the slanderer has come down toward you, having great rage, aware that he has [only a very] brief time [left].”
Rage: literally passion or intense, driving emotion, but in a negative, angry, furious sense. Like a cornered wild beast, he exerts every effort to do as much damage as he still can, knowing he has no possibility of escape any longer and has only this one short occasion to accomplish anything. So what does he try to do?
13. And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he [earnestly] pursued the woman who had brought forth the male child [to hunt her down].
14. Then to the woman were given a pair of wings of a great eagle, so that she could fly away from the presence of the serpent into the wilderness—to her own place—where she was given nourishment for a time, a pair of times, and half a time.
Eagle: some kind of airlift. Her own place: possibly somewhere within the present or historical Land of Israel (compare Yeshayahu/Isaiah 26:20), possibly under YHWH’s protecting cloud and pillar of fire once again. While there, the Messiah may be crowned by both houses of Israel together. (Yeshayahu 16:1-5) A time…: Compare Daniel 7:25.
15. And the serpent thrust water, like a river, out of his mouth after the woman, in order that she might be swept away by the current,
16. but the earth came to the woman’s rescue—that is, the earth opened its “mouth” and swallowed up the river that the dragon had thrust out of its mouth.
17. And the dragon was provoked to anger in regard to , and went off to prepare for battle with the remainder of her descendants, who keep the commandments of YHWH and hold fast to the testimony of Yeshua the Messiah.
Who keep…and hold fast…: Both of these practices are necessary to fulfill our calling as the seed of Israel. They are not contradictory, as some think. If we are not doing both, the dragon does not bother about us, for we are no threat to him. If he can afford to ignore us, we are accomplishing little. Doing both will get him angry, but it is bait for the trap that will do him in. Remember that this is a vision, so we are not talking about a literal fire-breathing dragon with scales and wings. It represents a system made up of lawless men, whose power base we threaten when we keep the Torah, since we undercut their economic base by stopping all commerce on the Sabbath, neglecting to bolster their income at Christmas, etc. They know that when Yeshua is enthroned, they will all have to submit to Him, and they want to defer that as long as they can by getting us to neglect one or the other of these two elements. “The Testimony of Yeshua is the spirit of prophecy.” (19:10) Those who obey the commands will have the gift of understanding prophecy.
18. [And he stood upon the sand of the seashore].
He: the dragon. Some place this as part of verse 17 above, others as part of 13:1 below. The Aramaic version does not include it at all.
CHAPTER 13
1. Then I [stood on the sand of the sea and]
Stood on the sand: Based his understanding on what YHWH has declared about the descendants of Avraham, Yitzhaq, and Yaaqov. (Gen. 22:17; 32:12) Others place the first phrase in brackets as a separate verse prior to this, referring to the dragon (haSatan), who in that case is watching (12:18) and may even be calling up this beast, as he sounds very similar to the dragon of ch. 12, having unity of purpose with it. Seven symbolizes completeness and often finality, while ten symbolizes completeness in the sense of universality. HeSatan’s chief weapon is deception, and he mimics YHWH’s numerology, usually associated with righteous actions. This beast seems to be the Counterfeit Messiah and the nations that give him his political power. (Bradford) Sea: often an idiom for the Gentile nations, of which Egypt is the epitome, as Pharaoh was described as a sea dragon.. (Y’hezq’El/Ezekiel 29:3) Egypt is a remnant of the Greek (symbolized in Daniel as a leopard, most similar to this sea-beast’s appearance) and Roman empires. As described in Daniel 7:24 as well as the image of Nevukhadnetzar, the fourth beast has ten branches but something different that arises from out of them subdues three of the kings. Jose Travieso points out that the ten “nations” that grew out of the decay of the Roman Empire (the fourth beast) were the Saxons (which became the English), Franks (French), Alamanni (Germans), Visigoths (Spain), Suevi (Portugal), Lombardi (Italy), Burgundians (Switzerland), Heruli. Vandals, and Ostrogoths. The latter three no longer exist because they opposed the growing power of the Roman pontiff, and were destroyed by the Papacy (which blasphemously claimed to stand in the place of the Messiah), respectively, in 493, 534, and 538 C.E.
2. And the beast that I saw was comparable to a leopard, though its feet were like a bear’s, while its mouth was like a lion’s. And the dragon gave it his own power, and his throne, as well as vast [delegated] authority.
Leopard: or panther. Authority: or influence, capacity, permitted privilege which will make it seem like it can do anything it wants, but it is an illusion. This seems like a composite of all the other kingdoms that came before it in Daniel 7’s series. Adding up all the heads and horns of those beasts, you get 7 heads and ten horns, as in verse 1 here. It is the first of two beasts to arise in this chapter. They are symbolic, not literal, in the sense that they will not appear as monsters, but will probably be human beings or possibly human institutions that have these characteristics. (Bradford)
3. And I saw one of its heads as if mortally wounded, but its deadly wound was healed, and the whole world followed the beast in wonder [and admiration].
Like Hitler, they may feel that they have little choice but to follow him. The heads are separate institutions or national leaders. It would not be surprising if this beast—described in Genesis 3:15 as the seed of the serpent—was somehow a hybrid or demi-god like the nefilim of Genesis 6, thus having superhuman powers, but also being an illegitimate entity (having mixed “kinds” and “not keeping to their proper habitation”) and therefore condemned to be destroyed because such is not a creation of YHWH. Yeshua revealed that some of the P’rushim (Pharisees) were “of their father the devil” (Yoch. 8:44) and both he and Yochanan his forerunner called them a “brood of vipers”. (Mat. 3:7; 12:34; 23:33) Yeshua is the seed of the woman who is to bruise (or wound!) the serpent’s head, and now the Pharisees (through their successors, Rabbinic Judaism) are rising to power again through the Sanhedrin and Kabbalah. (Ben Nun)
4. And they worshipped the dragon, which had given authority to the beast; they also worshipped the beast, saying, “Who can compare to the beast, and who is able to make war with it?”
Again mimicking the death and supernatural resurrection of the Messiah, but also reminiscent of the rumor that the assassinated Nero of 20 years before Yochanan wrote, whose impostor later appeared and tried to garner a following. But in the future, the Roman Empire(the last of Daniel’s four beasts) appears to be resurrected. Others see it as a confederacy of Muslim nations arrayed against Israel, as Islam is both religious and political, while Rome today (at least overtly) is only a religious power today. Its national borders would then be redefined into 10 nations who want to drive Israel out of existence and take over YHWH’s most precious possessions (Psalm 83), with an 11th, called Assyria, that arises from Iraq. The Philistines (Gk., Palestinians) also figure prominently (Tsf. 2:4-7; Zkh. 9:5-7; Daniel 2 and 7 also) in this short-lived future period of peace, then war. They have the same ancestor as the ancient Egyptians (Gen. 10:13-14). These events, per Psalm 83, will lead to YHWH being declared Most High over all the earth, so this occurs just before the Kingdom of Elohim is established over all the earth. Early church fathers, far closer to when this was written, alternately suggested that the sea beast was heretics, someone posing as a defender of the Torah of Moshe (the only way he could deceive the Jews), or all the nations that haSatan will deceive. (Bradford) Undoubtedly there is also a figurehead who will appear to rise from the dead and amaze everyone who is not forewarned.Who can compare: a phrase reserved for YHWH (Exodus 15:11; Psalm 35:10; 89:6, et al). This is an example of the blasphemy mentioned in verse 1.
5. And it was given a mouth speaking great things as well as blasphemies, and authority was granted it to continue operating for 42 months.
Genesis 7:11, 24; 8:3, 4 describe 150 days as 5 months, so by this time the month may have reverted to exactly 30 days through some cataclysm like those that threw it out of that perfect alignment, with the leap-months no longer necessary. So 42 months is the same as three and a half years, or 1,260 days. (12:6, 12; Dan. 7:25) In prophecy, sometimes days represent years (Y’hezq’el ). Interestingly, in 1798 General Berthier (sent by Napoleon) entered Rome, abolished the papal government (the deadly wound of verse 3?), and established a secular one. (Encycl. Britannica, 1941 edition) – 1,260 years after Vigulius ascended the papal chair in 538 under the military protection of Belisarius. On March 12, 2000, Pope John Paul II admitted the Church’s guilt in regard to the Inquisition that lasted from 538-1798. This is how long it “made war with the saints”. (v. 7) Over 100 million were martyred. Then its power was greatly diminished. But on July 7, 1929, Mussolini and Cardinal Gasparri signed the sovereign independent state of Vatican City into existence. (New York Times) (Jose Travieso)
6. And it opened its mouth, [entering] into blasphemies against the [true] Elohim, to blaspheme His Name and His Dwelling Place—those who dwell in the heaven.
Blasphemies: both desecrating (mocking or taking lightly) His Name and claiming for oneself characteristics that only YHWH is entitled to. “Who is like the Beast?” (v. 4) is chanted in mimicry and mockery of the angel who fought the battle against haSatan and prevailed against him—Mi-ka’El, whose name means “Who is like Elohim?” This is one of the blasphemies mentioned here. (Bradford)
7. And it was permitted to make war with the set-apart ones, and to prevail over them, and it was granted authority over every tribe and nation and language and ethnic group.
Permitted: for the sake of building character in us and gaining us greater rewards in the permanent realm. Prevail: which Yeshua said would be possible even for many who thought they were doing his will but on the wrong foundation. (Mat. 7:21-27) His measure is not of our words or outward piety, but in the doing of what the Father says to do. Even the genuine followers should expect persecution and possible physical death at this time, so check your faith and your motives now. (Bradford)
8. And all who consider earth their permanent home will bow down to it, whose names have not been recorded in the Book of Life of the Lamb that had been slaughtered since the founding of the universe.
Consider: or settle on, dwell in a permanent sense rather than merely pitching one’s tent there—the attitude we are meant to take toward this age. (2 Kefa/Peter 1:14) Book of Life: one of the books opened on the day of judgment. (20:12; Daniel 7:10) Slaughtered since: as usual, YHWH created the solution before the problem appeared. This was His determined will from the start, and, being outside and independent of time, events in the heavenlies are just as much before as during or after earth-bound events.
9. If anyone has an ear, let him listen!
10. If anyone [is meant to] go into captivity, into captivity he goes; if anyone is to be killed wit the sword, with the sword it is necessary for him to be killed. This is how the set-apart ones endure and remain steadfastly confident.
How: or, when.
11. Then I saw another [ferocious] beast [of the same kind] coming up out of the earth, and it had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon.
Spoke like a dragon: This is undoubtedly a reference to Leviathan and the great sea-amphibian mentioned in Yeshayahu (Isa.) 27:1, which are to be slain “in that Day” (an idiom for the Day of YHWH). Yirmeyahu (Jer.) 29:3 associates this imagery with Pharaoh who says he owns the river and has made it himself—a blasphemy against YHWH Himself, the true Creator of all and Determiner of what jurisdiction any many will have. The first man apparently claims to be a “god”—the ultimate blasphemy. (v. 1; Daniel 7:25) This other beast seems to be a “prophet” or spokesman for the first beast. This other beast seems to be a “prophet” or spokesman for the first beast, forming an evil triumvirate along with haSatan. Having one beast come from the land and another from the sea is his mimicking that mighty angel in 10:5-7 who had one foot on the land and one on the sea. (Bradford)
12. And it exercises all of the first beast’s authority on its behalf, and [re]constructs the earth such that all those dwelling in it will worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
On its behalf: or, under its oversight. It may use virtual reality to create illusions and change the political and communication infrastructures in the world to suit his purposes and to gain a monopoly on earth’s resources (v. 16).
13. It also performs great signs to the extent that it can even cause fire to come down from the sky to the earth in the sight of human beings.
This was the test by which Eliyahu proved to Ba’al-worshippers that YHWH was the true Elohim and superior to the demon (or non-entity) that they worshipped. Now this beast co-opts this miracle for its own ends and thus blasphemes YHWH yet once again, but also deceives many people whose knowledge of YHWH may not be extensive enough to recognize the ruse (Mat. 24:5, 11; Mark 13:22) and give those who do not want to believe a seeming justification for their obstinacy (2 Thess. 2:11):
14. And it deceives those who dwell on the earth through the signs that it was permitted to perform on behalf of the beast, commanding those “citizens” [of] the earth to fashion an image for the beast that has the sword-wound yet has survived.
If this is a human being or pseudo- or demi-human being, the execution methods propounded prior to this may have been used on it, but because it is partially something other than human, it may be able (or programmed) to regenerate itself and appear to have “resurrected” and thus be “Jesus” in the eyes of many who do not know Yeshua correctly and have not bothered to read these warnings.
15. And it was permitted to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast should even speak, and should establish that whomever did not worship the image of the beast should be put to death.
Breath: or spirit. This death sentence for not bowing to an image echoes its precursor in earlier Bavel (Babylon) per Dani’el 3. (See my replica, at left, of the statue in Nevukhadnetzar's dream in Daniel 2!)
16. And it causes everyone, [both] the small and the great, [both] the rich and the poor, [both] the freemen and the slaves, to be given a brand [engraved] upon their right hand or on their foreheads,
Causes: or forces. Brand: more commonly called a “mark”. Foreheads: literally, space between their eyes—the very place David’s slung stone hit Golyath. The Hebrew equivalent means “the conspicuous place” on the brow. More than anything else, it is a mark of allegiance. Again, this is a prime example of haSatan’s desire to replace YHWH’s place in our lives, and to do so he can only counterfeit rather than coming up with any truly new ideas. (Tom Bradford) The servants of YHWH were marked with a seal on their foreheads before any of these plagues could take place (7:3ff; 9:4)—an allusion to Y’hezq’el 9:4, where we see judgment coming upon those of the House of Israel who wept for Tammuz (the “son who is his father” in the Babylonian myth) and worshipped facing the sunrise from within the Temple of YHWH (Y’hezq’el 8), but those who were marked on their foreheads in advance as those who grieved over the presence of such practices in YHWH’s House were spared. If we trace these practices (and others mentioned in that chapter) on through history, we find that they again emerged in Lent and Easter, with its sunrise services—practices Yehudah has had little to do with, but Efrayim, the Northern Kingdom, has owned as theirs, supposedly in honor of the Messiah, and thus from “within YHWH’s House”. The blood of the lamb similarly marked those in Egypt to be spared from otherwise-certain death; thus this mark correlates with the practice of Passover (Exodus 13:9); James Trimm points out, and we can see clearly from this context, its counterfeit therefore corresponds with the observance of Easter instead. Also, the Sabbath is called a “sign” between YHWH and Israel, and the Torah is to be a sign upon our hands and between our eyes. (Deut. 6:8; 11:18) If keeping the commandments is the mark of those who do not have this beast’s brand (12:17), then having it must relate to disobeying YHWH’s commandments. In regard to the fourth in particular, H.F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons, said in 1895, “Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change [from Sabbath to Sunday] was her act…and the act is a MARK of her ecclesiastical authority in religious things.”(Emphasis ours.) The Catholic Record, on Sept. 1, 1923, said, “Sunday is our MARK of authority…The Church is above the Bible, and transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact.” “He shall think to change the times and laws.”, per Daniel 7:25. Priest Brady, in 1903, said, “It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe an ordinance of the Catholic Church.” So is the mark of the Beast none other than Sunday worship as opposed to Sabbath observance? (Jose Travieso)
17. and in order that none could buy or sell if not having the brand or the name of the beast or the number of its name.
18. Here is the wisdom: Let the one who has understanding calculate the [fixed, definite] number of the beast, for it is the number of a human being, and its number is six hundred, sixty, and six.
Wisdom: The kind of understanding it takes to decipher what has been undecipherable for over 1,900 years can only come from YHWH when the time is right, not from human intelligence. Only those who worship YHWH will not be taken in by these lies; to everyone else, it will seem obvious that they should follow this messianic-type figure, since people are primed to trust the “experts” and “scientific knowledge” as if it were ironclad proof. (Bradford) 666: Represented by three Greek letters, chi, xi, and stigma (an obsolete letter that at one time was the sixth, and continued to be used when letters were combined like this to represent numbers, much as we still see used with Roman numerals). Many have speculated about whose name might have this number in it, and most have been barking up the wrong tree. Actually the value of the numbers, individually, are 600, 60 , and 6. Based on Genesis 1:26-31, the account of mankind’s creation on the sixth day, it is Hebrew tradition that six is “the number of a human being”. (It falls short of the perfection and completeness of the number 7.) Sixty would therefore mean “ten men”, which, based on YHWH’s allowing for S’dom to be spared if there were at least ten righteous there (Gen. 18), is again linked in Hebrew tradition with the quorum required to constitute a congregation. It is therefore a group of ten men united in association with another man. Right here in the first verse of Revelation 13 we find a beast with ten horns. 17:7-12 tell us that these ten horns are ten kings who have authority with the beast for one hour. But this same beast with ten horns is identified in Dani’el 7:7 as the fourth beast, which the progression in history makes clear is Rome. And sure enough, in Roman history, we find a group specifically called “the ten men”—decem viri in Latin—whose influence remains today, though in their corruption they were in power for less than two years (“one hour” in the overall scale of history). Why? Because they rose up in opposition to the nobles and established the Senate, in which every man was to have a voice. I.e., they established democracy, and the Senate remained, revived in our own day. Most of the United States Constitution is based squarely on twelve letters these ten men wrote. So the middle “6” of 666 may very well be democracy. While it may be YHWH’s temporary provision for our protection in exile, it is not the way of Scripture, where authorities based on the Torah have the final say, not the people’s wishes or desires. Ultimately, one Man will have the final word on what is law. The first 6 (that is, 600) would represent 100 men. One rule of Scriptural interpretation is that the first time something appears in Scripture, it sets the tone for the figurative meaning of the term throughout the remainder of Scripture. The first time the number 100 appears in Scripture (other than someone’s age) is in Gen. 33:19, where it is the sum of the pieces of silver used in a purchase. Therefore, 600 would indicate “the men with the money”, and indeed here in verse 17 we see this beast linked with control of the commerce system. At the beginning, when YHWH provided food right on the trees for all mankind and all animals, how could anyone be richer than anyone else? There were no price tags. Animals did not need to be corralled because we were not keeping them for food. Our only concern was to preserve what YHWH had made—an ecosystem He considered “just right”. Once bloodshed began, it became about who was out front, and it thus became man against man and man against animals. And that, in a nutshell, is the story of how the world got to be how it is today. Commerce, violence, and bloodshed all go together. The beast sheds blood to keep the money and to keep control of the whole world through money. We have already seen examples of this system biting those who try to leave it and care for one another in community. One was David Koresh in Waco, Texas in the early 1990s. While we do not agree with all of his teachings, he was catching the scent of some worthwhile trails, and was destroyed for trying to buck the state’s ownership of its citizens. But we are told here that someone with understanding can calculate its meaning properly, and the implication is that we can thereby overcome this “beast”. Psalm 111:7-10 tells us understanding is derived from practicing YHWH’s commandments and Psalm 119 repeatedly tells us it is gained by meditating on YHWH’s precepts. Calculating the number of a name, for one with understanding, therefore, would involve finding words within YHWH’s Torah that have the numerical value of 666. There are only two (and one of them is repeated). The first is in Lev. 25:14, and its meaning is “you [will] sell”—a clear reference to the commerce we spoke of above. The second word with the numerical value of 666 is “you shall turn aside” or “deviate”. It appears in both Deuteronomy 5:29 and 17:11. And as with snake venom, the poison includes the antidote right within it, because Lev. 25:14 reads, in full, “And if you [will] sell anything to your associate, or buy anything from your associate's hand, you shall not oppress each other.” If we put the Israelite community instead of self first in whatever necessary dealings with commerce we may have, we can wrest “unrighteous Mammon” from the beast and use it for eternal purposes. (Luqa 16:9) Deut. 5:29 reads, “So you must be careful to act according to what YHWH your Elohim has commanded you; you must NOT turn aside to the right or to the left.” Deut. 17:11 reads, “"You must do according to the word of the instruction by which they [the Levitical priests] direct you and the decision with which they answer you; you must NOT deviate from the sentence which they make known to you, [neither] to the right not to the left.” Thus we negate the “666”, whereas if we reckon it the wrong way, we are part of the beast system which indeed “turns aside” from YHWH’s intent that one man (without the “men” and the “money”, without elections, and without merchandising) has the rule over the entire world. (Yeshayahu 11) The Torah therefore tells us how to handle these snakes when we must, and not be bitten. We get there—back to the world without violence, bloodshed, or commerce--by taking care of one another. We overcome by the innocent blood shed by the Lamb (to redeem his lost brothers), the word of our testimony, and by not loving our own lives, even to the point of death (Rev. 12:11), as Yeshua exemplified. Calculating the number of a name, for one with understanding, therefore, would involve finding words within YHWH’s Torah that have the numerical value of 666. There are only two (and one of them is repeated). The first is in Lev. 25:14, and its meaning is “you [will] sell”—a clear reference to the commerce we spoke of above. The second word with the numerical value of 666 is “you shall turn aside” or “deviate”. It appears in both Deuteronomy 5:29 and 17:11. And as with snake venom, the poison includes the antidote right within it, because Lev. 25:14 reads, in full, “And if you [will] sell anything to your associate, or buy anything from your associate's hand, you shall not oppress each other.” If we put the Israelite community instead of self first in whatever necessary dealings with commerce we may have, we can wrest “unrighteous Mammon” from the beast and use it for eternal purposes. (Luke 16:9) Deut. 5:29 reads, “So you must be careful to act according to what YHWH your Elohim has commanded you; you must NOT turn aside to the right or to the left.” Deut. 17:11 reads, “"You must do according to the word of the instruction by which they [the Levitical priests] direct you and the decision with which they answer you; you must NOT deviate from the sentence which they make known to you, [neither] to the right not to the left.” Thus we negate the “666”, whereas if we reckon it the wrong way, we are part of the beast system which indeed “turns aside” from YHWH’s intent that one man (without the “men” and the “money”, without elections, and without merchandising) has the rule over the entire world. (Yeshayahu 11) The Torah therefore tells us how to handle these snakes when we must, and not be bitten. We get there—back to the world without violence, bloodshed, or commerce--by taking care of one another. We overcome by the innocent blood shed by the Lamb (to redeem his lost brothers), the word of our testimony, and by not loving our own lives, even to the point of death (Rev. 12:11), as Yeshua exemplified. Another way to calculate this number, in the context of the Roman beast, is to use Roman numerals. Since the number relates to the beast’s name (v. 17), the Catholic Church says the Pope’s name is “the one who takes the Son of God’s place”. In Latin, the language of Rome, that is Vicarius Filii Dei. (5+1+100+0+0+1+5+0=112) (0+1+50+1+1=53) (500+0+1=501) >>> 666. (Recall that some letters have numeric value and others do not, and that “u” and “v” are the same in Latin.) Another name for the Papacy is Dux Cleri (Captain of the Clergy) = (500+5+10=515) (100+50+0+0+1=151) >> 666. Or, Rex Latinus Sacerdos (King of the Latin Priests) (0+0+10=10) (50+0+0+1+5+0=56) (0+0+100+0+0+500+0+0=600)>> 666. Finally, Sancta Lux Dei (Holy Light of God) = (0+0+0+100+0+0=100) (50+5+10=65) (500+0+1=501) >> 666. They all add up to the same thing. Dr. James Tabor adds another layer of association with Rome: “Nero’s name or title in Hebrew looks like this: נרון קסר or NRON QSR transliterated), meaning Nero Caesar. Taking the value of the Hebrew letters, N=50, R=200, O=6, N=50, Q=100, S=60,R=200, one comes up with the sum of 666. To make this identification of the beast with Nero even more convincing, it should be noted that some Greek manuscripts of Revelation give the number 616 rather than 666—probably due to an alternative spelling of Nero as NRO rather than NRON (666 minus the final N [=50] gives 616)…This 666 number seems also reflected in Nero’s name written in Greek as well as a similar system of gematria was also used based on the Greek alphabet... If we write Nero’s title in Greek, it looks like this: νερων καεσαρ or NERON CAESAR. The value of the Greek letters totals 1,332, which seems to lack significance—until one realizes that 1,332 is in fact 666 times 2. The author of Revelation is apparently signaling to the astute reader that Nero is the model of the Antichrist; since he has come and gone, however, a second “Nero” is to come—in his mind, very possibly the emperor Domitian—who will also persecute” believers in Yeshua. He adds, “It is probably not coincidental that the Roman numerals—I (1), V (5), X (10), L (50), C (100), D (500)—also add up to 666!” But see also the note on 14:1.
CHAPTER 14
1. And when I looked, there was the Lamb standing on Mount Tzion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s Name written on their foreheads.
Tzion: First introduced as another name for the City of David (in contrast to the present-day location, per 2 Shmu’el 5:7), it is mentioned 19 times in the TaNaKh (9 of which directly related to the surviving remnant of Israel that is delivered and redeemed at the end of this Age) and 7 times in the Renewed Covenant (5 of which quote the TaNaKh), but this is the only time it appears in this book. (Bradford) Hebraically, it is a place of security, celebration, and rejoicing once YHWH has installed and established His king on its throne. (Psalm 2:6-8) His name: that is, Yeshua’s. His Father’s Name: YHWH, as found on the tzitz worn by the high priest. (Exodus 30:10) It is also a contrast to those who have the Beast’s name on their foreheads. 144,000: Interestingly, William Kinney notes that in an interview by Reader’s Digest magazine, Dr. Francis Crick, one of those credited with discovering the double helix structure of DNA, was asked about how many genes of the human genome they had identified so far. He answered, “140,000 and we expect to find 4,000 more.” Kinney asks, “What if this number, instead of referring to a number of individuals, actually refers to the immortal life genome? In other words, to be sealed by God is to have your genetic code supernaturally sequenced back to an immortal state. Since the human body (and its homeostasis) is a closed system, Adam and Eve did not destroy the genes that enable immortal life, they reorganized the sequence. This proprietary information was not annihilated, it was merely suppressed.” In the previous verse we are told to “calculate” the number of the beast. (13:18) Kinney notes that New Scientist magazine featured an article about scientists at the University of Cambridge (UK) who have created a new way of using the genetic code: “[that] could eventually lead to the creation of new or improved life forms.” One of these new life forms will be a triple helix structure, as featured in Scientific American magazine (“Triple Helix: Designing a New Molecule of Life”). It speaks of “a synthetic hybrid of protein and DNA... unlike anything found in nature. Kinney explains, “In the original immortal life genome, a double helix structure with 144,000 genes means that both strands of DNA would have 72,000 (each). In a triple helix structure the number would be 216,000 (3 x 72,000). The earliest Greek manuscripts describe the number of the beast as 600, and 60, and 6. If we multiply 600 x 60 x 6, we arrive at the number 216,000. This is the number of “the beast,” it is his genetic code. Satan will use this synthetic genome to offer the people of earth, a counterfeit version of immortality.” Of course, it will backfire. (16:2)
2. And out of the sky I heard a voice [that] sounded like many waters, or like loud thunder, and the voice that I heard was like harpists playing on their harps.
3. Then they started singing [what seemed to be] a new song in front of the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders, and no one was able to learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from off the earth.
A new song: a theme of the Sabbath, and the seventh millennium that it foreshadows, as indicated by the traditional connection of Psalm 96 with the beginning of the Sabbath.
4. These are the ones who have not been defiled by women, because they are virgins, who follow the Lamb wherever he may go. These have been redeemed from among humanity as firstfruits for Elohim and for the Lamb.
Virgins: the term can have wider meaning than just those who have not known a woman—chiefly those who are ritually pure. It can refer to those who abstain during times of special meeting with YHWH (Deut. 20, 23) or when involved in a holy war like David’s men when they ate the Bread of the Presence (1 Shmu’el 21) and Uriah while his companions were still in battle (2 Shmu’el 11), as related to the rules of haram, the things devoted to YHWH which are not to be taken as spoils of war. (Tom Bradford) Figuratively, “men who have abstained from all uncleanness and [the type of] whoredom [related to] idolatry, and so have kept their chastity” (DeWette). Follow: described in much the same way as the four living creatures in Y’hezq’El (Ezekiel) 1:5-12. Firstfruits: Israel (as seen in their description as the 12 tribes in chapter 7) per Yirmeyahu/Jer. 2:1-3; compare Romans 16:5 and 1 Corinthians 16:15 in regard to the first to join the Messiah’s assembly from particular towns.
5. And a lie was not found in their mouths; they are blameless before the throne of Elohim.
No lie: or falsehood; they are not deceptive. Blameless: or unblemished, the terminology used of offering animals acceptable to YHWH and the Levitical priests who offered them. These two concepts are often closely related, such as in regard to Yeshua in Yeshayahu 53:9. There are seven characteristics attributed to them, suggesting wholeness and completion. In chapter 7 we saw them in the spiritual realm; now with Yeshua they are returning o earth in physical form. (Bradford)
6. And I saw another messenger flying in mid-heaven, having the glad news [about] the Age to proclaim to those dwelling on the earth and to every race and tribe and language and population,
Mid-heaven: the atmosphere, where birds fly and clouds float, but in ancient cosmology, this would have been the “zenith” point where he would be able to see everything on earth and be seen by everyone there. Glad news: not the “Gospel” here as such, but the particular message that follows, that the final watershed is coming, after which the triumph of good over evil will finally be complete. In speaking to those of every language, he would be speaking in each of their languages. (Tom Bradford)
7. saying in a loud voice, “Revere Elohim and give Him [due] weight, because the hour of His judgment has come! And do homage to the One who has made the sky and the earth and the sea and the springs of waters.”
8. Then another messenger—a second [attending him]—followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Bavel the Great, the wine of the wrath of whose whoredom she has given all nations to drink!
Bavel: the name means “confusion”. This echoes Yirmeyahu (Jer) 51:8 as well as Yeshayahu and Dani’el. Bavel (sometimes used as a secret code-name for other cities such as Rome which took over, embodied, and symbolized the same untenable position Bavel had in representation of the entire pagan world, especially as it oppresses YHWH’s people for the sake of greed and wealth. (See 2 Baruch 11:1; 67:7; Sybiloline Oracle 5:143, 159, and Midrash Rabbah on Song of Songs 164, which directly says, “One calls Rome ‘Bavel’.”It is an end-time headquarters of haSatan, the Beast, and the false prophet in direct antithesis of Tzion (v.1), which by this time embodies the pure, ideal, redeemed Yerushalayim. This is a willing collaboration of individuals and nations with this great “prostitute” (17:1) whose decadence is so alluring that they cannot resist “wanting in” when they should instead have shunned her. The picture is of righteous people or nations making a conscious, willful choice to attach themselves to this system; they are held responsible for having done so; they cannot claim that they were innocent victims. But apart from haSatan, the blame for the fact that these nations must suffer wrath lies squarely on Bavel. (Bradford)
9. Then another messenger—a third—followed them, saying in a loud voice, “If anyone worships the Beast and its image, and receives a brand on his forehead or his hand,
10. “he will also drink of the wine of the passionate rage of Elohim, which has been mixed, undiluted, in the cup of His wrath, and he will be tormented in fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy messengers and of the Lamb.
Rage: a heated-up venting of anger directed (here) against sin with intense opposition and without sin in itself. Wrath: a "settled anger" which proceeds from an internal disposition which steadfastly opposes someone or something based on extended personal exposure, i.e. solidifying what the beholder considers wrong, unjust, or evil. (Thayer) The presence of the Lamb and the holy ones indicates a witness that justice is finally being done, but also that there is no one else to redeem them anymore. There is no indication that they will ever be offered any occasion to repent or change their minds after this point, possibly due to the “brand” they receive somehow being able to target and obliterate the part of their brains that is utilized in prayer and righteous worship so that they literally can no longer remember how to do so.
11. “And the smoke of their torment rises into the ages of ages, and they do not have a break day or night—those who worship the Beast and its image, or anyone who may accept the brand of its name!”
12. Here is the [key to the] endurance of the holy ones—those who guard the commandments of Elohim and [exercise] the faithfulness of Yeshua.
Endurance: perseverance in the face of opposition. YHWH expects obedience to His actual commands and that we trust Him so strongly that we are willing to suffer death in order to remain righteous, entrusting to Him all that we may lose in the process. Yeshua’s faithfulness: His remaining true to YHWH all the way to the point of dying for His sake. (Bradford) What if one only has the latter characteristic and not the former? He then has a place in the Kingdom, but in the social hierarchy there, he will be the lowest. (Mat. 5:17-18)
13. And I heard a voice out of the sky, saying, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Master from now on! Yes’, says the Spirit, ‘so that they will have a rest from their [agonizing] labors, since the works that they accomplish come along behind them.”
Though YHWH says He will save His innocent people from His wrath, He does not promise that we will not experience evil and oppression from men. He often portrays it as an occasion to be a witness to them and to be further refined, as was our Savior. If there is a “rapture” when He snatches His people out from the great troubles to come on the world, it does not appear that t will be as they begin, but no earlier than just before the sixth seal. (6:12) This is a coming time when those who want to be holy will suffer more than any other time in history for actively choosing to defy this world system. It is a stark choice which sounds simple to us now while we are not experiencing what will probably not be a quick, painless death. (Bradford) But after this point, there will be no more struggle, our race having been run to its completion. (2 Timotheus 4:7-8) It seems that the chronology of this book is not a linear one, but possibly a cyclical one returning to the same events from a different perspective, sometimes earthly, sometimes heavenly.
14. Then I looked and—there—I saw a white cloud, and on top of the cloud [was] seated one “like a son of Adam” having a golden crown on his head and in his hand, a sharp sickle.
This quote is from Daniel 7:13-14. Sickle: a pruning-hook, a hooked vine-knife, such as reapers and vine-dressers use. (The term is used in the LXX and by Homer as such.)
15. Then another messenger came out of the Temple, crying out with a loud voice to the one seated atop the cloud, “Wield your sickle and reap, because the time has come to gather in [the crop], for the harvest of the earth has ripened!”
Wield: literally, “send forth”. Mark 13:21-27, set clearly in the end of the age, gives us the added detail that this Son of Adam will come on a cloud (probably symbolic of a vast multitude of people) and delegate the reaping to his own messengers. But this messenger comes out from YHWH’s presence, so he is not speaking on his own authority. But note again the Son’s subordination as the Father’s servant: he does not act until authorized by the One pre-eminent over him. What is he harvesting? Mark 13 makes it clear that it is people. Ripened: The earth has reached another critical mass at it did at the time of the Deluge of Noakh. Might this be the “rapture”? If not, then there must be two separate harvests of YHWH’s worshippers, but Scripture gives no indication of there being two; indeed, even the harvest of evildoers is simultaneous with this one, as the “Lord of the Harvest” lets the tares, often closely resembling and intertwined with the good crop, grow along with it until he sorts them out. (Bradford)
16. So the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.
17. Then another messenger came out of the Temple in the heaven, also having a sharp sickle.
18. Then a different messenger came from the altar—the one having authority over the fire—and he called out in a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Wield your sharpened sickle and collect the clusters from the earth’s vine, because its grapes have fully matured!”
19. So the messenger swung his sickle into the earth and harvested the vintage of the earth and cast it into the winepress of the wrath of the great[est] Elohim.
Winepress: a vat in which grapes are trampled by foot to avoid damaging the tiny seeds and changing the flavor of the juice:
20. And the winepress was trodden outside the City, and blood flowed out from the vat as high as the horses’ bridles, 1600 stadia outward.
Horse’s bridles: an imprecise measure, as they would be at different heights, but the intent is to show an unprecedented amount of carnage. (Bradford) Stadia: plural of stadion, a measure of length comprising 600 Greek feet, 625 Roman feet, or 125 Roman paces (Pliny), that is, 1/8 of a Roman mile (i.e., 606¾ English feet).
CHAPTER 15
1. Then I saw another sign in the sky: seven large and awe-inspiring messengers holding the last seven plagues, because with them, the wrath of Elohim will have fulfilled its purpose.
Plagues: or calamities, afflictions, wounding strokes. Wrath: or indignation, a particular time of judgment first spoken of in Yeshayahu 10:25 and 26:20, during which YHWH says He will shield His faithful as Moshe was protected from His overwhelming physical manifestation (Ex. 33:20-23) Fulfilled its purpose: or reached the full extent of the goal it was aimed at, that is, bringing justice to the earth and clearing it of the vestiges of the old age that cannot be carried over into the Kingdom that is replacing it.
2. And I saw something like a sea of transparent glass mingled with fire, and those who had emerged victorious from the beast, its image, and the [totaled] number of its name were standing over the sea of glass, holding the harps of Elohim.
Victorious: having prevailed—through “loving not their own lives even unto death” (12:11), by taking the earthly consequence of refusing to compromise and therefore defeating those who can only kill the body but not convince the soul to submit to an unholy and unjust paradigm. (Mat. 10:28) Sea: a specialized use of the term referring to the giant bronze laver in Shlomo’s temple at which the priests washed their hands and feet. (2 Chron. 2:4-6) It speaks of “living water” which brings purification from a ritually-impure state, a picture of the greater-still cleansing from an impure heart. Now it is “before the throne” (4:6), which Y’hezq’el suggests is on the porch of the Temple. (43:7; 44:3) They now have access to the “water of life”. Harps of Elohim: therefore, this would refer to the Levitical choir so amply described in the Talmud that led worship from the steps leading from the Court of Priests into the sanctuary itself. (Compare Psalms 33:2; 81:2, etc.) This is the sanctuary in heaven, of which its counterparts on earth were (and will be) inferior, incomplete “shadows”.
3. And they [were] singing the Song of Moshe, the servant of Elohim, and the Song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and wonderful are Your works, O Master—Elohim the Ruler of all! Just and genuine are all Your ways, O King of the nations!
Song of: that is, by Moshe and Yeshua, not to them; both of them were mediators between YHWH and Israel, both were Hebrews, and both continue to be relevant and instrumental in YHWH’s plan of redemption. This is a song of triumph, so would not be the one in Deuteronomy 32, but possibly the one in Exodus 15 (after the crossing of the Reed Sea), but more likely it is a new song (probably one, not two songs) led by both of them. YHWH is obviously King of Israel, but now of all the nations He has righteously conquered as well, Yeshua’s blood having purchased them—though Moshe is still given prominence in this description. (Bradford)
4. “Who would not be in awe of You, O Master and honor Your name? Because You alone are in a category of Your own, so that all nations will present themselves and fall prostrate before You, for Your equitable deeds have become well-known!”
Who would not: also, who is left to oppose You, with all rebels now having been judged? Righteous deeds: His plan of redemption, now marked with a momentous finality. (Bradford)
5. Then after these things I looked, and the sanctuary of the Tent of Witness in the heavens was opened up.
In the heavens: the prototype for the earthly, physical one that Moshe, B’tzal-El, and Oholiav had built in the wilderness after coming out of Egypt. (Ex. 39:32, etc.)
6. Then the seven messengers holding the seven plagues came out from the sanctuary, having been clothed in pure, radiant linen which was fastened around their chests by golden sashes.
This resembles the ancient clothing of the priests who were subordinate to the high priest (Ex. 28:40 et al) except for their golden color, now depicting their purity and perfection. These may Levites who were killed for their trust in and testimony to Yeshua as Messiah. (Bradford)
7. Then one of the four living creatures gave the seven messengers seven shallow golden bowls fully loaded with the wrath of Elohim, the One Who lives into the ages of ages.
Golden bowls: a customary part of the earthly sanctuary rituals as well.
8. And the Temple was filled with smoke [which proceeds] from Elohim’s honor and from His power [to effect change], and no one was able to proceed into the Temple until the seven messengers’ seven plagues had been concluded.
Smoke: possibly from the burning incense, mingled with the cloud of His presence as had so filled the earthly Tabernacle so that Moshe himself had no room left to enter. (Exodus 40:35) It is also reminiscent of an event at the inauguration of Shlomoh’s Temple which obscured the furnishings both inside and outside it, delaying the priests in their service as well. (2 Chron. 5:13-14) This shows that, when YHWH chooses to act, even angels can do nothing except observe and obey. (Bradford)
CHAPTER 16
1. Then I heard a loud voice from the Temple saying to the seven messengers, “Depart and pour out the seven shallow bowls of the wrath of Elohim onto the earth!”
Wrath of Elohim: The rebellious covenant-breakers among His own people will be affected along with the persecutors of His people for whom these judgments are intended (vv. 5-7), partly to chastise them and prod them to repent. See Y’hezq’El (Ezekiel) 14:21-23, Yirmeyahu (Jer.( 10:25, and Ts’fanyah (Zeph.) 3:1-9 for more examples of this pattern. But this is why chapter 18 will warn His people to come out of the purview of this system so they do not share in its plagues. If they remain lawless, even though they do miracles in Yeshua’s name, he will no longer recognize them as his own. (Mat. 7:21-23) And when he says they are lawless, does that mean they are breaking Roman law, shari’a law, or American law? What laws did Yeshua recognize other than the laws in the Torah? (Bradford)
2. And the first went out and poured out his shallow saucer onto the land, and there came to be a harmful and annoying sore [that discharges pus] on the people who had the brand of the beast and those who had worshipped his image.
Because of this verse and 13:17 above, many suspect that the form this may take is a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip implanted under one’s skin. It would do away with the need to carry cash or credit cards which could easily be lost or forgotten, and would seem like an ideal economic solution. However, it would also easily allow precise tracking of one’s movements and access to one’s history by those who might abuse such privilege. Imagine such a tool in Hitler’s hands! Moreover, those who designed it have admitted that if something were to go wrong with it—could we think disruption by a change in frequencies or electromagnetic storm caused by some extraterrestrial body?—it would cause “grievous sores” (the exact language of the King James Bible!) to break out at the site of the implant—another reason not to take the mark just to survive (14:8-13). YHWH will not accept those who “convert now and try to repent later” as worthy of salvation, possibly because such implants are known to cause genetic changes even to one’s DNA (making them no longer truly human and possibly unable to repent any longer), thus being spread throughout one’s bloodstream. It is poetic justice, because they wanted a mark in their skin, so YHWH gives them many more such marks. But this is reminiscent of tzara’ath (wrongly called leprosy—see Leviticus 12-14), which YHWH brought on individuals to expose hidden spiritual conditions—internal uncleanness that now manifested itself outwardly as well. (Bradford)
3. And the second poured out his bowl into the sea, and it turned into blood, like something dead, and every living being that was in the sea died off.
The blood-like aspect would be that the sea became thick and coagulated, no longer allowing creatures to swim through it or breathe the oxygen in the water. This is worse than the similar trumpet judgment (8:8), which only affected 1/3 of the sea, or the witness who had power to turn water into blood locally. (11:6)
4. And the third poured out his bowl into the rivers and springs of water, and they turned into blood.
Springs: or, sources in general. This plague is more like the one in Egypt, but on a worldwide scale. Plagues like those in Moshe’s day seem to again precede the greater Exodus spoken of in Yirmeyahu/Jer. 16 and 23.
5. Then I heard the messenger [who was] over the waters, saying, “You are just, O [You] Who are and [You] Who were, in that You have judged [in] these [ways],
Messenger over the waters: In first-century thought, every aspect of human life had a guardian angel over it. The worldview this seems to exemplify originated with Empedocles around 500 B.C.E., who thought the most basic elements were earth, air, fire, and water, and 300 years later, Aristotle added a fifth, ether, from which the heaven were supposedly formed. This idea influenced the Jews also and was nearly universally accepted even up to the 1800s. Is Yochanan endorsing such a view? He may be speaking in language people are familiar with to signify that YHWH is judging everything, but there is nothing in Scripture that contradicts the idea that a particular angel could be responsible for all the water on earth. (Bradford) A second-century pseudepigraphic work called the Testimony of Solomon lists the “seven angels of punishment”, whose Hebrew names are Kushiel (the rigid one of Elohim), Lahatiel (flame of Elohim), Shaftiel (Elohim’s judge), Makatiel (plague of Elohim), Hutriel (rod of Elohim), Pusiel (fire of Elohim), and Rogziel (wrath of Elohim). Just because this document was not accepted into any canon does not mean that this detail is inaccurate. These could be the names of the seven messengers here. (Bradford) Just: or justified, innocent.
6. since they have shed the blood of holy ones and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink; they deserve [this]!”
Blood to drink: forbidden by Torah for anyone who loves YHWH as a visible part of our holiness (Lev. 17:10-14; 19:26). Interestingly, a scandal in the West recently has revealed the widespread practice among the elites of politics, media, and entertainment of drinking the blood of trafficked children in a Satanic ritual. It is a fitting judgment on those who do not love the Torah’s Author to have to drink blood to survive.
7. And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, O Master, the Elohim Who rules everything; true and equitable are Your verdicts!”
This voice from the altar is not an inanimate object speaking; some Greek texts say “another from the altar”, and it alludes back to 6:9-11, where the souls under the other are asking how long it will be until their blood is avenged. They are clothed and told to wait a little while until the full number of their companions have been martyred. Now that the harvest has been fully reaped (chapter 14), the time has finally arrived; they have to wait no longer for this justice to be dealt out. Equitable: or just. It may not seem fair by modern standards, but since the consensus of the church that Yeshua had done away with that “outmoded” retribution of proportional justice (“an eye for an eye”) and replaced YHWH’s “harsh” Torah, “justice” has been a moving target, based on evolving sentiments and changing definitions of morality, which usually become more and more slack. But the reason it is just is because “measure for measure” is the fundamental definition of the legal standard. If He did not act to bring retribution on the wicked, He would not be just, and this newest part of the “New Testament” upholds this standard as still unchanged.
8. Then the fourth poured out his bowl onto the sun, and [permission] was granted to it to scorch the human beings with [its] fire.
9. So the human beings were burned with extreme heat, and they vilified the Name of Elohim, the One having the control over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him honor.
The sun, no longer in the perfect balance that keeps us from being deep-frozen or in an oven-like environment, has become an adversary rather than a friend. Is this the culmination of “global warming”, or a unique event in which the changes to the waters affected the atmosphere adversely? Control: or authority. They recognize that He is ultimately causing these calamities, but, like Pharaoh, rather than submitting to His authority and humbly pleading for His mercy, they keep fighting until they are totally destroyed—exactly the stance haSatan has taken since before the creation of humankind. (Bradford)
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10. Then the fifth poured out his bowl upon the throne of the Beast, and its kingdom became obscured [by darkness], and they were gnawing their tongues due to the anguish,
Is this a failure of the “Internet of Things”, which, having become dependent upon, men would feel helpless to live without, having invested in it all of their ability to buy or sell (ch. 13).
11. and they vilified the Elohim of Heaven on account of their distress and on account of their [festering] sores, and they would not repent of their actions.
Actions: having chosen to worship a system that they can now see was subject to such failure, as well as their murders of the righteous. (v. 6)
12. And the sixth poured out his bowl on the great river—the Ferath—and its water was dried up so that the way might be prepared for the kings who were [coming] from the rising of the sun.
Ferath: the original Hebrew name for the Greek Euphrates or “Good Ferath”. Rising of the Sun: that is, the Orient—not just Japan (though it bears this nickname) but especially China, the only nation able to field an army of 200 million (9:16), unless India might also be so militarized by that time. They would more or less follow the ancient Silk Road.
13. And I saw three unclean spirits [proceeding] out of the mouth of the Dragon, out of the mouth of the Beast, and out of the mouth of the Counterfeit Prophet,
14. because they are the spirits of miracle-working demons that are dispatched to the kings of the civilized world to gather them together into the battle of the Great Day of the Elohim Who rules everything.
Civilized: the broader “household” used in ancient times to denote a particular empire as opposed to the barbarian world beyond its borders, so here this would mean all the nations that participated in the beast’s system, in contrast with any that might remain “off the grid”.
15. “Watch! I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake [and alert] and keeps his garments [on] so that he might not walk around naked and [people] see his unseemly parts.”
This parenthetical message from Yeshua (a flashback to 3:17-18) appears to be an allusion to a story in the Talmud that night watchmen in the Temple who fell asleep at their posts would have their clothing set on fire by the inspectors who came unannounced. This verse at least suggests that their clothing would be taken from them, since burning them would undoubtedly scar the wearers and render them ineligible to ever serve publicly in the Temple again.
16. And he gathered them into the place called in Hebrew Har Megiddo.
He: apparently still the sixth messenger (the only singular antecedent here, per v. 12). Har Megiddo: “Mountain of Megiddo”. The relatively small hill formed by the tel of this important city from ancient times, now only a ruin. But right in front of it is a huge, broad valley (the only easy passage from the Mediterranean all the way to the Yarden River) which could fit a huge number of armies. But the battle is not likely to take place here; it appears to be the staging point for a siege of Yerushalayim which is some fifty miles to the south. (Chuck Missler)
17. Then the seventh poured out his bowl on the air, and a loud voice came out of the sanctuary, from the throne, saying, “It has come into being!”
Air: in particular, the lower atmosphere, which we breathe. (Thayer) HaSatan is called “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience”. (Ephesians 2:2) Sanctuary: emptied of all beings except YHWH, who appeared in it as a cloud of incense-smoke. (15:8) So it can only be He whop is speaking here. (Bradford) It: apparently the long-awaited Kingdom of Elohim.
18. And there were flashes of lightning, noises, and peals of thunder. Then there was a huge earthquake such as there had never been since humanity came into existence upon the earth, of such great magnitude was that earthquake:
Flashes, etc.: symbols of YHWH’s presence (as at Mt. Sinai) but also His wrath. Magnitude: the term connotes reaching maximal proportions, exceeding the record heretofore of 9.5 on the Richter scale. It appears these events are the result of an astronomical phenomenon such as caused the great deluge of Noakh, possibly the passby of or even collision with a massive asteroid with sufficient gravitational force to cause crustal tides on earth, which would also cause loud noises in the atmosphere. It may also disrupt the magnetic fields, precipitating their failure to screen out ultraviolet radiation as they usually do. (vv. 8-9)
19. it even split the great city into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed, and Bavel the Great was brought to remembrance before Elohim, to give her the cup of the wine of the fury of His [swelling] wrath.
Great city: what Yerushalayim was called in 11:8. “Great” is not necessarily a positive term because of what it was called there. (See also 17:18.) This is an allusion to Ezekiel 21:23 through 23:34. Or is it Bavel (also called great here)? It is the capital of an evil, worldwide system comprised of the great cities of the Gentile nations. (18:10) Its judgment has been an ongoing theme throughout Revelation. Or Rome--a re-born Roman Empire, since the only city in Yochanan’s day that would have been called great was Rome? All 3 were thriving in Yochanan’s day. It seems the description is more about its character than its location. It may not yet have existed in Yochanan’s day, wherever its center is; it may already exist today, though. (Bradford) Swelling: This is not a sudden thing, but a zealous passion that has been building for a very long time.
20. And every island disappeared and mountains could no [longer] be found.
This earthquake must have caused multiple tidal waves that overwhelmed whole islands and shock waves that caused mountains to crumble. 90% of earthquakes on earth come from the Pacific rim, sometimes making islands disappear (like Krakatoa in 1883) and causing other new ones to appear.
21. And big hail, weighing about 75 pounds came down out of the sky upon the human beings, and the people vilified Elohim on account of the plague of hail, since its calamitous effect was so extremely severe.
Calamitous effect: literally, such a beating. Every plague from Egypt except the death of the firstborn have been repeated. The firstborn could be redeemed, but these people are no longer only unredeemed, but have come to the point of being unredeemable. (Bradford) With this last of the 21 plagues (broken into three sets of 7) poured out so dramatically on rebellious, unrepentant mankind (now finally, permanently, and irreversibly separated into two groups), YHWH’s wrath has at last been poured out to its fullest. (See 15:1) The pattern is reminiscent of the last day of the final Feast of the year, Sukkoth. Each day during the feast which celebrates the ingathering of the whole harvest, 3 blasts were blown on the shofar when the high priests re-entered the Temple after drawing water from the Pool of Shiloakh, accompanied by the singing of Yeshayahu/Isaiah 12:3,but on the last day, Hoshana Rabbah, 3 sets of 7 blasts are blown, and Psalm 118:25, begging YHWH for the rain that is so vital for the next growing season. Sukkoth symbolizes the ushering in of the Messiah’s kingdom, and that is what is about to occur, after a few more major “housekeeping” issues are cared for (or details of this justice enumerated)…
CHAPTER 17
1. And one of the seven angels that had the seven shallow saucers came and spoke with me, telling me, “[Come] here; I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute—the one that sits on the many waters,
These visions are not necessarily in chronological order. Some are brief “snapshots”, with more detail coming later. (The destruction of Bavel the great began in chapter 14.) This is an extension of the bowl judgments, with another figurative title showing one of her distinct attributes. It is not a person as such, but an entire kingdom--haSatan’s—which at this time is being ruled by the counterfeit Messiah. Great prostitute: Possibly an allusion to Nahhum 3:4. Bavel (Babylon) took Ashur’s crown when she conquered her. It was passed on via Persia and Greece to Rome, which is being referred to there, partly in the form of the Roman Church. Many waters: many nations under her spell and probably her sovereignty.
2. with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth became drunk from the wine of her illicit sexual encounters.
Those called harlots figuratively in earlier parts of Scripture have to do with idolatry—worshipping non-gods, often theoretical ideas like science and intellectualism, or just the riches ad wealth of the world and its many forbidden pleasures. She has lured the nations away from worshipping the Elohim of Avraham, Yitzhaq, and Yaaqov—and into anything He is against. Consorting with her contaminates her partner as with ritual impurity. This chapter is a series of actions and descriptions that are also metaphors with the intention of mocking and mimicking YHWH, like a mirror which reverses the image. Fornication: Greek, porneia, from which we get “pornography”. All of YHWH’s laws concerning sexual morality have been turned on their head, and illicit unions have become celebrated and considered good. But here is also applies to joining ourselves to anything YHWH considers immoral, and this to Him constitutes a defection from His kingdom and into haSatan’s. Bavel represents the antithesis of everything promised to Israel and Yerushalayim, whom YHWH still has mercy even though she acts as a harlot at times, as in Hoshea. He takes her back, and much of this take place in the end times. (Y’hezq’el 37:21-28) This certainly is not how He treats this Bavel, the evil world system. (18:21; 19:1-3, etc.) Inhabitants: or citizens (who consider earth their only home). Of the earth: as opposed to those whose eyes are set on heavenly things. (Bradford)
3. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored beast, full of slanderous names and having seven heads and ten horns.
Wilderness: where prophets are often taken (sometimes only in spirit, as here)—a desolate place indeed, but also where dependence on YHWH is at its highest, and when preparation for a divinely-assigned task occurs (as with Moshe, Yochanan the Immerser, Israel as whole, and Yeshua) to prepare. As a human, he could not enter heaven and the Temple was destroyed, so he is taken to a place where YHWH would often meet with His prophets. It is a vision, so the terms are figurative. In this ecstatic state, he sees this vision of haSatan’s mockery of Elohim. Names: Hebraically, this speaks of her character and attributes. Slanderous: or blasphemous, which Hebraically indicates cursing, condemning, denouncing or even renouncing YHWH—to wish something evil to befall Him or make light of His immense authority and holiness, as in committing idolatry (giving the honor due only to Him to someone or something else). This beast demands the worship that YHWH alone deserves. Taking its mark is visible proof of allegiance to haSatan instead of YHWH. This woman mimics a different woman (ideal Israel) from chapter 12 who has the most legitimate child ever born and to whom haSatan permanently lost his battle. This dragon who wants to thwart YHWH’s plans for redemption, is no longer operating in the spiritual sphere, from which he has been kicked out. He confronted YHWH’s “woman”; now his woman is being confronted by YHWH, as she allies herself with the Beast to turn as many people as possible against YHWH and His people as a prelude to an all-out war on earth to determine who will ultimately have eternal dominion over earth. This will be haSatan’s last stand, this time truly “a war to end all wars”. Intimacy between a woman and a beast is punishable by death for both in Lev. 20:16.
4. And the woman was wrapped in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of detestable things and the impurity of her fornications.
Purple: the color of royalty; scarlet: emblematic of what was worn by harlots, having unmistakable meaning in that cultural context, and this would be sha’atnez (an illicit mixture, here blatantly rebellious, for while she may consider herself royal, she is equally an unclean prostitute). Adorned: or glittering. With the entire theme of mimicking and mocking Elohim, this is a perverse counterfeit of the breastplate that the high priest wore, showing the extent of the decadence to which haSatan would go. The cup is mocking the vessels YHWH has been pouring out on the earth. Ritual impurity: in the Torah, the natural result of partaking in the worst sins in YHWH’s eyes. The two go hand in hand. (Bradford) Full: swelling out, being so overloaded, almost suggesting a full-term pregnancy. She is about to give birth to the counterfeit Kingdom, but will actually end up “giving birth only to wind”. (Yeshayahu 26:18).
5. And on her forehead was inscribed a mystery: “BAVEL THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND THE DETESTABLE THINGS OF THE EARTH.”
Mystery: “a name with a hidden meaning”. (Complete Jewish Bible) Bavel is connected with fornication in 14:8 also. YHWH’s prophets told Yehudah that she would be taken away “beyond Bavel” because of her idolatry. (Acts 7:43) This may be why she is linked with Bavel on the figurative level. Forehead: where others wore the mark of the beast’s name, but the high priest wore a band on his head bearing YHWH’s name, so again this is a blasphemous, mocking counterfeit. (Bradford) Detestable things: or, obscenities. While the beast is Rome, the woman is called “mother”, which suggests that this may be referring to Yerushalayim, which is called the “mother” of all Israel (Gal. 4:26), though that is the heavenly Yerushalayim, not the earthly, which this would have to be. Who else is meant to be a faithful wife and who would disappoint YHWH more by becoming a prostitute? Thus, though every city acts as Babylon to some extent and some have had its special headquarters move there, but there is only one mother.
6. And I saw the woman becoming intoxicated from the blood of the holy ones and from the blood of Yeshua’s witnesses, and when I had seen her, I was astounded with tremendous amazement.
And: or, “that is, from the blood…” Witnesses: literally, martyrs. Since she is symbolic of the wicked world system that opposes YHWH, we can surmise that this system will demand absolute conformity and will not tolerate those who refuse to join them and choose to follow the true Elohim. It may even use the Muslims’ hatred of Jews and Christians to its advantage. (Bradford) Astounded: Not puzzled, but impressed, for the term is usually used in a positive sense such as the bedazzlement visitors to Yerushalayim were in Josephus’ time. Would it be like this again—he being giddy with the extent to which Israel of the last days had prevailed to such an extent? He could not believe what he was seeing. If we let Scripture interpret Scripture (2 Kefa 1:20-21), Yeshua had accused Yerushalayim of killing the prophetic messengers YHWH had sent to her in hopes of getting her to repent. (Mat. 23:29-38, which echoes 2 Esdras or 4th Ezra 1:25-33)
7. And the messenger said to me, “Why are you so amazed? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and the beast that is carrying her, which has the seven heads and ten horns.
His amazement is obvious, but the angel wants to bring him back to reality by giving him information that will keep him from being enchanted with a childlike awe at this magnificent sight. If even Yochanan was so amazed, how much more those who will be thoroughly taken in by this apparently-wonderful, charismatic leader and not dare to challenge his decisions? (Bradford) Alexander Lawrence identifies the seven kingdoms (which the horns were already identified to be) as historical: 1. The Sumero-Akkadian empire 2. The Egyptian empire 3. The Assyrian empire 4. The Phoenician empire 5. The Greek empire 6. The Roman empire 7. The Nazi Reich. Bradford takes the seventh to be the Ottoman, which absorbed the territory of the Byzantine, the half of Rome’s which continued after Rome fell, and Muslims believe they have the right to reclaim any land they ever held. They certainly aim for a one-world theocratic government. Adam Fink sees the “Holy” Roman Empire, the successor to and continuation of the Roman, as also having ten horns—comprising ten kingdoms: the Alemani (later Germans), Franks (French), Burgundians (Switzerland), Suevi (Portugal), Vandals, Visigoths (Spain), Anglo-Saxons, Ostrogoths, Lombards (Italy), and Heruli. The 11th horn, the Papacy, destroyed the Heruli, Vandals, and Ostrogoths, and lasted 1,260 years (from 538-1798 C.E.) until Nap;oleon took away its political power. That “mortal wound” was “healed”, tough, when the 1929 Lateran Treaty made the Vatican again a political state. This “different” beast speaks blasphemous things against the Most High (Daniel 7), calling itself the “vicar of Messiah”. Pius V said “the pope and God are the same” and Leo V called for “complete submission to and obedience of will to…the Roman Pontiff as to God Himself.” Needless to say, this one also “changed the times and the seasons”, not only substituting the Gregorian calendar for the Julian in 1582 (not to mention changing from YHWH’s festival calendar) but also “proved” their authority over the Bible by changing the Sabbath to Sunday, which they knew had no Biblical warrant. Of course, that beast remains today and has designs on Yerushalayim as the site of its own headquarters instead of Rome.
8. “The beast that you saw existed, does not exist [now], and is about to come up out of the Abyss [but] then into destruction. Those who dwell on the earth, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the founding of the world system will be full of [wonder and] admiration when they see the beast which existed and does not exist, yet is near at hand.
The beast she is consorting with is of Satanic origin, and soon enough they will both be snuffed out by YHWH. Does not exist now: Yerushalayim had already been destroyed by the time Yochanan saw this vision. But here is also a blasphemy of YHWH and His anointed, who are both called “who was, who is, and who is to come”. The true Messiah will descend from heaven to assume his throne, but this beast ascends from below the earth.
9. “Here is the way the one having wisdom can figure it out: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.
Wisdom: by definition, it is from YHWH, as contrasted with knowledge, which anyone can gain. Figure it out: apply reason. This beast will not appear monstrous, but appealing. Seven mountains: often considered to be the “seven hills” on which Rome famously sat, one of them being the Vatican. For this reason many identify the prostitute as the Roman Catholic Church. Certainly she has participated in this “world system” to a far greater degree than is obvious on the surface. But mountains have often been used in Hebrew prophecies to symbolize governments, so were these seven Roman kings? At other times mountains symbolize strength. In Daniel 7, which corresponds with so much of Yochanan’s vision, the ten horns are all on a fourth beast that has only one head, though Daniel’s four beasts do have a total of seven heads, and we must also assume the connection with this harlot. They correspond to the four kings in the status of Nevukhadnetzar’s dream. Some commentators say that since the other kingdoms lasted for centuries, this last one—the toes of iron and clay—may also do so. But the Bible focuses on the Middle East, with Yerushalayim at the center. Alexander Lawrence also writes, of the seven now-historical kingdoms that carried on the same agenda, “The reason that hills are used as symbols of Babylonian governments is that the leaders of each of the seven empires underwent occult rituals that supposedly imbued them with divinity, and the loci of their divine power were the sacred hills. The power of the priesthood to carry out divinizing rituals came from their worship of the prince of this world, Satan; their method of communing with Leviathan and his Kosmokraters involved mimicking YHVH’s Zion and his Holy Temple. Each one of the seven kingdoms constructed pagan shrines atop mountains, beginning with Nimrod’s ziggurat for Enki. That ziggurat was an artificial hill, but the shrines of other empires were sometimes built on natural mounds.” (Leviathan’s Ruse)
10. There are also seven kings: five have fallen, the one [now] exists, the other has not yet come, and when he does come, he has to remain for a very short [time].
Alexander Lawrence (see note on v. 7) suggests particular kings representing the seven kingdoms mentioned above to be 1. Nimrod 2. Pharaoh of the Exodus. “Every pharaoh was an embodiment of Osiris/Horus, but only one of them was insane enough to fight YHVH and try to exterminate the Israelites as they fled Egypt.” 3. Sennacherib: “Like all the kings of Assyria, he was believed to be indwelt by Asshur. Sennacherib sought to sack Jerusalem, but the angel of YHVH supernaturally defeated his army in the very valley where the Last Battle will take place.” 4. The unnamed king of Tyre in Ezekiel 28, who, according to the prophet, considered himself to be a god. “Historians attest that Tyre’s kings (at least from Hiram, onward) were believed to be incarnations of the god Melqart, who was an aspect of Nimrod.” 5. Antiochus Epiphanes, whose epithet means “manifestation of a divine being.” He tried to Hellenize the Jews and “even desolated the Holy Temple in Jerusalem by sacrificing a pig on the altar and erecting a statue of either Zeus or Ba’al. Coins minted during his reign depict Antiochus as a laureated Zeus.” 6. Caesar Nero. “The caesars were worshiped as gods, and Nero may have been the caesar living at the time that Yochanan wrote Revelation. Nero was one of the most savage persecutors of Christians and became a popular candidate for Antichrist among early Christians. However, some researchers propose Domitian, a later caesar who wished to be recognized as Apollo incarnate.” 7. Adolf Hitler, the “king who was to come” but only for a short time. “Hitler and his followers were heavily involved in occult activity, and they constructed at the rally grounds in Nuremberg a replica of the altar of Zeus”, which altar Yeshua called “the throne of Satan” (Rev. 2:13). All of these affected Israel very directly.
11. And the beast which was and is not is himself also an eighth, but comes from [among] the seven, and goes down into [utter] destruction.
Out of the seven: or, out of the seventh. (Bradford) The eighth comes from the head that suffered a deadly wound and overcame it. (ch. 13) The other heads represent other parts of this single entity—a unified “kingdom”—each of which absorbed the one that went before it after it changed hands, with some territory added. Alexander Lawrence writes, “The system which the woman represents will span the territories of all seven of the former empires—or franchises, if you will—of Babel. If it were not for the work that these empires accomplished in perpetuating Nimrod’s secular order, there would be no end-times beast system, and the woman would have no place to sit.” Goes down: or, leads under or goes away. This refers to it being the manifestation of this series which is extant when the stone cut out without hands comes to knock down the multifaceted idol and becomes a mountain filling the whole earth. (Daniel 2:31-35) The timing is right according to v. 14 to be their last stand, their final, all-out attempt to avoid the inevitable.
12. And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but [will] receive authority as kings for one hour along with the beast.
Receive: i.e., they are not born as kings in a dynasty, but are given power they did not have previously, much like most of today’s politicians.
13. These with one consent will offer over their own power and authority to the beast.
With one consent: or single intention, opinion, mind, way of knowing. They have a single-minded purpose, possibly without knowing the beast’s ultimate intent. This suggests the possibility that the mark of the beast includes some mind-altering component when injected into one’s body, making them all think the same way. But it may be a like the European Union, which began as an economic pact to do away with troublesome tariffs and exchange rates between countries in close quarters which needed a freer flow of trade across borders. This time it may be a worldwide system like that, which has been the goal of many for centuries.
14. These will wage war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will prevail over them, because he is Master of masters and King of kings, along with those with him [who] are called and chosen and faithful.”
Their shared intent is to oppose those who have refused to accept the mark of the beast. They are not fighting an army of ghostlike souls, but are humans against humans for a political reason, whether or not they understand the spiritual power behind the conflict. They come from among both Jews and Gentiles and will conquer evil and sin, replaying on earth the battle against haSatan before he was ousted from heaven. (Chapter 12) Chosen: hand-picked, selected as favorites from among others. Their faithfulness gives them the netzakh (Heb. for endurance, persistence, righteous ambition, fortitude, tenacity, and commitment) to press on and keep going all the way through to victory.
15. And he tells me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute sits [enthroned], are peoples and multitudes and ethnic groups and tongues.
Sits: riding on the sea-born beast which rules over all humanity.
16. “And the ten horns that you saw, along with the beast—these will [come to] detest the prostitute and will make her desolate and [strip her] naked, and they will devour her flesh and consume her completely in fire,
Modern Israel was funded largely by leagues of nations sanctified by the Vatican—possibly the “dukes of Edom” (from which Rome partly came) which were to take over Yehudah (1 Chron. 1:51; Y’hezq’El 36), which even in ancient times was already influenced by Bavel (Susana 1:5). If Tom Bradford is right and the 8th king that arises out of the 7th is Islamic, we must remember that many see Muhammad’s wife as a plant from the Roman Church to create a second force to oppose Israel. Both battled for control of the Holy Land during the crusades, and all want Yerushalayim as their headquarters, so it is easy to see how a political ruler could seduce them all—Christians, Jews, and Muslims”—with a “peace plan” by which Yerushalaym would be neutral territory to which they all have access and the Temple be a counterfeit of the true “house of prayer for all nations” (Yeshayahu 56:7) which it precedes. Of course, all will have to compromise some of their core beliefs to make this work; hence the use of the term “prostitute”. So whether the “mystery Bavel” is the Yerushalayim below (co-opted by this new hybrid religion which waters down all it wishes to unite), the Roman Church (including those Protestants who continue to follow its calendar and laws instead of Scriptural ones), or a new combination of the two that tries to be a “friend of the world” for some temporal advantage and survival, the final outcome shows that it simply does not work, and any friendship the world system seems to extend to it will only be for the purpose of seducing her and using her until it has lost interest and throws her away as so many human “Casanovas” have done. As the European Union gradually took over more aspects of political power and increasingly interfered with each nation’s courts to the point of some nations wanting out, those who ally with the beast may naively think that by installing their man, whom they intend to control, they will have a stooge to accomplish their agendas, but the tables will quickly turn. (Bradford) She will not escape the inevitable accounting she must give to the One to whom she really belongs:
17. “because Elohim has put it into their hearts to accomplish His purpose and to carry out one resolve and to give up their authority to the beast until the words of Elohim are completely fulfilled.
Are completely fulfilled: or, have fully accomplished their intent. If this Bavel were the system that brings them wealth and power, why would they turn on her and bring her to ruin? Why would they hate the “goose that lays the golden eggs”? But if the beast is not part of that system—coming from a derivative of the seventh empire, the Ottoman, thus Islamic or at least favoring Islam, it fits with fundamentalist Islam’s constant desire to bring down the secular western “great satan”, which includes the “infidel” church and the Zionists—both corrupted religions in their view. Their kings have used the system but may at this point no longer need her to achieve their ends. YHWH does not judge her directly, but leaves it to the fickle evil inclinations of other humans. (Bradford) Elohim motivated one group of wicked people to destroy another, after which He will personally judge the survivors and allow the remnant of His chosen people (v. 14) to participate in ruling them with a rod of iron. (Compare 2:27 with the same thing said of the Messiah in Psalm 2:9 and Rev. 12:5 and 19:15.)
18. “And the woman whom you saw is the great city—the one that has dominion over the kings of the earth.”
In Hebraic thought, the only city that is truly great is Yerushalayim (Yirmeyahu 22:8), and this is corroborated above in 11:8 and below in 18:9-10. Yet in 16:19 it is also described as Bavel. Yet there is a “profane, wicked prince of Israel” who is influenced by Bavel. (Y’hezq’El 21:23-25) The system, as its last conquest, has apparently made its final headquarters here, turning her away from her intended purpose as YHWH’s set-apart place and co-opting it for their own purposes. But she has had to consent—for that is the definition of prostitution of any kind, of one’s dedication to one’s true master, which she “throws under the bus” to be free to do what she pleases—but now the same thing is done to her in return, with poetic justice. She is the “city of the great King” (Psalm 48:2; Mat. 5:35), but has given herself over to another king who appears to be in charge—but that is only a temporary situation, for He will have His bride back. He will set His king in Tzion (Psalm 2:6) and will ultimately bring a new Yerushalayim (21:2), but first He must humble her and purge her of evil.
CHAPTER 18
1. After these things I saw another messenger coming down out of the sky, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor.
2. And he cried out [urgently] with a powerful voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen, is Bavel the Great, which has also become the abode of demons and the place where every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every unclean and detestable beast have been guarded!
This is probably not a chronological stream of events, but a revisiting in greater detail of what was first mentioned in chapter 14. (Bradford) Guarded: or possibly imprisoned, held together for destruction in one fell swoop, but possibly also simply the place where they had been given freedom to live and kept safe, supposedly, from even YHWH’s wrath.
3. “For all nations have drunk of the wine of her marital unfaithfulness, and the kings of the earth have fornicated with her, and the merchants of the earth have been enriched with the forcefulness of her sensuality.”
Sensuality: properly, any strong desire to break free, self-indulgent wantonness, including the aspects of insolence and luxury. She is being punished less for her own wickedness as for seducing others and dragging them into her sin, making them also unsuitable for YHWH’s Kingdom, because her defilement is transmitted to them as well. If we fall for a “prosperity gospel” to feed our materialism, we have also become her clients. (Bradford)
4. And I hear another voice coming out of the sky, saying, “Come out of her, My people, so that you may not be an accomplice in her wrongdoings and so that you may not receive of her plagues!
Plagues: or calamities, i.e., punishment. This shows that it is a place where many of YHWH’s people still remain, probably trying to turn the city back to its true purpose, but it has reached a critical mass of abuse and therefore must be dealt with, and He wants His people to remain clear of the wrath He has to again bring upon it. Yochanan says the same thing about her as Yirmeyahu did in 51:45, warning us not to become collateral damage, but instead let Yerushalayim come to our minds (51:50), for remaining beholden to Bavel is tantamount to spiritual defection to the other side. Of course, this entity called Bavel already exists in spirit, and if we share her values, we show who we really are—not His people, no matter what we may say. (Mat. 7:21-23) If we assent to her cheapening of the sexuality that YHWH considered so sacred that He put strict boundaries on it, we are complicit with her. (Bradford)
5. “For her sins have been piled up [together], all the way to the heaven, and Elohim has remembered all of her criminal acts.
Remembered: called back to mind for the sake of dealing with them actively. The only remedy for the innocent blood that defiles the ground is the blood of the guilty. (Gen. 9:6) If we spare the murderers, they continue to endanger us as well. YHWH said He would gather all the dross into the midst of the “bloody city” because of all of her abominations. (Y’hezq’El 22:2, 19-22) Yeshua said that the blood of all the prophets and other martyrs would be required of this city and its inhabitants. (Mat. 23:34-38, but note his attitude, which echoes 4th Ezra 2:3-11.)
6. “Pay her back as her deeds deserve, and render back to her twofold according to her actions; in the cup she has mixed, mix to her double!
Double: An allusion to Yeshayahu 1:7-10 in regard to Yerushalayim. Double, because Yehudah is made to drink not only her own cup but her sister’s also, because of her whoredoms (Y’hezq’El 23:30-34; read 23:11ff for the background of how she outdid her sister in imitating her going after foreign ways and forsaking the One to whom she belonged), let alone calling the Messiah’s blood on themselves and their children (Mat. 27:25) and what they have said about his damnation in places like the Talmud’s Gittin 57a. The descendants of what he called “a brood of vipers” still by and large reject him. She has allowed her traditions to supersede Torah (Mark 7:9). But after she has received double from His hand, YHWH will bring her comfort. (Yeshayahu 40:1-2) The “desolate Land” will become again like the Garden of Eden. (Y’hezq’El 36:34-36)
7. “As much as she has honored herself and reveled in luxury, give her just as much torment and misery, because she says in her heart, ‘I sit [enthroned] as a queen; I will never be a widow and I will certainly not see mourning!’
Never a widow: because a widow must have been married to be so bereaved, but she is only involved with lovers. But Adam Fink points out that 2 Esdras 2:1-4 gives the exact opposite picture: “I gave them commandments through My servants the prophets, but they would not listen, and made my counsels void. The mother who bore them says to them: ‘Go, my children, because I am a widow and forsaken…With mourning and sorrow I have lost you, because you have sinned before YHWH…What can I do for you?’”
8. “Because of this, her plagues will arrive in one day: death and misery and famine, and she will be entirely consumed by fire, because Elohim, the One who has judged her, is powerful!
Z’kharyah 5 shows a vision of a woman in a basket being transported to Shin’ar (where Bavel was located and from which Nimrod ruled) and a shrine built to her and the eyfah basket there. This is a picture of how Babylon will be created as a monument to the world's economic system, and the Whore of Babylon will sit atop that commerce and economic system, and so there will be a specific place where the capital of this system exists (whether [or not] that place exists today). In this prophecy of Zechariah, this place is represented by the Land of Shinar…So Shinar is emblematic of a place that is the center of idolatry, wickedness and a human system of commerce, government and religion that opposes God. Babylon the Great of the future is a system composed of several pieces and that is how we must understand it.” (Tom Bradford)
9. “The kings of the earth will wail and beat their breasts in lament for her, along with those who have indulged in fornication with her and lived luxuriously, when they see the smoke of her burning,
Compare Y’hezq’El 27:33. “Notice how John's visions indicate the absolute universal sway of Babylon upon humanity. Every nation in one way or another has succumbed to her seduction. Every human institution has been adversely affected by Babylon; from government, to the economy, to education, to religion…Godless religion also knows how to continuously remold itself so as to not antagonize the world system and so as to appear to agree with whatever direction societal morality has taken by declaring it godly. So Believers, as difficult as it is in our time to try to balance our faith and trust in God with maintaining relationships with family, friends and community, it is only going to get more challenging as time marches on. [Messiah] warned us long ago that taking up our cross and following him would often mean hardship in our relationships, as opposed to the healing of them. And yet for the disciple who could not bring him or herself to make that difficult choice to follow him if it means damaging or even losing the relationship of those dearest to us, then [Messiah] has little use for us. (Luke 14:25-27) …In ancient times to love and to hate often carried a different sense to it; a somewhat political sense. It was not about affection, but rather it was about loyalty. To love your King was to be loyal to him; to hate him was to commit treason. This is the sense that Yeshua means it in this verse… For a Believer loyalty to Yeshua must trump all…the leaders of nations will wail and mourn when [YHWH] judges Babylon because all that they valued is destroyed along with her. These are the people who have the most to lose in the collapse of the world's economy. But, of course, no one will be able to escape its effects because the demise of the world's economy means the demise of countless companies and thus the loss of millions of jobs. So we must not sit back and think that should we be alive during this time that we might only be mildly affected because what comes with economic depression? Chaos in government and society. A dog eat dog mentality develops. Who to blame is upon everyone's mind. People will be looking for a savior to make things right again; a person with all the answers. Someone who can alleviate their immediate suffering and give them hope for a brighter future. That makes the masses moldable and suggestible and thus easy prey for a smooth-talking tyrant... Even the formerly wealthy will not have the means to buy the things that they used to take for granted. But that these merchants have no market for staples such as flour and grain (see the list of 27 commodities below) makes it clear that even those on the middle and the lower rungs of society will find themselves in a state of poverty that they had never known. Governments won't be able to fulfill their promises of a social safety net because the demand will be too great…Think about what is being implied here. First: how is Babylon being destroyed? It is not a direct supernatural judgment of God (like fire raining from the sky upon Sodom). Rather it is the result of the 10 kings represented by the 10 horns who turn against Babylon and destroy her. And since Babylon is depicted as being burned by fire and laying in smoldering ruins, then of course this result has come from war. It must be a coordinated surprise attack akin to Pearl Harbor, because it happens almost overnight and Babylon seems to be in complete ignorance of what is about to occur. So these particular kings are not mourning; rather they are jubilant. They achieved their goal. It is the remainder of the worlds' leaders, wealthy, and merchants who are wailing in deep sorrow.” (Tom Bradford)
10. “standing at a distance because they are afraid of her torment, saying, ‘Alas! Alas [for] the great city, Bavel—the powerful city! Because in one hour your judgment has come!’
Alas: in colloquial terms, “Oh, no!” Judgment: and by implication, justice. (Thayer)
11. “And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their wares any longer--
12. “cargo of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and of fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet and all kinds of aromatic wood and all types of ivory implements, and all kinds of equipment of expensive wood and bronze and iron and marble,
13. “and cinnamon and fragrant spice and incense and anointing ointment and frankincense and wine and oil and the finest wheat flour and barley and cattle and sheep and horses and chariots and the bodies and souls of men.
Adam Fink notes that this list of merchandise matches the inventory from Shlomo’s Temple if we put together 1 Chronicles 9:29; 28:18; 29:2; 2 Chronicles 1:16-17; 2:14-18; 5:6; 8:6—all but the silk and pearls. (The pearls are associated with Yerushalayim as well, but in the opposite context, per 21:10 below) Apparently all of these things will be needed again in huge quantities for the Third Temple, which shortly after its debut will be co-opted by the Bavel system and dedicated to the worship of the beast, who claims he is “god”. (Luke 21:20-22) Bodies: i.e., slaves. Souls of men: having turned the hearts of otherwise-pious people to the wrong kind of worship through psychological persuasion but also possibly through making men hybrids with cyborgs through mixing real and artificial intelligence, thus making them something other than the species YHWH created. This echoes the account of Tzor (Tyre) in Y’hezq’El 27 and 28, most notably 27:13. “Other prophets were also given similar information; information that must have been greatly puzzling to them. But when we see their obvious connection to the Book of Revelation, and we realize that in modern times money and commerce trumps everything in the Western world, then we can begin to get an inkling of what predictably lies around the corner in human history, since human nature remains constant…In Ezekiel 27 we read of the end of selling human slaves along with other goods that are no longer in demand. So in the End Times it is hard to know if this is speaking of human trafficking or something not quite as sinister such as merely supplying employment.” (Tom Bradford)
14. “And your ripe fruit and the desire of the soul have departed from you, and all the sumptuous and splendid things are gone from you, and they will no longer be found at all.
Desire of the soul: both delicacies such as listed here but also rich spiritual atmosphere that had made Yerushalayim a desirable place to everyone, even King David (Psalm 48:1-2) and YHWH Himself. (Psalm 132:13) “All the luxury and flashiness have been destroyed, never to return". There will be no return to prosperity for the world. The rich who have lost everything will not recover. The world will be a fundamentally different place from here forward.” (Bradford)
15. “The traders in these things, who have become rich from her, will remain at a distance (because of the fear of her torment), weeping and mourning,
This is patterned after Y’hezq’El 27:26-30. Verse 35 of that chapter tells how those who see it would be aghast at the sudden demise of all they put their faith in:
16. “saying, ‘Alas! Alas! The great city that had been wrapped in fine linen and scarlet and ornamented with gold and precious stone and pearl!
17. “‘For in one hour such vast wealth has been brought to ruin!’ And every ship’s captain and all those sailing to [the] place and boatmen and as many as trade by sea stood at a distance
Ship’s captain: interestingly, the Greek term is cybernetes! So there may be a double meaning for the last days, having to do with the artificial intelligence involved in the Beast’s empire, and in fact, it could be that this destruction is completely one related to the Internet being brought down.
18. “and were shrieking as they saw the smoke of her burning, ‘What is comparable to the great City?’
19. “And they put loose dirt on their heads and were shrieking, crying, and lamenting, saying, ‘Alas! Alas [for] the great city, by which all who had ships in the sea were made wealthy through her magnificent riches! Because in one hour she has been ruined!’
“In the world as we know it today, might there be nations that would be thrilled to join in the collapse of the world's economic system and the destruction of the financial capital of the Western world? We must remember that the 911 attack on New York City was precisely for this purpose in the minds of the terrorists who perpetrated it. And we read here …that the big importer/exporters as well as the retail shopkeepers refuse to get anywhere near Babylon, or stand up for her in any way, even though they greatly lament her fall because her economic fate is tied to theirs. Why is that? No doubt they are restrained by fear. As I look to all the present forces in the world to see how it might work if this happened today, Islam and Islamic nations fit this scenario to a Tee. They not only hate the world economic system because they see it as Western Judeo-Christian based, they hate anyone and everyone that is in any way associated with it. Islam has demonstrated time and again that even a minor association with a nation or organization that in some way represents the Western world system is enough to warrant attack.” (Bradford)
20. “Be triumphantly glad over her, O heaven, and you holy ones and envoys and prophets, because Elohim has vindicated you in bringing judgment against her!”
“Suddenly…everything changes because the location changes from earth to Heaven. As the people of Earth moan and weep, the residents of Heaven rejoice. From God's perspective what He has promised has finally come about: redemption and validation for those who love Him, and justice and vengeance upon those who oppose Him…So part of Babylon's evil world system includes the persecution of God's people... Since Babylon's evil world system incorporates a massive religious institution, and since Babylon's evil world system is based around Western world values (that are constantly deteriorating), then we can only conclude that this religious institution will pawn itself off as Judeo-Christian. So since this is the case how can it be that God's chosen will be persecuted? We find a strong clue to this conundrum in the Gospel accounts: “They will ban you from the synagogue; in fact, the time will come when anyone who kills you will think he is serving Elohim! They will do these things because they have understood neither the Father nor me. ” (Yochanan 16:2-3) In other words, it is the dominant religious institution of the End Times (no doubt claiming to be Judeo-Christian) that will be the persecutor of God's true chosen. But in fact this institution is built on deceit and will be nothing but part of the Babylon the Great system. It may well be the only authorized, acceptable Christian religious institution..... the result of the never ending (and naively mistaken) constant refrain within the modern church for ‘unity’. If a Believer disagrees with them, that person will be banned and no doubt formally or informally excommunicated. According to Messiah Yeshua this religious institution will even kill some of these non-conforming Believers and claim it is being done in the name of ‘God’... again, without doubt, because they are threatening the unity of the church…because their members will have been taught by the church leadership that to eradicate these radical Believers who don't march to the tune of the institutional church and follow their teachings will be pleasing to [YHWH]… This can only happen if the Bible, the Word of [YHWH], is more or less abandoned and replaced by manmade doctrines that formulate a new kind of Christian religious philosophy based on the experiential, the human intellect, and a rejection of anything as primitive as a 2000-year-old Holy Book. And, by the way, this is happening right now, in our time. Over and over in the New Testament we are reminded that Yeshua IS the Word of [YHWH]. So if one rejects [YHWH]'s Word, one automatically rejects him who is that Word…Get out of her. (vv. 4-5) Flee this fraudulent religious institution that intertwines itself with Babylon and revels in the evil world system while insisting they represent the Lord of Heaven and Earth. Such a thing existed in Messiah’s day, it exists now, and apparently will become immensely influential in the final days of the End Times…It is an issue of accepting the reality of the ever-growing corruption of, and Babylonish influence…This is the one time that God more or less says "every man for himself". Do you want to go down with the sinking ship? Or do you want to avail yourself of the divinely-ordered life raft that God has provided? You can't do both... Back to the rejoicing that is going on in Heaven as the smoke of Babylon's ruin rises upward. We must understand that God is not reveling in the suffering and death that is happening in Babylon; rather it is that the long wait for justice has finally come and it goes hand in glove with the rescue of God's people and removing Satan from his throne as prince of the air. Those Believers who have stuck with God, who have clung to our Bibles and our faith in Messiah, will be vindicated. The Fake Believers who form the worldwide church of Babylon will be exposed for who they really are. Those who have falsely accused their brethren, driven them from the true church, and even killed them for not towing the mark, will have done to them what they did to the true Believers, a formula we find in Deuteronomy 19:18-19. ” (Tom Bradford)
21. Then one messenger picked up a powerful stone—[much] like a huge millstone—and hurled it into the sea, saying, “Bavel, the great city, will be violently [and hurriedly] thrown down just like this, and will never again be found!
Thrown down: with the sense of swinging it around or dropping it. Yet after this, YHWH will bring about a renewed Yerushalayim (3:12; 21:2); it is only the abusive one that will be gone forever. This echoes Yirmeyahu 51:64. Tom Bradord says, “As we continue through the Book of Revelation what is beginning to become clear is that Babylon the Great represents more than one thing or a single entity. This is critically important not only to intellectually understand what John's Apocalypse is telling us, but because what we're learning is as real as it gets, we need to be able to interpret events and geopolitical changes as they happen. It seems that Babylon the Great is a system, the same way a car is a system. That is, a car consists of several major pieces like an engine, a transmission, suspension, a body, etc. that are somewhat independent, and yet they must be integrated into a single organized system in order for a car to serve its function as transportation for people. Thus Babylon the Great represents both a secular commercial portion and a vast religious institutional portion. These pieces will interlock in some way, even if a single entity or person might not exactly control both pieces. And yet these pieces are so co-operative with each other that they can be thought of as operating as a single system called Babylon. Babylon the Great also represents an actual place.... a capital city if you would.... as well as a spirit of idolatrous worldliness. Thus Babylon the Great has the ability and intent to corrupt nations, people, the world economy, and religious faith. Is it any wonder that [YHWH] is judging her so harshly as to give her twice as much punishment for her sins as the proportional punishment system of the Law of Moses might call for?”
22. “Nor will the sound of singers with stringed instruments, musicians, flutists, or trumpeters ever be heard in you again! Nor will the artisan of any craft ever be found in you from now on, and the sound of a [grain] mill will no longer be heard in you!
Choirs of harpists used to stand and sing on the Temple steps. A flutist led the procession to draw water during Sukkoth, and silver trumpets announced the New Moon from the Temple complex, as noted on a stone found in the rubble of the Second Temple (see photo at left). Grain was a big part of many offerings brought there, and craftsmen made all its implements. But all of these things were compromised and defiled by their adulterous abuse in idolatry, and YHWH therefore has to start over.
23. “And the light a lamp will not shine in you at all any longer, and the voice of a bride and a bridegroom will never be heard in you again, because your merchants were the great lords of the earth, since by your enchantment all the races of the earth were led astray.
Lamp: probably an allusion to the great menorah or a multitude of them as were also in the Temple courtyards. Races of the earth: or, tribes of the Land. Enchantment: we derive our term “pharmaceuticals” from the same word.
24. “And in her was found the blood of prophets and holy ones and of all those who had been slaughtered on the earth.
Slaughtered: The primary meaning is to butcher an animal for food or sacrifice, and only secondarily was the term used for “slaying” people, so this probably speaks of the animals sacrificed unnecessarily in the renewed Temple since most of the offerings needed in ancient times were covered by Messiah’s offering of himself; peace and thanks offerings would still be valid and used to feast together, but that would be a much smaller number than were needed for sin-related issues. This excess may be why after this we are told, “They will not hurt or destroy on all of My holy mountain.” (Yeshayahu 11:9; 65:25) Blood of the prophets: Yeshua said exactly the same about Yerushalayim in particular (Matithyahu 23:29-38), clinching the identity of this “Bavel”. “Recovery is impossible. The happiness that was found in this remarkable city has come to an end along with all the trappings of music, beautiful crafts, the joys of making a home, marriage, or even the simple, warm glow of lighting a lamp to chase away the night. Rather, Babylon's fate is permanent joyless darkness. And lest any pity or compassion by Believers well up within them, it is made explicit that Babylon merits every calamity and misery she receives because she has inflicted her terror and homicidal brutality upon God's prophets and saints. Babylon (at least everything she represents) is to blame for every killing of every follower of [YHWH] that has ever existed on earth.” (Bradford)
CHAPTER 19
1. After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a huge crowd in the heavens, calling out, “Hallelu Yah! The deliverance and honor and power of our Elohim!
“This crowd must be the souls of redeemed believers as opposed to angels because in the Bible large gatherings of angels are called ‘heavenly hosts’ and not a ‘crowd’. Chapter 19 is a sort of doxology, a hymn of praise that ends a section of a worship service, that celebrates the final destruction of Babylon on account of all she has done and all she has stood for over the millennia. And what has she stood for? The corruption of [YHWH]'s perfect Creation. Since verse 20 of the previous chapter, the scene has shifted from earth back to Heaven. Thus everything we read about will be taking place NOT in the physical sphere, but rather in the spiritual sphere (and it is critical that we always keep these two spheres of existence separate even though there is a certain connection between them). No attempt to quantify this number is made nor is there an attempt to identify the crowd. That's because there's no need to wonder over it: these are the countless souls of the redeemed in Christ because only the redeemed (along with God's heavenly angels) can exist in Heaven. And, if we can take what we're reading literally, the first words of this Heavenly doxology are (appropriately enough) ‘Hallelu Yah!’--two Hebrew words that mean ‘Praise YHWH!’ …Augustine said that the feeling and saying of this word incorporates all the blessedness of Heaven. Sadly, on planet Earth we know so very much about cursing God, denying God, demeaning God, and slandering His blessed Name. But in Heaven only praise for the Creator and all His glory is known and expressed. So when we sincerely cry out “Hallelu Yah!”, we are bringing a little bit of Heaven to earth.” (Tom Bradford) W. Barclay commented,"Each of these three great attributes of God should awaken its own response in the heart of man… The salvation of God should awaken the gratitude of man. The glory of God should awaken the reverence of man. The power of God is always exercised in the love of God, and should, therefore, awaken the trust of man. Gratitude, reverence, trust... these are the constituent elements of real praise".
2. “Because His judgments are truthful and right, because He has judged the great prostitute who had corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and He has completely dispensed justice [in regard to] the blood of His servants [that flowed] out of her hand!”
Right: or righteous, equitable, correct, faultless, irreproachable, just. Dispensed justice: or vindicated, avenged. This is the moment so many—all who have experienced suffering and injustice because of doing the right thing--have been waiting for. We should not take the word "judgments" as used here in the same sense of the 21 judgments of wrath that the Lord has sent upon the earth and wicked humankind. Rather here it is meant in the sense of the ability to make a considered decision. It is a neutral term. So, for instance, God could make a considered decision (a judgment) that is positive and in your favor. As Believers we are judged … but God's promised judgment upon Believers is that we are innocent and worthy of mercy because of our trust in [Messiah]. However, when God made His considered decision about wicked Babylon, He determined that she proved herself to be guilty, her crimes allow for no redemption, and therefore Babylon is worthy only of complete and eternal annihilation. Because God's judgments for and against operate within His established justice system, given to mankind in the form of the Law of Moses, then when God stays within those same parameters His verdicts can be said to be just… not serendipitous or circumstantial; they are based on precedent and principles He established long ago. One basic principle of God's justice system is substitutionary atonement (that is, an innocent victim dies in place of the guilty person)… This means that it is just within God's ordained legal system for sinners who sincerely repent and trust in what God has provided for them (atonement through Yeshua) to be granted forgiveness for their sins… At the same time, another basic principle of God's ordained legal system calls for the death penalty for harlotry, adultery, and idolatry…with no atonement available for them… [Babylon’s] inherent attributes are harlotry, adultery, and idolatry. Therefore no atonement and no forgiveness is available for Babylon's sins, and this is also just because this consequence is clearly established within God's ordained legal system… There is specific biblical reasoning behind how and why God judges as He does; however, it gets obscured… because of the red herring accusation of legalism hurled towards those followers of God who understand that He HAS a legal system that is very well-defined in the Torah. We, as His created, are commanded to operate within that legal system, and (with a couple of caveats) God also operates within that same legal system when it comes to His judgments of human beings. Essentially, the great crowd in Heaven is acknowledging this reality and is praising the Father for acting upon it… The considered decision (the judgment) is that vengeance shall be taken against [the Great Whore] because in her corruption and wickedness she has not only seduced the majority of mankind to the dark side; she is responsible for the deaths of so many of those who she was not able to corrupt--those who retained their loyalty to God at any cost, a cost that resulted in millions of unjustified deaths. (Tom Bradford)
3. And a second time they said, “Hallelu Yah! Her smoke also mounts up into the ages of the ages!”
“Hallelu” means “rave about” in an un-self-conscious, unrestrained way that gives Him as much due as we are capable of giving. Here “the praise is because [Elohim] has achieved the goal of the ages, which is to rid His creation of the cause of its corruption; Babylon. …Just as a car is composed of many distinct and necessary pieces…, so is Babylon a system composed of several pieces… And while Babylon on the one hand must be taken as figurative, symbolizing all that represents an evil world system that opposes [YHWH] and oppresses His people, …it is also literal and real and tangible because every piece or element that together form Babylon will actually physically exist (if some or all of it doesn't already exist). That is, in the End Times Babylon there will be a secular governmental piece with human beings running it. There will be an actual city and capital with buildings and people. There will be an enormous religious institution that is wealthy, vibrant, and influential. And yet Babylon is the product of a spirit of evil and deception that has existed since time immemorial and has been spawned by Satan himself, so there is an invisible spiritual side to it as well that transcends all of history past, present and future… ‘Her smoke’ means her permanent ruination… The description in Revelation 18 of the destruction of Babylon is still future to us. So what we read in chapter 19 seems to be the reaction in Heaven WHEN what happens in chapter 18 finally occurs… ushering us into the final moments of human history as we have known it and into a new age… ‘the Millennial Age’… While at least the knowledgeable among Believers and many within Judaism are expecting such a thing and looking forward to it with joy and great anticipation, the remaining part of humanity is also expecting an imminent end to human history but view the prospect as something to be terrified over and for mankind to unite and battle against at all costs. Climate change… is seen as perhaps the catalyst for the end of the world, and others think it may be something like a giant asteroid striking the earth that causes an extinction level event similar to what ended the era of dinosaurs. And on both accounts, people are placing their faith in science and technology to save them… colonizing Mars… to increase the odds for the survival of the human race… Already Christianity is under fire for essentially being on the wrong side of history since we see the end as necessary, divinely ordained and thus unstoppable, and fully under [YHWH]'s control, not ours. And while we may hold some trepidations… because what leads up to it will involve suffering and cataclysm, in general God's people understand that this end is for our benefit and so it is to be welcomed as what comes next is the end of suffering, death and evil. Therefore it is not hard to imagine that as the final days come into full view, and the Anti-Christ begins his rule, and the judgments of God manifest in earnest, that those who have no intention of allowing the end to human history if there is any means to stop it will be in direct confrontation with Believers who pray for the end to arrive… On the one hand we are to take good care of this magnificent home that the Lord has created and given to us, of course. But on the other, the ultimate fate of this planet and the humanity it harbors has already been determined by [YHWH], and to join with the science and academic and secular communities to try to thwart His will on this matter is sin. It represents the spirit of Babylon. And it will take much wisdom and prayer for us to walk that fine line between proper caretaking of our earthly resources versus believing that our deliverance lies in the hands of superior human intellect and ingenuity.” (Tom Bradford)
4. Then the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped The Elohim—the One sitting on the throne, saying, “Amen! Praise Yah!”
“These are the beings in Heaven that are allowed into the nearest proximity to God… [They] seem to hold … the absolute highest status and position of any created being. They are said to surround and guard God's throne and to travel with Him. So… the highest of the highest of all created beings also praise God for His act of justice against Babylon. All of Heaven is in agreement; and therefore all of God's people on earth ought to be in agreement with God's just judgments as well.” (Tom Bradford) “Amen”: Hebrew for, “That’s right. Agreed. Very true. Completely accurate and trustworthy. We second that!”
5. Then a voice came forth from the throne, saying, “[Sing] praises [in honor of] our Elohim, all His servants and all who revere Him, [both] the small and the great!”
This begins much like Psalm 134:1. “ Our personal perceptions of mercy, vengeance, love, and justice will become clouded by societal norms, peer pressure, and our own desires over time. So our personal perceptions are to be remolded and remade into that of [YHWH]’s commandments as we grow and mature, and the primary source of learning and wisdom to change our perceptions comes from the Holy Bible. Therefore verse 5 is directed towards humans living on earth: …if we are truly God's servants, and if we truly fear Him (meaning we have complete loyalty to Him), then we are to join in the Heavenly praise over the destruction of Babylon as a sign of our agreement…not unlike our utterance of ‘amen’ after a prayer… [But] it is going to require not only being loyal to God but also having the correct knowledge and doctrine ingrained in us so that we will be able to praise God as the world economic system collapses and our lives become more precarious. When Babylon is destroyed, life is going to become unbelievably difficult and insecure for everyone on this planet, without exception, and… Believers will become targets for the wicked because of our praising what the world hates and resents… The dominant religious institution of that day, no doubt being led by the False Prophet (the Land Beast), surely will not be praising God at the demise of Babylon, even though this dominant church institution will be full of people who insist they are Christians (assuming they have not "come out of her" as God has begged His true followers to do). In reality this worldly church of deceived people will have long ago sold out to Babylon and the leadership will have taught the people wrongly, and thus they will believe wrongly.” (Tom Bradford)
6. Then I heard something like a loud voice of a huge crowd and like a noise of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Hallelu Yah! Because YHWH our Elohim, the Ruler of All, has [begun to] take dominion!
Michael Rood calls this book the “fifth gospel”. But “what has suddenly changed other than Babylon has been destroyed? Didn't [YHWH] always reign from on high? How can it be said that only now (after Babylon's destruction) His reign begins? This reign is referring to the everlasting kingdom that is now fully established; it is here that we could reasonably say that the Millennial Kingdom is inaugurated. But…in Daniel 2:31-45 (written almost 7 centuries before Yochanan) there are several important pieces of information here that may help us understand some difficult verses in Revelation: [Daniel’s] 4th kingdom, symbolized as being of iron, will be the most powerful of the 4, and is represented by the legs of the statue. And yet, as we move on down to the feet that are at the bottom of the legs Daniel says that this means that the 4th kingdom will eventually become a divided kingdom [having] some characteristics and strength of the kingdom of iron (Rome), and yet the iron will be in chunks and mixed with weak clay, which means that… it is also unstable and not as strong as the united 4th kingdom of solid iron… The Roman Empire was indeed divided into 2 in the 3rd century because the Roman government felt that the size of the Empire was too widespread and unwieldy to be controlled by one Emperor from one capital city. Thus, the Roman Empire was divided into Eastern and Western regions, but nonetheless they were still both the Roman Empire… In the 5th century, the Western portion of the Roman Empire (ruled from the city of Rome) collapsed and was conquered. However, the Eastern portion of the Roman Empire, ruled from the capital city of Byzantium (Istanbul, Turkey in modern times), lived on for almost another 9 centuries until it too collapsed and was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, an Islamic empire. So Nebuchadnezzar's statue and Daniel's interpretation of it has proved to be accurate according to recorded history. But… verse 44 of Daniel 2 says, ‘In the days of those kings the God of heaven will establish a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not pass into the hands of another people.’ The conundrum begins with the words ‘in the days of those kings’. Which kings? Nebuchadnezzar's vision-statue, and Daniel's interpretation of it, speak of kingdoms, not kings. Each of those 4 kingdoms had several kings over time. Some might say that Daniel's prophecy refers to any and all kings of those 4 kingdoms…The earliest we could stretch the beginning of God's kingdom on earth is upon the birth of Yeshua in the 1st century during the rule of Rome and not before." (Mark 1:15; Luke 11:20; 17:20-21) That is as far as Daniel’s prophecy goes; Yochanan’s encompasses all the kingdoms that have dealt directly with Israel, also including the Egyptian, Assyrian, and apparently the Ottoman. “How does this rock break to pieces and consume ALL those 4 kingdoms if at least 3 are history past in relation to when Messiah first appears? And in fact, each successive kingdom conquered the one before it. It is because Babylon is representative of them all. All of these kingdoms bear the common trait that they oppose God in one way or another…The final kingdom that will signal the end of human history is said to be an 8th one that is also said to come out of the 7th kingdom. And the final king, which is an 8th… supported and installed by 10 kings…, represents the Anti-Christ who rules over a kingdom that was not necessarily established by him. [He] essentially takes over what was previously ruled by Babylon the Great…” How can we say YHWH has only here begun to reign? “Whether Jew or Christian, we've assumed that God has always reigned over His Creation. And yet there has also been this issue of God allowing Satan to have much authority over earth's inhabitants as the Prince of the Air. What I think is happening here is that… history is entering into the Millennial Kingdom period… especially… because of what comes next: the wedding of the Lamb. What the Anti-Christ doesn't realize is that with the demise of Babylon the Great (something he planned and carried out by means of those 10 kings), Satan and he are now doomed to failure in a very short time… The reason that the voices of the crowd in Heaven rise to such a deafening crescendo in verse 6 is because not only is Babylon destroyed and gone, but also the Anti-Christ (that 8th king) and the final worldly kingdom is gone. Thus what is being signaled in verse 6 can only be the end of Satan's influence of humanity on earth.” (Tom Bradford)
7. “We need to celebrate and jump for joy, and we will give Him the honor, because the wedding of the Lamb has arrived, and his bride has gotten herself ready!”
Celebrate: or simply, be glad. Wedding: the term includes everything from the wedding ceremony to its feast to the actual duration of the marriage, but the feast is mentioned separately below, so this is undoubtedly the ceremony. Ready: prepared. His bride: Bradford asks, “The rather universally accepted understanding within Christianity is that the bride of Christ is the Church, and that those invited to the wedding feast are generally the same as the Church as well. But chapter 21:9-26… specifically, clearly, unequivocally says that the new (redeemed) Jerusalem is the Bride, the wife of the Lamb… Are we to assume [then] that… Yeshua is marrying some huge blocks of stone and several fabulous gates… the walls, gates, and streets of the city of Jerusalem? …No. All throughout the Bible when Jerusalem is mentioned as being unfaithful to God, or Jerusalem is condemned for its idolatrous ways, it …means the inhabitants of Jerusalem… So indeed, it is redeemed people that call Jerusalem their home that are Christ's Bride”:
8. And it was granted her that she should be clothed in fine linen, radiant [and] clean, because the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the holy ones.
Radiant: or bright. Clean: or pure. Holy: set-apart, in a category separate from all others because of what they have done rightly. “At Mt. Sinai, a covenant was agreed to between Israel and Yehoveh. From time immemorial Rabbis have commented that on Mt. Sinai there was a betrothal of Israel (as the bride) to God (as the husband). In the Old Testament Israel and Jerusalem are regularly called the bride of God. Therefore it should be no surprise that there is a second redemption of Israel in the End Times that looks much like the first.” (Bradford)
9. And he told me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who have been invited into the Lamb’s wedding-feast.’” And he told me, “These are the genuine words of Elohim.”
This feast is written about extensively in Jewish eschatology, with the theme of metaphorically dining on the slaughtered serpent that has been plaguing us since the Garden of Eden. Genuine: true, directly-quoted, well-vetted, undeniable. “Marriage is a metaphor in the Bible for a covenant…A covenant between God and His worshippers creates an intimate and unbreakable union. Since this occurs in the invisible spiritual sphere, God has provided a way for human kind to better understand the force of effect of a covenant with Him by giving us the visible institution of marriage in the physical sphere… A covenant with God is also guaranteed by God and therefore it will not be broken--at least on His side. It is why it breaks my heart to hear Christianity insist that God not only broke, but discarded, His covenant with Moses that in reality is a covenant with humanity for all those, Jew or gentile, who give their allegiance to the God of Israel and His Son Yeshua. Such a claim…implies that God's covenants are little more than typical human contracts that are regularly broken if one side has a reason to get out it…Believers are not currently married to [Messiah], but we are betrothed to Him. Our acceptance of the God of Israel and His Son as our Savior enters us into this betrothal that is a covenant…Among Israel in ancient times, betrothal is more than modern engagement. It is closer to...but not quite... marriage. Until there was physical consummation of the betrothed there was no marriage. In fact, officiated marriage ceremonies only came later in Hebrew history. At first the betrothal was the highlight and then later when the agreed-to time arrived the couple would engage in physical intimacy and the new bride would present a blood-stained marriage cloth to her parents as proof of her virginity and of the consummation (which in essence was the marriage ceremony)… But here in Revelation 19 we have the actual wedding ceremony of the Lamb to His bride and so the betrothed becomes the wife. The consummation is Yeshua's physical presence with us forever and ever. The spiritual bond that we have with Messiah today as Believers is strengthened to an unbreakable union at the marriage feast when He is with us physically and spiritually… The Bride is presented as singular--one… Those who are invited are the residents of the redeemed city of Jerusalem.... Jew and gentile (and redeemed people are all that exists at this point in history). Together, corporately, these many redeemed individuals of Jerusalem can be said to be the Bride of the Lamb represented by the new Jerusalem.” (Bradford)
10. And I fell down in front of his feet to [prostrate myself and] worship him, and he said, “Watch out that you don’t [do that]! Because I am a fellow-servant of yours and of your brothers who maintain the testimony of Yeshua. Worship [only] The Elohim! Because the testimony of Yeshua is the spirit of prophecy.”
Worship: apparently the messenger knew this was not mere homage to one superior to himself, as one would legitimately offer to one’s king, and put all others—even Yeshua—on a plane below YHWH Himself when it comes to this aspect of honor. Testimony of Yeshua: both the message about him and the message he proclaimed. Spirit: If it does not keep the message that Yeshua began going, you are missing the point of prophecy. “It can be rightly claimed that the Law of Moses always pointed to [Messiah]. (Yochanan 5:46) But it can be equally claimed that prophecy spoke about Yeshua as well. Therefore in this instance the spirit of prophecy is like our speaking of the spirit of the Law. That is, the spirit represents the overriding intent and real meaning behind the Law versus the letter of the Law, which is the mechanical part of it. Therefore… the realization of the Gospel of salvation through Yeshua is the overriding intent and real meaning behind all biblical prophecy. Yes, prophecy portended real events over many centuries of history; but on a spiritual level these portended events pointed towards, or even played a role in bringing [this] about.” (Bradford)
11. Then I saw [that] the heaven had been opened up, and there [came] a white horse, and the one sitting on it is called “Faithful and True”, and in righteousness he judges and wages war.
Faithful: or trustworthy. True: genuine, real, truthful. I.e., his reasons for using the military option are all valid, and the decisions he makes are right, based on full knowledge of the actual facts. “This is not the same as the white horse of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse back in chapter 6. Here the white color indicates purity as its rider is called Faithful and True. But this verse says something about the nature and character of Messiah Yeshua that defies the overly simplistic mantra of the modern Church that says ‘Jesus is…our best buddy, our wish-genie, someone who wouldn't harm a fly, and who winks and nods at our sins in the name of love’… Here… we are told that he passes judgment…not in anger or impulse, but according to God's standard, and that his considered decision according to God's standard is to wage war against the wicked.” (Bradford)
12. His eyes are also [like] a blaze of fire, with many crowns on his head, having a name written [on them] which no one but he himself knows,
“Yeshua has been know by many names over the centuries: ‘Messiah’, ‘King’, ‘Lord’, ‘God's Son’, ‘the Rock’, ‘Faithful and True’, to name a few. However, in verse 12 we're told that he also has a name that no one but himself knows… Biblically speaking, names are less a means of personal identification and more a statement of that person's attributes or character. That is the sense we need to take it here. It is that there is another side of Yeshua that he has yet to reveal.” His “eyes burned with the passion to carry out the judicial action of destructive vengeance that the Father has ordered. The Lamb has just taken a backseat to the Lion. No more being the sacrifice for sins that saves people from God's wrath, now Christ goes out as a Lion as God's wrath against sinners who refused God's free gift. The warrior Messiah that the Jews of Yeshua's day had insisted upon finally makes his appearance.” (Bradford)
13. and he had been clothed in a garment that had been dipped in blood. Indeed, his name is called “The Word of Elohim”.
Dipped: as if in dye. This alludes to Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 34:6 and 63:1. “it is the war victor who is speaking...... the same victor who is also able to save…What is the cause of all this bloodshed? ‘The day of vengeance that was in my heart and my year of redemption have come’… By what standard is Christ judging? It is by The Word of God. And this directly connects to verse 15 that says that out of His mouth comes a sharp sword. This is not a military instrument of war; the sharp sword is God's Word that instructs and divides. Its truth brings eternal life to the righteous and eternal death to the wicked. And, I might add, it will be by this same standard that Yeshua will rule over all the earth in the Millennial Kingdom age. Since He is using this Word to judge, then it is a Word of judicial instruction… It is the Torah.” (Bradford) The Word of Elohim: an allusion to Yochanan 1:1-18 and the Jewish wisdom literature of the first century. But then everything else said about YHWH’s word in the Psalms, etc., is also true of him.
14. And the armies that were in heaven were accompanying him on white horses and were clothed in fine linen, white [and] pure.
Accompanying: includes the detail that they were following behind him. “All of these horses and riders are coming out of Heaven; therefore, they can only be spiritual in nature and not physical. Thus the description we read of them is using earthly terms as illustrations to help us understand what is happening… The term "armies of heaven"… is usually reserved for angels. (Compare Mat. 25:31-34, which describes holy angels coming with the Son of Man.) … My conclusion is that the riders on the white horses are angels and not the souls of Believers. However, …the riders on the white horses could be in addition to all the angels [Messiah] spoke about.” (Bradford) Daniel Amos described this as the “posse in the sky” which strikes fear in those who see them coming. White linen: see verse 8.
15. And out of his mouth proceeds a sharp [swift] scimitar in order that he may strike down the nations, and he will shepherd them with an iron scepter. And he treads the winepress of the intense passion of the wrath of The Elohim, the Ruler of all.
Why would a shepherd strike down the nations? To rescue them, as a shepherd would often break the legs of a sheep that tends to wander, then carry it on his shoulders until it heals so it becomes closely attached to him. This is an allusion to Psalm 2:9, where the King YHWH installs is said to “break” or “injure” them with that iron rod or scepter, but this is done in the shepherd-like way described above, not in a hateful way. The passion is against those who have misled them and turned the sheep into selfish goat-like animals instead. “But the meaning of His ruling (tending the flock) with a rod of iron (instead of a Shepherd's staff) is unmistakable: iron is the hardest, most unbending, unyielding metal there was in John's day. This means that Christ will not be looking the other way at disobedience… By what standard will Yeshua rule? A standard which inherently has no tolerance for sin and evil and always requires a price for bad behavior--the Torah; the Law of Moses…. The final 8 chapters of Ezekiel provide an excruciatingly-detailed blueprint of the Millennial Temple, and it calls for sacrifices at the altar and for most of the Temple rituals to be reinstated by Levite Priests. Clearly the Law Code in use at that time will be the Law of Moses... The final 8 chapters of Ezekiel provide an excruciatingly-detailed blueprint of the Millennial Temple, and it calls for sacrifices at the altar and for most of the Temple rituals to be reinstated by Levite Priests. Clearly the Law Code in use at that time will be the Law of Moses… One of the most descriptive and riveting narratives about Babylon in an unlikely place [is] the tiny Book of Jude in the New Testament. … Although we will not find the word "Babylon" there, the description is unmistakable… This book was written prior to John receiving his apocalyptic visions; so without the benefit of John's visions what we find is that Jude is telling us about what was happening in his day along with what the Lord has inspired him to write about the future... Several statements Jude made about some within the Messianic faith movement of his day that are people who cause divisions…, who despite their claims of righteousness and even salvation, follow their own ways, grumble and complain, and have no understanding of the truth. For those within your community of fellowship who want to argue and dispute, to ensnare others into their deceived way of thinking, and to divide the congregation, don't put up with it. Rebuke them…’ hating even the clothes stained by their vices.’ (Jude 21-22); put them on notice that it will not be tolerated. The hope is that they repent; but if they don't, then show them the door. But as James, Jude's brother, also said, in other cases try to save the wrong minded person among you from the wrong paths they have begun to head down. Jude says to try to snatch them out of the fire; James says that to turn a wandering brother from his destructive path will save him from death and cover many sins. And finally, in yet other cases, it is right to show mercy to some who have gone off the divine reservation; but, be very careful and don't become so tolerant (or naive) as to join them thinking that by getting closer to them by showing a level of acceptance or rationalization of their behavior that this will win them back. We are to hate their vices and make it clear that we do. On the other hand, one chapter back, we hear the Lord telling His people on earth to ‘Come out of her!’ The spirit of Babylon…is not something new nor is it something that we are to put up with, tolerate, or believe that we have the power to change it. It is one thing to belong to a congregation with a person or two in it who carry that spirit of Babylon in them because they can be, and must be, dealt with to purge that congregation of the dangers these few scoffers present. It is quite another when the leadership of the congregation, and the entire essence of the congregation (if not its very charter), represents the spirit of Babylon. In that case we are to flee that organization and completely detach ourselves from it. The spirit of Babylon remains alive within many of our Jewish and Christian institutions and we must be on the alert to recognize them. And when we do, we must take the appropriate actions that have been prescribed in the Bible no matter how difficult or uncomfortable they might be… The white horses represent absolute purity; but the purpose of their heavenly riders is to make war. This is a day of judgment. Those who are saved in in [Messiah] will be spared; those who are not will be killed. But what is terrifying to contemplate is that the era of being saved by trust in [Messiah] will be over for a time. The era that we are still living in whereby we can recognize our sinful condition, repent, and seek forgiveness in Yeshua, will have come to an end. The full number of those who will be saved will have been achieved and there will be no further opportunity to join the ranks of those who have been shown God's mercy until later after Armageddon. [Messiah] has traded in His cross for a sword... An iron rod is symbolic of the unbending rule of law, overseen by an unbending King. Messiah will rule righteously, in love, but sternly and without tolerance for sin. And what set of laws will He rule by? The only God-given set that has ever existed and ever been handed down: the Torah… When does the Torah pass away? ONLY when the current heaven and earth pass away. (Mat. 5:17-18; Revelation 21:1 tells about that time.) The war that [Yeshua] is galloping to fight, and the throne that He is about to occupy will not exist on a new earth; rather it will exist on this present earth as we know it today. The Millennial Kingdom (as some call it) that He will reign over will exist on the present earth as we know it today. It is at the end of the Millennial Kingdom period (a 1000 year era) that the earth and the heavens will be re-created… The glorious light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to appear. ”” (Bradford)
16. And on his robe and on his thigh, he has a name that has been inscribed: “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”
On his thigh: possibly an allusion to the Jewish tradition that when YHWH’s name was pronounced in the Temple at Yom Kippur, everyone would forget how it sounded when they left the premises, but the Messiah wrote it down and hid it in a slit he made in his thigh, so that he could again bring it out after he left and reveal it to his students. King of Kings: a Hebrew idiom for an emperor—a king who rules over other kings. “It is the returning [Messiah] who is the instrument of the furious rage of [YHWH]. And who He is will not be disputed among humanity.” They will not be able to say, “Okay, I can no longer deny it; I believe now!” (Bradford)
17. And I saw a lone angel standing in the sunlight, and he called out in a loud voice to all the birds flying in mid-heaven, “Come here! Gather yourselves to Elohim’s great feast,
The way “the ancients viewed the structure of our planet and the cosmos…[was] that the birds as well as the stars and the sun and the moon all occupied the same space, and this space was called mid-heaven. So when we hear of an angel in mid-heaven calling out to all the birds to come and ready themselves to feast on the decaying flesh of the wicked, then the mental picture was of this angel hovering at the zenith of the sky so that all that was below him could see him and hear him…This structure of earth and the heavens was only ancient myth; but it was nearly universally believed without question so that is how it is described here.” (Bradford)
18. “so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders of a thousand and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and those who sit on them, and the flesh of all, both free and enslaved, both small and great!”
No matter how powerful they had once been, they were no match for the one whose kingdom is like a rock that demolishes the statue men have been building at least since Nevukhadnetzar’s time. (Daniel 2:34-35) “The list of those bodies the birds are feasting on is intended to show us how all-inclusive it is and of the supreme finality involved. It includes every class of people without exception… even their animals… because non-Believers and remorseless idolaters are found in every society, every culture, of every race and ethnic group, at every level of wealth or poverty, in every corner of the earth. Christ will spare none of them and the birds will not bypass any of them in their feasting. Despite this gruesome scene, while it represents the final insult and offense to the dead (not getting a proper burial was a horror to ancient Hebrews) it also is necessary for these birds to do their grisly jobs because otherwise the survivors… would have to spend a great deal of time burying millions and millions of corpses. The disease that would result from so much rotting flesh laying exposed would be inevitable... Remember, all this is going to be happening on this present earth that will be horribly war torn and still suffering from the many calamities that the Lord has sent upon it. So planet earth will be anything but a paradise in the first few years of Christ's reign.” (Bradford) Y’hezq’El/Ezekiel 39 seems to speak of the same events, in which it will take months to clear the Land of the corpses. “”The role that Israel seems to be playing in this battle is about what happens afterward. There is no mention of some glorious or improbable victory by Israeli soldiers. The remnant of Israel merely goes out to gather up the weapons of war abandoned by the now completely wiped out armies of the nations and uses them for fuel for 7 years. [In Y’hezq’El, YHWH] calls this feast a ‘sacrifice’.”
19. And I saw the Beast and the kings of the earth and their armies having been gathered together to make war with the one sitting on the horse and with his army.
But this army is made up of people who have already died and whom the second death cannot touch. (2:11; 20:6) These physical armies have no hope against the resurrected! “That the previous verse has an angel calling the scavenger birds to a feast is essentially giving away the results of this battle before it happens. That is, the defeat of the nations is assured… Who will be doing to fighting? While for certain the opposition will be human armies, that will not be the case with [Messiah]'s army. Nothing here implies that the still-alive Believers living on earth will be joining the battle… Earlier passages tell us that indeed Believers, and especially Believers in Israel--including a large number of believing Jews--will gather and prepare to do battle against the Antichrist and his forces, knowing that they will be outnumbered perhaps 1000 to 1... Believers will know God's Word and what is to take place. However, while both sides are envisioning a geopolitical battle of human armies (that the circumstance seems to demand), Christ and those angels (and perhaps souls of the righteous dead in Heaven) will come and supernaturally intervene to make the battle a short one. We don't read of any protracted fighting, not even of any Believers dying as God's earthly soldiers… [The offensive army] believe they're coming to fight Israel. That is, they're not thinking that they are going to be fighting a supernatural army. They came expecting to fight a human enemy whom they believed could be easily overwhelmed, they were actually confronted by God. The battle was brief and gruesome as Heaven's forces supernaturally obliterated the evil army and the only prisoners taken were the Beast and the False Prophet; all others were killed on the spot.” (Bradford)
20. And the Beast was arrested, and along with him the pseudo-prophet who had carried out the token-signs in his presence by which he had deceived [and led astray] those who had received the mark of the Beast and those who worshipped its image; they were both thrown alive into the lake of fire that is ignited with sulfur.
They are not killed but taken captive. “Worship is strictly an activity that takes place in the religious sphere. Therefore the ‘Worldwide Church of Babylon’, taken over by the False Prophet after Babylon's demise, became a tool in Satan's hand. Those thinking they were Believers and God worshippers of course accepted supernatural miracles. And when this charismatic leader brings about these miracles at his command then millions of the former worldwide church of Babylon, that is now the worldwide church of the False Prophet, will naturally follow his every edict… They would NOT do that if they knew the Word of God. But they do not… for centuries a goodly portion of the Church has either discarded entirely the first part of the Bible that makes proper interpretation of the second part possible, or they set the Bible aside in favor of manmade doctrines that sound good and promote certain agendas, or (as is happening in our day) they question the veracity of the Bible on the grounds that it is much too old and primitive to be taken seriously in modern times. So a kind of humanized and tolerant Christian philosophy replaces what God's holy Word actually teaches and commands us.” (Bradford) Lake of fire: Clods of bitumin
used to bubble up from the oil
deposits deep under the Valley
of Siddim (Gen. 14:10) and
rise to the surface of the Dead
Sea, which was known in
Josephus' day as "Lake
Asphaltitis”, and the Nabateans
grew wealthy by selling it as caulk for ships. Lightning storms would set it ablaze, earning this "Salt Sea" the nickname "the Lake of Fire". The sulfur was left in the area from that which rained down on S’dom and ‘Amorah (Gen. 19:24), still visible all around that region today. An earthquake in the 1840s sealed off the seepage, but a quake when the Messiah arrives in Yerushalayim (Zkh. 14:4-5) may open it back again, allowing this verse to come true literally. 20:10 tells more about what becomes of them after this: contrary to wishful thinking about YHWH, they “are not destroyed but rather live in that nightmarish state eternally.” (Bradford)
21. And the rest were killed off by the sword that proceeded out of the mouth of the one sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged to satisfaction with their flesh.
“This sword is not a military implement of war, but it can kill. Rather the sword is symbolic of the Word of God that divides, elects, and separates and sends some to everlasting life with Him, and the remainder to everlasting darkness and death…[YHWH] has seen fit to emphasize this matter of the dead soldiers being eaten by scavenger birds because not even in death were these unrepentant sinners and enemies of God shown the most meager of divine mercies such as an honorable burial.” (Bradford)
CHAPTER 20
1. Then I saw a messenger descending out of Heaven, holding the key to the Abyss, with a huge chain upon his hand.
Abyss: an “unfathomable depth, an especially Jewish conception: the home of the dead and of evil spirits.” (Thayer) More detail is given in the extracanonical 1 Hanokh (Enoch) chapters 9 and 10 as a place where angels that misled human beings before the Deluge of Noakh were imprisoned for seventy generations. It had recently been vacated (see chapter 9 above), leaving a “cell” available for haSatan. “We have to be cautious not to confuse the sequence of [Yochanan's] visions with how [their] contents… link together... At times the contents and events predicted do occur in sequence; but at other times they occur in parallel, and at yet other times at least some part of a vision may occur prior to a vision that was given to us earlier. How to tell the difference is challenging… It seems to me that there are ways, however imperfect, to help us distinguish one from the other.. Some chapters (like 12) have the ability to stand alone as they give us information whereby sequence doesn't really matter. Whether those events come before or after another vision of John's doesn't materially alter its meaning or interpretation. Chapter 11 is similar: what difference does it make in interpreting Revelation as to when John measures the Temple? … In other cases the sequence of events is critical and it does matter. One of my underlying principles about studying God's Word is that we are to take it literally and in the sequence we find it unless there is a compelling reason to see it otherwise. For instance: when [Messiah] is spoken of as the Lamb, we are to take that symbolically… At other times the reasonable certainty of chronological sequence is obvious. For instance: the final words of chapter 12 are: "Then the dragon stood on the seashore". And the first words of chapter 13 are: "And I saw a beast come up out of the sea"… Obviously the events of chapter 19 follow the events of chapter 18... And because chapter 19 includes the event when [Messiah] returned and destroyed the rebellious armies at the Battle of Armageddon (instigated by Satan), then it logically follows that once that is done [YHWH] would directly deal with Satan just as we see occurring in chapter 20. If as some commentators claim and some denominational doctrines decree that God had already subdued Satan… sometime earlier, that is, …if Satan had been bound and unable to lead or to deceive the nations there likely would not have been a Battle of Armageddon… How much time might have passed in between this series of momentous events is impossible to determine because nothing definitive is given. However, the sense and tone of it is that these things happen in fairly rapid fashion.” (Bradford)
2. Then he seized the dragon—the ancient serpent, a slanderer, the Accuser—and bound him for a thousand years.
Ancient serpent: the one that appears in the story at the very beginning of human history. (Genesis 3) Slanderer: one who brings forth charges—whether factual or unjust—which are designed to hurt and bring down the one so calumniated. Accuser: Satan is the Hebrew term used in Israeli courts today for the prosecuting attorney. Bound: includes the components of fastening him to something so he cannot move, and imprisoning, as well as “rendering him unlawful”! This thousand years is the seventh in human history, of which the weekly Sabbath is a foretaste, but this will be the real time of unmitigated peace of which the Sabbath, with the interruptions which sometimes still do mar it, cannot always fully approximate in the present age.
3. And he threw him into the Abyss, and closed it and sealed it over him, so that he would no longer lead the nations astray until the thousand years had been completed. After these things, it is necessary for him to be loosed for a short time.
“Here we find the inauguration of the Millennial Kingdom made possible by [YHWH] Himself subduing Satan's power and activities on earth. No longer can the Adversary deceive the nations and no longer does he have wicked henchmen to do his bidding. The congregation of Believers that upon the inauguration of the Millennial Kingdom accounts for all humanity left alive on this planet is no longer in mortal danger from the enemy who wants to wipe us out… We have encountered this angel with the key to the Abyss earlier in Revelation, in chapter 9:1-2.” There this angel was called a “star” Why must he be released? The explanation will come later, but Amillennialists say “ever since the crucifixion of Christ the Devil has been bound up and sent to the Abyss where he can cause no harm to, or in any way influence, Christians or the Church, and he also cannot deceive peoples and nations. I'm not going to spend much time to dispute all this except to say that one has to allegorize and spiritualize the Bible (heavily) to arrive at such a conclusion… This is the view of the Catholic Church, many (if not most) of the mainline and mostly liberal Protestant Churches, and of most of the Eastern Orthodox church branches. However,… in verses 2 -7 the term "1000 years" is used 6 times… To interpret this 1000 years as an indeterminate amount of time or even as a symbolic amount of time is most difficult for me since it is repeated again and again and it is tied to specific events… One has to ask why such a specific number would be used multiple times in a 5-verse cluster if it was to have no discernable meaning, passing along no useful information to John's readers… There is no Scripture that can be taken in context to back up such a claim that the Devil was bound when Christ was crucified. Or that the Devil is currently restricted from harming Believers… All one has to do is read history books or even to live for a few years in modern times to know this contradicts the reality of everything we see going on around us. If we've been living in the era of a restrained and uninvolved Satan for 2000 years, why is the state of the world so increasingly dark and wicked, and why is human behavior no better?... Under such a scenario the ongoing spirit of Babylon the Great that has corrupted mankind and led billions into misery and eternal death, and the scores of oppressions and attempted genocides of God's people, would then relieve Satan of any responsibility and make him as but an innocent bystander. Why would YHWH judge Satan?... [That is] a prime example of taking the Word of God and through liberal application of allegory and spiritualization make it to say anything one wants it to say.” (Bradford)
4. Then I saw thrones, and to those who sat upon them was given [the authority to] judge, as well as to the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Yeshua and because of the Word of Elohim, and to those who did not worship the Beast or his image or accept the brand on their forehead or their hand. And they came to life and reigned with the Messiah for a thousand years.
Testimony of Yeshua: here, the witness they had given all the way to the point of martyrdom. Came to life: Their resurrection is at the point at which no one would be left to be able to kill them again (v. 6), and now, with poetic justice, they are the ones deciding who will live or die. It may be that those who have suffered are especially qualified to judge. Yochanan “either identifies 3 separate groups of people (those seated on the thrones, those who had been beheaded for their faith, and those who did NOT worship the Beast or it's image and had not taken on the Beast's mark of 666), or…one all-inclusive group of people (those seated on the thrones) that consists of all deceased Believers, among which were those that were executed for their faith, and those that refused the mark of the Beast (and whatever sufferings came with that decision), and those that would not worship the Beast's image (and whatever oppression came with that refusal). What makes this verse so difficult is the repeated use of the Greek word kai that is almost always rendered as ‘and’ in our Bibles. But…kai can mean ‘also’ or… ‘indeed’ or… ‘even’ or… ‘but’. Thus…verse 4 [may be] speaking of two groups of Believers: 1) those who are seated on thrones, and 2) all these other Believers who died for any number of reasons.... martyrdom, old age, accident, illness... it doesn't matter. But this second group is NOT seated on the thrones. So… then who are those representing the first group--the group of Believers seated on the thrones and given the authority to judge? … [In] Matthew 19:28 Yeshua said, ‘In the regenerated world, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Isra'el.’ On the surface this verse can sound like Messiah is speaking about all Believers ("you who have followed me")…. However, …the thrones are said to be 12 in number (there HAVE to be more than 12 Believers at the end of time), and the judging is not said to be over the whole world but specifically over the 12 tribes of Israel. …In the context…, who is Yeshua talking to? Only to his 12 Disciples!... He makes this promise directly to them and to no one else… Therefore, if we let Scripture interpret Scripture, Rev. 20:4 seems to be speaking about those 12 Disciples finally getting the reward that [Yeshua] himself promised to them and is recorded in Matthew 19…. And those who came to life and ruled with Messiah for 1000 years are essentially all other Believers. The first several years of the Millennial Kingdom will be a worldwide environmental clean-up campaign. The earth will be terribly scarred from the earthquakes, wars, God's supernatural judgments on the land, air, and oceans that occurred in the last days, and the corpses of the innumerable dead will be scattered about the planet. Scavenger birds and other carrion eating animals will do their part; but humanity will also have to pitch in to bury the millions and millions of war dead. The earth will still be divided up into nations; but the King of the world, Yeshua, will be ruling over it all from Jerusalem.” (Bradford)
5. The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had been completed. This is the first resurrection.
It appears to say that those who believed in Yeshua but did not actually die for him as martyrs (as in v. 4) but who did not survive until this point in history might not be raised up until the Kingdom is over and the new heaven comes down to the new earth. But we could take it a different way: “What is going to happen to all these Believers (apart from the 12 Disciples) who lived and died in such varying circumstances and at varying times over history? Verse 6 says that they will come to life (will be resurrected) and rule with Messiah for 1000 years. Is ruling with Messiah the same as sitting on thrones? I don't think so. Sitting on one’s own throne is a very special privilege even above the privilege of all Believers being able to judge the universe (in some general way).” (Bradford; see 1 Cor. 6:1–4)
6. Blessed and special is the one who has a share in the first resurrection! Over these the second death has no authority; rather, they will be priests of Elohim and of the Messiah, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
No authority: or power (capacity to operate), or influence. Charles Feinberg say this chapter “is the Continental Divide of Scripture” because “depending on how one interprets these passages, one will either accept the notion of a 1000-year reign of [the Messiah] over a literal and physical Kingdom of God on earth or that there is no actual… physical Kingdom of God on earth. The Amillennial position requires one to heavily allegorize [or] ignore Old Testament prophecy. What we call the Pre-millennial view was generally that of the Earliest Church Fathers and incorporated the Jewish viewpoint. Only after the Church became thoroughly Gentile and everything Jewish was rejected was this Pre-millennial view also rejected. It was Augustine who first… spiritualized that which otherwise is literal and physical. The Post-Millennial position (that as the Church age nears its close the Millennial era begins, and when [Messiah] comes it signals the end of the Millennial era as opposed to its inauguration) defies a straightforward reading of the pertinent Bible passages and employs a nearly purely-allegorical approach of interpretation.” (Bradford) “Armageddon is over. Messiah Yeshua has returned, victorious, and his 1000-year reign has begun. The only living people on earth are, at this moment, Believers. The people who are populating the earth all throughout the Millennium consist of re-embodied souls of the righteous dead who now inhabit glorified bodies that will never die. They are joined by regular humans who live out a normal life span, just as we currently do, and then pass away. The regular humans will have offspring of their own, their offspring will have offspring and so on, and this part of earth's population will proceed and increase just as it happens today, generation after generation, for 10 centuries. This means that all during the Millennium the earth's population will experience an accelerating rise. Satan and all of His henchmen and followers are now captives in the Abyss and this means that mankind has no external evil influence; however the part of the population of regular human beings that live and die will continue on with evil inclinations as part of their nature” and this reality shows up especially at the end of the 1000 years:
7. And when the thousand years have been completed, haSatan will be released out of his imprisonment
Armageddon is over. Messiah Yeshua has returned, victorious, and His 1000 year reign has begun. The only living people on earth are, at this moment, Believers. The people who are populating the earth all throughout the Millennium consist of re-embodied souls of the righteous dead who now inhabit glorified bodies that will never die. They are joined by regular humans who live out a normal life span, just as we currently do, and then pass away. The regular humans will have offspring of their own, their offspring will have offspring and so on, and this part of earth's population will proceed and increase just as it happens today, generation after generation, for 10 centuries. This means that all during the Millennium the earth's population will experience an accelerating rise. Satan and all of His henchmen and followers are now captives in the Abyss… Mankind has no external evil influence; however, the part of the population of regular human beings that live and die will continue on with evil inclinations as part of their nature and this unfortunate reality shows up especially at the end of the 1000 years:
8. and will go out to mislead the nations that are in the four extremities of the earth—Gog and Magog—to gather them together for the war, whose [total] number is like the sand of the sea.
Extremities: corners or hidden places—anywhere human beings may be found. Gog and Magog: first described in Y’hezq’El 38 and 39, where in the “latter day”, they come up against YHWH’s people in Israel who are dwelling in security, having had no threat for centuries. After a thousand years in which the nations have not learned war (Yeshayahu 2:4), they are being forged again but will be used against their own brothers. (38:21) Magog appears alone in Genesis 10 as one of Yafeth’s immediate sons. Historically, John Hulley pointed out that the only thing they have done thus far to deserve YHWH’s judgment was to prevent some of the northern tribes of Israel who wanted to return to their Land and covenant from getting there. (What is the Messiah Waiting For?) Some of those ruled by the Messiah will still have sinful, unregenerate hearts, and will be ready for a “change” when, as with Qorakh against Moshe, they can be persuaded that somehow the Messiah’s reign has been unjust and unwarranted.
9. And they went up over the [whole] breadth of the Land and surrounded the encampment of the holy ones and the beloved city, but fire came down out of the sky and devoured them.
Hizqiyahu’s experience with the Assyrians was a foreshadowing of this. (2 Kings 18-19)
10. And the Accuser, the one who had led them astray, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the Beast and the False Prophet [are], and they will be tormented day and night into the ages of the ages.
Tom Bradford says, “As for the Lake of Fire: it too is symbolic on the one hand, and yet it seems to be an actual spiritual place… One way to think about the reality of the Lake of Fire is in the same way we think of Heaven. We can all agree that Heaven is certainly "real"; but is it also an actual ‘place’? I say that it is… but it is a place unlike anything we know or can imagine because it exists in another dimension somewhere outside the 4 dimensions that we human beings live in. Heaven resides in a dimension that we have no means to access or enter until our spiritual souls are released from these corrupted physical bodies and then we are able to escape the bounds of these 4 dimensions. Thus there is no reason that the Lake of Fire cannot be real and an actual place.” [See note on 19:20.] “Perhaps the chief governing dynamic of the entire physical Universe of God's creation is that it is a universe of opposites. If we have an up, we necessarily have a down. If we have a positive, we necessarily have a negative. If we have life, we have death. If we have good, we have evil. If we have light, we have darkness (and on and on). Therefore, since the disembodied souls of the righteous dead are given a place to go (Heaven), then the disembodied souls of the evil dead necessarily also have a place to go (the Lake of Fire). And by the way, this is not how it will always be, as we will find later…” (Bradford)
11. Then I saw a huge white throne, and the One sitting on it, from Whose face the earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
Face: or appearance, presence. No wonder human beings cannot see His face and survive, if even the earth and sky cannot bear it either! No place was found: They would therefore have to cease to exist. Sky: “If this is referring to heaven as the place where God lives, heaven certainly can't be impure. And if it is referring to heaven in the sense of "the heavens", the universe, then where do the earth and the universe flee to in order to stay clear of God? Rather I see this statement as a preface to what we're going to read beginning in chapter 21: the story of the new earth and new heaven... God's goal, since the fall of man, has been to redeem, restore, and perfect His creation that was corrupted with sin. While the earth and the physical universe can be legitimately seen as corrupt, Heaven (of the spiritual sphere) certainly is not corrupt and needs no redeeming or restoration. So John's comment about his vision of earth and heaven fleeing God's presence is a poetic, cultural (and non-scientific) way of describing the physical universe disappearing or returning to its original state of nothingness prior to the Creation. Thus from John's perspective if the earth and the Universe flee from God, all that remains is God… Science nearly universally claims that all matter and energy that exists yesterday and today and will exist in our future originally came from this tiny point… Before anything else existed God was; and it was He who created this tiny point and it was He who brought the Universe into existence… in whatever way He did it... Perhaps what is happening in verse 11 is the reversal of that original Creation process in order for there to be a new Creation to restore or replace the former one. Whereas up to now the Universe is continuing to expand at what seems to be an increasing rate, what we are reading about may well be the collapsing of the Universe back into that single point so that it can be reformed and remade… Everything is suddenly being reduced from the vast universe as we know it today, and compressed back down to the tiniest particles and most dense form of energy as it was in the beginning, and then later at the start of chapter 21 it is put back together very differently from what the Universe was before. Think of it as getting a box of Legos, making something interesting out them, then taking it all completely apart and putting the pieces back into their original box. Later the box is opened and something entirely different gets constructed. And yet, the basic building blocks remain the same.” (Bradford) He is called the Ancient of Days in Dani’el 7:9, 13. “The Great White Throne is speaking of God's Heavenly throne… The terms "the One" and "the Ancient One" are names used in the [Hebrew Scriptures] to refer to the Father. The color white, as we see regularly in the Bible, refers to purity and it means the same thing here when referring to the great throne. Throughout Revelation the One who is seated on the throne is always God the Father. When God the Son is pictured it is always as standing before Him (e.g., Rev. 5:1-5; 19:4-5), though the Father has entrusted judgment to the Son, but Yeshua says he can do nothing but what he sees the Father doing. (Yochanan 5:19-30) YHWH “and Yeshua are undertaking the task of executing judgment together.” We could envision “the Father as the One who is sitting on the throne but with Yeshua in His presence. And while the Father is seated on the throne, that in no way prohibits the Son from participating in the judging process. That is, the Son doesn't need to sit on a throne in order to judge.” (Bradford)
12. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing in front of the throne, and books were opened up. Then another book was opened, which is the [Book] of Life, and the dead were judged out of the things that had been written in the books, according to the things they had done.
“Since this is… after the 1000 year period, it is referring to what was promised back in verse 5… Believers who were regular humans that lived and then died after a normal life span during the Millennial Kingdom, and all the unrighteous dead who have ever lived at any time in history including during the Millennium. Every one of these are stood in front of God's throne and judgment is pronounced upon them. (Romans 14:10-11; 2 Cor. 5:10) At the inauguration of the Millennial Kingdom only the righteous Believers in [Messiah] were brought back to life. But now, at the end of the Millennium, all who had not been brought back to life in the first resurrection, the evil and the righteous, are raised and set before” YHWH. (Bradford) These books are first mentioned in Dani’el 7:10. “The books are figurative of course; these things exist in the spiritual, not the physical, sphere. One of the books was called the Book of Life, where the names of all the people who were predetermined to live with God eternally are recorded. The other book records the deeds of every human who ever lived: righteous or unrighteous. Verse 12 is crystal clear: the raised dead were judged based on what was recorded in these two books. And what they had done when they were alive....their deeds whether evil or good.... play a significant role in their eternal futures… Our deeds, our works, DO matter to God… A common refrain among modern Believers is that once they receive Christ, their deeds and works not only don't matter any longer, any attempt at good deeds and works, or any attempt to avoid bad deeds and works, amounts to legalism, and thus is a bad thing. This is decidedly not scriptural. While our good deeds are the not the key to our salvation, they are the expected response to our salvation. No believer is exempt from this obligation of performing good works before God. One biblical term used to symbolize the expected response to our salvation is… ‘good fruit’…(Mat. 7:17-20) There is a heavenly book that has recorded every deed (the fruit of our lives) that we have ever done both good and bad. Thus Believers will find their names recorded in both books; however non-Believers will only be recorded in one book. Believers will be listed in the Book of Life, but also in the book of deeds. Non-Believers will not be present in the Book of Life and only recorded in the book of deeds… But what is the standard for what is a "good" deed versus a "bad" deed? Clearly there must be a universal standard that is equally applied to all humans or it wouldn't be just.” It is the Torah’s commandments: “Whoever disobeys the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever obeys them and so teaches will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Mat. 5:19) “while Believers are fully forgiven for our sins and our bad deeds, and that we will have a wonderful eternal life with God, there will also be a hierarchy of eternal society based on our behavior and level of obedience to God's standard when we were alive. But what about the nonBelievers? Do their deeds matter at all at this point? This verse says that they, too, will be judged according to what they had done. I think we've all known some truly kind, generous, loving people who were agnostic or atheist, or perhaps had some ill-defined belief in the existence of God but never placed their trust in” Messiah. Even if in the Lake of Fire (v. 15), these may not receive as bad a sentence as Hitler. (Bradford)
13. And the sea gave [up] the dead who were in it, and Death and the underworld gave [up] the dead who were in them, and each [of them] was judged according to their actions.
Gave up: or provided, furnished, turned over (to the Judge). Death: here spoken of in a personified form to represent all it had affected throughout history. Underworld: Gk., Hades. But it correlates with the Hebrew c concept of She’ol. “The Greek concept of Hades as an elaborate underworld of the dead does not exist in Hebrew thought, and it certainly could not have been what the Jew John had in mind… She'ol simply means the grave. It does not extend to including some kind of mythical underworld (although some amount of ancestor worship was included in Old Testament times). And since standard Hebrew burial practice is to be buried in the earth, then that is integral to the concept of She'ol. That is, She'ol is a grave dug into the earth's soil and a corpse is placed in it… A Jew might drown in the sea and his body was never recovered. But where he rested was not She'ol, because for it to be She'ol the person's final resting place had to be in soil on the earth's surface... Therefore this matter of the sea giving up its dead is not some type of yet another resurrection; it is all part of the second one. It is merely parallel to it, or another aspect of it, and is addressing a situation that many Hebrews would have been concerned about: what happens in the resurrection for those lost at sea? But, now, what does it mean for Death to give up its dead?... Every possible place a dead person might be, and every possible state of death a human body might assume (known and unknown to humanity), is being included. Thus there are no exceptions; no one is overlooked for any reason. If a human being ever lived, as of the Great White Throne judgment they were made alive and standing before God for His verdict about their eternal futures.” (Bradford)
14. Then Death and the underworld [themselves] were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death.
Second death: not applicable to those who overcome (2:11) and who share in the first resurrection. (20:6) “Death as referring to the miserable state of the dead, as well as the grave (the actual place where the dead are buried), are both done away with and held eternally captive with the Devil and all non-Believers in the Lake of Fire. Quite simply this means that as of the end of the Millennial Kingdom period, death and all that it encompasses no longer exists. Only life.” (Bradford)
15. And if anyone was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
No one needs to be in this situation; while we still live we have the choice to have our names entered into that book—both through our deeds (v. 12) and through Yeshua, whose blood brought justice for the sins of any who pin their trust on YHWH because of his words, thereby bypassing this judgment and being transferred from being dead (in Adam) to being alive as true humans again through the Second Adam. (Yochanan 5:24; Romans 5:17-19; 1 Cor. 15:22, 45-47) “Those raised from the dead, and judged unworthy of eternal life with God, are condemned to their second death. The first was their physical death, and now they experience their spiritual death. All essence of them will exist only in the Lake of Fire, which seems to be a spiritual place that is sequestered apart from all other existence in any realm or dimension. Their existence, frighteningly, will be one that is fully conscious of their predicament… “What happened to verse 3, which says that at the end of the 1000 years Satan has to be released for a little while? The reason for his being locked up was so he could not deceive the nations during that 1000-year period. So logically when he is released it will be for the purpose of again deceiving the nations. Why would [YHWH] free him and not just immediately throw Satan in the Lake of Fire, getting rid of him once and for all? We are not told. So to gain insight on what God's purpose might be, it is generally best to seek out prior biblical pattern. Therefore I believe the reason God is going to release Satan is to use him to expose the wicked hearts of some sizeable number of people living on earth at the end of the Millennium. The Millennium is not Paradise. The earth's population is going to be large at the end of the Millennium, and even with [Messiah] still ruling, ageless and untiring, from his capital in Jerusalem, many people will forget their past… When Israel arrived in Egypt, Joseph was in power and so life was good and prosperous for his father Jacob's rapidly-expanding family. For at least a century after Joseph's death the Israelites continued to be an accepted if not even a favored people in Egypt. But then we are told that, in time, the people of Egypt forgot about Joseph and how he saved Egypt from famine, and the promises made to the Israelites, and they turned against them, making them slaves. At the end of the Millennium, after 10 centuries of… uninterrupted stability, peace, and moral living on this planet the time will come that the regular human people whose numbers are now vast will forget the past, become complacent and restless, and desire to break out from under the "iron rod" rule of Yeshua who reigns perfectly and so tolerates no deviance from the Law of Moses. (Psalm 2:2-7) The release of Satan from the Abyss will, I speculate, galvanize support for a rebellion among the nations. But it will no doubt follow the pattern of Armageddon and be put down quickly. The rebels will have laid bare their wicked hearts, God will instantly deal with them, and once again the earth is purged of wickedness… This is all in preparation for what comes next: (Bradford)
CHAPTER 21
1. Then I saw a fresh sky and a fresh earth, because the former sky and the former earth had gone away, and the sea no longer exists.
“The end of Millennial Kingdom (a finite period of 1000 years) also marks the beginning of a totally new heaven and earth (which exists for an infinite and eternal period)… The Millennial Kingdom…is distinct and separate from what occurs in chapter 21, which tells us of the advent of a new heaven and earth; or as some might think of it a re-creation of the current heaven and earth. This is ‘Genesis: the Sequel’. The only credible way to understand the Bible is if we relent from trying to force upon it our modern ways of thinking and how we see the world and the Universe. The Bible is cultural specific. That is to say this ancient book was written by and to Hebrews. It was written in the context of their understanding of the world and the Universe… It is their perspective that we are seeking to grasp; …their priorities and concerns and values… Therefore if we are to discover truth in God's Word we must approach it by admitting that its precious words mean whatever it is that each book's author intended them to mean at the time he wrote them… They made no separation between the natural and the supernatural… ‘Nature’ merely meant the inherent characteristics of something; that is, ‘God's nature’ or ‘human nature’…. Thus we won't find the English word nature or its ancient equivalent in the Bible… which references animals, plants, trees, rivers, the stars, or any such thing. And since that is the case, we also don't find the word "supernatural" nor its equivalent in the Bible… To the ancients… God or’ gods’ controlled and dictated everything that existed and… happened. While we look at a beautiful green forest of trees as ‘nature’ and ‘natural’ they would see it more as a product and process strictly brought about by and for the divine. A forest had a certain mystery to it. God or gods were involved in everything; no exceptions. Thus while we modern Believers sub-consciously think of biblical miracles as "supernatural", no such thought would have invaded the mind of a biblical writer. Rather a miracle was merely a particularly awesome or unexpected display of divine power. But it was the same divine power that every day caused new life to be formed in the womb of a mother; a stalk of corn to grow from what seems to be a dead and dried up seed; or water to fall from the clouds to irrigate crops and refill rivers... There was no intent to explain how or when things were done, but rather who did it and what the purpose and function of each component of Creation was… In the case of the lights, the passage says they were created to inform humans about signs (as communications from God), and to help us define seasons, days, and years, and to provide light for the earth… How that light was emitted was of no interest…but rather what the order and function of those things were and where they, as humans, fit into it all… Next, explore the amazing connection between redemption and creation. Paul makes that connection for us in 2 Corinthians 5:17: ‘If anyone is united with the Messiah, he is a new creation [a process, not an object]- the old has passed; look, what has come is fresh and new!’… Being re-created is the automatic result of being redeemed… Believers become the visible tangible evidence of the process of new creation that itself is proof of our redemption… It moves us from something old to something new…[YHWH] is not out to simply redeem humanity; rather He has always been out to redeem His entire creation. Humankind is important to [YHWH]; but we're not everything or the only thing of value in His creation. For when Adam sinned it didn't just introduce evil and decay into himself, or only into mankind that would spring from him, but rather it infected every aspect of our 4-dimensional Universe. Therefore [YHWH] determined… to redeem it all. And since God's designed redemption process inherently involves re-creating… [YHWH] is disciplining and calling out the inhabitants of earth for their unfaithfulness. At the same time He is going to deliver them (redeem them) from their grievous offenses against Him. And then it all winds up with something new. (Yeshayahu/Isa. 65:16-17) … Redemption and re-creation cannot be separated from one another; it comes as a package deal… Isaiah prophesied the creation of a new heavens and earth to replace the existing ones 8 centuries before Yochanan's day… [In] 2 Peter 3:1-13, Kefa… says that the elements that currently form all things will melt and disintegrate and it will be caused by intense heat. (In this case ‘heaven’ is referring to the Universe, and not the spiritual ‘place’ where God and the angels live.) However this is not something the redeemed should worry about; rather it should be welcomed because he says: "But we, following along with His promise, wait for the new heavens and new earth, in which righteousness will be at home". That is, whereas the current heavens and earth have been irretrievably corrupted by evil and sin and so that has become its nature, righteousness is NOT at home in the Universe... So the new heavens and earth will not be a redecorating, remodeling, or a thorough scrubbing of sin out of the old. While because of God patterns and principles the new heavens and earth will have some familiarities and similarities to the old, all will be brand new right down to the elemental level... The ending of the Universe and re-creation of a new one… would involve intense heat, melting what exists into basic elements, and then using those elements in a reforming of the earth and the Universe. Yet as we will see, the new creation bears striking differences from the original creation...[Messiah] directly promised both that the Torah would remain in place and enforce until the new heaven and earth arrived. (Mat. 5:18)… The conditions of the earth and the Universe are going to be so radically different that in [YHWH]’s determination even having the Law of Moses will no longer be appropriate. Remember: the main purpose for the Torah is to reveal [YHWH]'s holiness and sovereignty, and to set down rules of behavior for His worshippers and a justice system to deal with violators. Further, it sets up a system for atoning for bad behavior (sin) and thus returning to peace with God (redemption). But perhaps the reason it will no longer be needed is because humanity will no longer sin…The new heaven and earth are now as fresh and uncorrupted as they were before Satan deceived Adam and Eve to disobey… Yet chapter 20 taught us that even though Satan was locked away from influencing humanity for 1000 years, evil still lurked in the hearts and minds of many who lived during the Millennium, and in Messiah’s presence no less! It may well be that humankind (in whatever form we will exist) will have no evil inclination to lead us astray. This re-Creation is distinctly different from the original Creation… We get a fair amount of information about the Millennial Kingdom period in the final 8 chapters of Ezekiel…and from a couple of chapters in Revelation, and in a few statements by [the Messiah] in the Gospel accounts. But what happens at the end of history...after the End Times, and then after the succeeding 1000-year reign of [Messiah].... is that time comes to an end and we enter into the realm of eternity. While it is not comprehensive, we do get quite a bit of information about eternity in Revelation chapters 21 and 22.” (Bradford) Gone away: and now it was as if they had never existed, because the remains of them was no more—except for those whose spirits had, before the portal closed, been carried over in Messiah from one “universe” to the other. Seas were partly created to keep the land divided to prevent humans from unifying at the wrong time as they had done at Bavel. Now this obstacle is no longer needed. “Are we to understand that the oceans will no longer exist and there will only be dry land? Will we become a green planet instead of a blue one? Why would that be necessary?... To a Jew writing in the 1st century, the literal ‘sea’ would only have been the Mediterranean Sea. That is, when a Jew spoke about "the sea" it was understood that it was the enormous body of salt water that formed the western boundary of the holy land. When they were referring to other seas, such as the Red Sea, they would call them by name. However there were other uses for the word ‘sea’ as well. For Jews in John's day (and for centuries earlier) the sea symbolized the restless, turbulent nature of the world. For the most part, the sea was seen as a powerful and dangerous force, fomenting evil and chaos (based on Gen. 1:1-2 in Hebrew, where ‘khoshekh’ is used, which means darkness in a spiritual sense--something that is obscured, usually by deception. Thus we find God hovering over this chaotic "deep" that was spiritually dark. In the Bible and in other Jewish writings the sea also often represented the rebellious gentile nations that constantly oppressed God's chosen people. In Revelation the sea was the transportation highway for the world's greedy merchants and the idolaters who reveled in the Babylon the Great world system, and it was out of this symbolic sea that the demonic Sea Beast would arise. And yet in another setting ‘the sea’ was a sort of nickname for the giant bronze water laver that sat just outside the door into the Temple, where priests would purify themselves before entering by washing with the living water that the laver held. So which of these meanings of the term "sea" are we to assume is the proper interpretation of the statement that "the sea was no longer there" in this passage? I suggest that they are all correct because they all stem from the same root. … Probably all the world's oceans are gone as well), but so are all the evil, chaotic, and oppressive aspects of the world that the term "sea" has historically symbolized. Not only that, but because verse 22 explains that the new earth will have no Temple in Jerusalem, then it fits that there will be no more water laver (nicknamed "the sea") for purification of priests, because there will no longer be a priesthood. Thus the sea will gone in every respect.” (Bradford)
2. And I saw the holy city, New Yerushalayim, coming down from the Heaven—from Elohim—having been prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Bride: The term in particular refers to a son’s wife, i.e., a daughter-in-law, and if this is the Lamb’s bride (v. 9), that is exactly what it is—the bride of YHWH’s Son, furnished by his Father. “This event was first foretold in another of Isaiah's prophecies. Notice that here the New Jerusalem is called "the holy city". But historically, Jerusalem has been anything but holy. Biblically, Jerusalem was constantly condemned by God's prophets for its idolatry, bloodshed, corruption, and sin, and was regularly punished for it. So the old Jerusalem was (is) in as much need of redemption as any other part of God's Creation. Isaiah (52) plays a key role in providing information and context throughout Revelation… [YHWH] calls Jerusalem ‘the holy city, and it is because "the uncircumcised and the unclean will enter you no more’. (52:1) … ‘Sing together, you ruins of Yerushalayim! For ADONAI has comforted his people, he has redeemed Yerushalayim!’ (52:9) Yeshua is the Servant, the agent of redemption for YHWH’s entire creation. (52:13ff) So far in Revelation God has redeemed (and thus, hand in hand, re-created) the earth and the heavens, and He has redeemed (and thus re-created) Jerusalem. Paul knew that the redemption of Jerusalem is less an event and more a process, something that has been in the works in Heaven for a long time, and he speaks about it in Galatians 4. But the anonymous writer of the Book of Hebrews also makes a poignant statement: ‘You have not come to a tangible mountain… You have come to Mount Tziyon, that is, the city of the living God, heavenly Yerushalayim; to myriads of angels in festive assembly; 23 to a community of the firstborn whose names have been recorded in heaven; to a Judge who is God of everyone; to spirits of righteous people who have been brought to the goal; 24 to the mediator of a new covenant, Yeshua; and to the sprinkled blood that speaks better things than that of Hevel.’ (Heb. 12:18, 22-24) in the new earth and the new Jerusalem, [YHWH] will not be hidden away in a Temple, with a physical barrier between He and His people that is meant to keep them away from His supreme holiness. A physical barrier that if crossed in prior times meant death for the violator… No human or animal could approach God and live… Yet because of Messiah Yeshua and the redemption He has enabled, all barriers, physical and spiritual, between God and mankind will be gone with the new earth. We will have no fear in approaching the God of the Universe… He will truly and completely be with us, which was always His goal.” (Bradford)
3. Then I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold! The dwelling-place of YHWH is with human beings, and He will reside with them, and they will be His peoples, and YHWH Himself will be with them [as] their Elohim.
This is something which had never fully been restored since the day Adam and Hawwah hid from the One who wanted to walk with them, because of their shame for having broken the fellowship. His peoples: normally this idea is indicated in the singular, but at long last, at this point all human peoples remaining will have come to be holy and therefore His own, as only Israel was at many points in history. The scope of this idea was always meant to expand beyond Israel but through and because of Israel’s obedience and then influence. “"You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals; because you were slaughtered; at the cost of blood you ransomed for God persons from every tribe, language, people and nation.” (5:9) “Racial, cultural, and ethnic boundaries have been obliterated because through trust in Christ all have access to redemption… not just ethnic Israelites. (Gen.12:1-3) So upon the advent of the new earth, the diversity of blessed people that God promised to Abraham will finally come about.” (Bradford) Dwelling-place: Gk. For “tabernacle”.
4. And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be death nor grief nor crying nor suffering; they will no longer exist, because the earlier things have gone away.
Wipe away: or obliterate, wash off. Earlier: or first, principal, suggesting that they had to exist before this other reality which replaces them could come about. “He will swallow up death forever. Adonai YHWH will wipe away the tears from every face, and he will remove from all the earth the disgrace his people suffer. For YHWH has spoken.” (Yeshayahu/Isa. 25:8) “the old order has been replaced with the new order. The old order seems to have two aspects to it. First is that aspect of order that God established at Creation; an order that produced our Universe of opposites and all that comes with it. Second is that aspect of order that lays down how mankind and all living creatures are to relate to God. That second aspect of the old order began at the Garden of Eden with the fall of Adam and Eve, and later it was made into a law code and put to writing on Mt. Sinai with Moses. Both aspects of the old order will continue on until the new earth and heavens are established. (Death and its accompanying fears and sorrows are a thing of the past; this is because the old order has passed away… Thus the new heavens and earth will not endure both life and death--only life. The new heavens and earth will not harbor both good and evil--only good.) It is popular in the Church to say that Christ abolished the old order (the order given to Moses). But even Christ himself told us exactly when that old order would be abolished. He said (Mat. 5:18) that not the tiniest bit of the Torah would pass away (part of the old order) until heaven and earth passes away (the beginning point of the new order). The old order did not pass away at the foot of the cross. Not Christ's first coming nor even his return to inaugurate his 1000-year reign abolishes the old order and replaces it with a new order. It only occurs here… after the end of the Millennial Kingdom, upon the destruction of the old earth and heavens, and the re-creation of the new earth and heavens. And, significantly,…after Christ has handed the Kingdom back over to the Father. (1 Cor. 15:21-25) …Many good Bible commentators have concluded that the final chapters of Revelation must have been given to us out of order, and so they rearrange sections of these chapters… so that it upholds their personal, and no doubt denominational, doctrinal beliefs. I suggest that we accept what has been handed down to us as inspired writings just as they are, and not attempt to modify them unless we should find earlier original manuscripts that show something different.” (Tom Bradford)
5. And the One sitting on the throne said, “Indeed, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write [it down], because these are the reliable and genuine declarations.”
Genuine: or true. Declarations: accounts, words—the real facts of the matter, the most logical way to think of things. “If there is an overriding theme to chapter 21 it is ‘newness’… One of the important questions that, when answered, shapes one's theology concerning eternity is exactly what this newness amounts to and when, exactly, it happens. That is, to attain this ‘newness’ will the dross of sin merely be burned off in order to expose the pure metal of righteousness underneath? Or will this be a complete destruction of the old and the reconstruction of something entirely new?… Interestingly, the bulk of the Early Church Fathers did not believe that the current earth and heavens would be entirely obliterated and replaced, but that whatever it amounted to was in the future. Oecumenius of the late 900's A.D. says…, ‘They do not say this as though heaven and earth and sea are destroyed and pass into nonexistence and that other things come into being in their place. Rather they mean that the present realities have cast off their corruption and become new, as though it were an old and dirty garment.’ Augustine (600 years earlier) wrote, ‘This world as we see it will pass away, burned away by terrestrial fires, just as the flood was caused by the overflowing of terrestrial waters. This conflagration will utterly burn away the corruptible characteristics proper to corruptible bodies, as such; whereupon our substance will possess only those qualities that are consistent with bodies immortalized in this marvelous transformation...... to this end, that the world, remade into something better, will become fit for people now remade, even in their bodies, into something better.’ …The idea of the earth and the Universe being disassembled back to its smallest particles and then being reassembled into something else was not a thought they could have entertained. Thus they tended to liken Peter's claim (2 Peter 3) of the current earth being melted and John's claim of a new heaven and earth being formed in its place, to the earth being purged of evil by the water in Noah's Flood… With our increasing knowledge of how the universe operates and the processes of its formation, Peter's claim can and should be taken literally not only because it is God's Word but also because it is entirely feasible from a scientific standpoint. But even Peter is essentially building upon what Isaiah said 7 centuries prior to him… History proves that most errors that prophecy teachers and students have made, whether in ancient or modern times, is by not taking the words of prophecies literally enough… because in their era and in their culture they could not take seriously how the literal nature of what was being foretold could possibly occur. This inability to accept what is written as the literal truth leads to allegorizing and spiritualizing critical Scripture passages and thus the intended meaning becomes obscured and is replaced with incorrect manmade doctrines that can endure for centuries. How can earth and the heavens ‘flee’ from God's presence (20:11) and even more, how can no place be found for them? Only if they are destroyed and have essentially disappeared. Therefore with all the Scriptural evidence, and now even scientific evidence supporting Peter's startling claim that the way that the heavens and the earth will pass away is by intense heat deconstructing everything back into their basic elements, then we must take what he and John are prophesying as factually true. The new heavens and earth will be new in its most complete sense… So the Early Church Fathers got it wrong. But only because it was not yet time to understand the meaning of this prophesied re-creation event. ‘The One’ (the Father, per 20:11) sitting on the throne again appears, and embedded within the actions taken are some attributes concerning who this person is. First it is important to notice that for the first time in this chapter, it is God Himself that is speaking because His words are given to us in the first person (I, me). And what He says sounds familiar because we read something similar in 1:8… So the God who is overseeing the new earth and heavens is the same God that oversaw "the beginning" as well as the One who inspired His faithful worshipper, the Apostle John. God says that He is making everything new. In fact, that He is re-creating everything new is emphasized by His intervening in John's vision, telling John to be sure to write this down.” (Bradford)
6. And He told me, “It has come to be! I am the Alef and the Tav, the origin and the goal. To the one who is thirsty, I [Myself] will give freely from the supply of the living water.
Alef and Tav: Aramaic and Hebrew; Gk., Alpha and Omega, the equivalent of “A and Z” in English, but in Hebrew this spells a word—several, really, including one that means “a particular time”, but most commonly the word that points to the direct object of the sentence. Sometimes it is attached to the object with a hyphen, but other times it stands alone, and some see in this fact a distinction between them, and read it as a veiled allusion to YHWH as described here. Supply: or source. Living water: a Hebrew idiom for running water, especially used in relation to its ability to provide ritual purification, but here the emphasis is on its ability to genuinely slake every kind of thirst. “The whole Creation is under bondage to decay (Romans 8:19-24) and thus its eventual death is a certainty. So… it is not only mankind that is in desperate need of redemption and renewal, but also everything of a physical nature that exists in the entire cosmos. Therefore the hope of our own personal salvation extends far beyond ourselves or even humanity. What Paul explained would happen, John now sees in a powerful vision. What they both record for us is still far into our future, well over 1000 years from now, because the dissolution of the existing earth and Universe and its replacement with a new earth and Universe occurs at the end of the 1000-year-reign of [Messiah]… The last enemy to be done away with will be death. (1 Cor. 15:26)… God is reminding folks that while everything has been made new, He hasn't. He is the same God, of the same substance, the One who created the original Creation. He is the God who exists when nothing else does. So along with the new creation does not come a new, renewed, or different God. It will be we and everything else about the cosmos that are changed; but not Him. The ending words of verse 6 ought to be familiar… since the same John wrote both the Apocalypse and the Gospel, then we should expect to encounter similar thoughts and wording in them: ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him keep coming to me and drinking!’ (Yochanan 7:38) Since the new earth and heavens have already been created, then certainly its inhabitants are in no need of hearing it. Therefore we should take this sentence as a kind of parenthesis that is aimed at the audience of John's Revelation, in John's time and on into the future. I love that the word "free" or "gift" is included in what God says. The Greek word is dorean, and while indeed it means "a gift, without cost", it also inherently includes the sense of the gift being undeserved and unmerited. And yet not everyone, of course, will get such benefits as being eternally with God… Notice where it is that God says He will be: with His peoples on the new earth. This is important in a couple of different ways. First is that His peoples will not be divided up into different realities depending on which people group they belong. That is, whether formerly Israelite or gentile, all will live with God. Second is that Believers will not be living forever ‘in Heaven’ with God. A statement made rather routinely by Believers and given at the pulpit is that when we die we go to Heaven eternally; but that is not scripturally accurate… Revelation teaches us that all during the 1000 year reign of Christ, most Believers will live on planet earth, and earth will exist more or less precisely as it is today. And now in chapter 21 we learn that when the old earth is done away with and replaced with a new one, we'll ALL live there eternally--not in Heaven. Thus we need to view Heaven in a similar way as the ancient Hebrews viewed Abraham's Bosom; as a temporary place of safety and shelter until God completes His work of redemption... Upon Messiah's second coming and the first resurrection, the souls temporarily residing in Heaven will be sent back to earth in glorified bodies to live out the Millennial Kingdom period with Him. I'm assuming that souls of the regular humans who live and then die during the Millennial Kingdom period will reside in Heaven until the second resurrection and then from that moment forward, Heaven will be forever empty of human souls.” (Bradford)
7. “The one who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his Elohim and he will be My son.”
Who overcomes: This “explains just who will receive these wonderful rewards of faithful trusting in Christ during their lifetimes: it is ‘he who wins the victory’.” (Bradford) This is an allusion back to the conditions and promises in the second and third chapters of Revelation. This time the promise is not just from Yeshua, but his Father also.
8. “But the cowardly and untrustworthy and those who have become abominable and murderers and fornicators and sorcerers and idolaters and all [kinds of] deceivers—their portion is in the lake that is kindled with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
“For those who are not faithful to Him, there is another and different set of promises; ominous ones to be sure. An abbreviated list is supplied [here] and in some ways it is terrifying... even to Believers… because perhaps we can be brave enough to look into a mirror and say to ourselves: 'but I have done these things'… We must look at this list less as a list of behaviors and more as a list of freely chosen identities and lifestyles. That is, rather than our having committed one or more of these sins at some time, this list is about those who have turned themselves over to these sins and revel in them, making those sins part of them. It is not so much what someone has done, as who they are.” (Bradford) Cowardly: “More literally, it means timid and fearful…When we find this word used in the New Testament (Mat. 8:26; Mark 4:40), it is directly connected with having little faith. And, interestingly, these passages were said in rebuke to [Messiah’s] Disciples! So the idea seems to be believers allowing their fears to overcome their faith; the exact opposite of perseverance… [It appears to be] directed towards believers (or would-be believers) who are so weak in their faith that they fall away in times of trial and tribulation. After all, the first list that was about rewards was promised to "those who win the victory’… [This] represents the other end of the stick; punishments promised to those who come up short and do NOT win the victory." (Bradford) Abominable: “exceptionally vile”, disgusting, abhorrent—a choice they have made for themselves, such as by altering their sexual preferences or “gender identities”. This comes out more clearly in the fact that the term used here for “fornicators”, while having a broader sense of anything sexually immoral, is used only of males, and so has the specialized sense of homosexual temple prostitutes. (Bradford) Murderers: those having committed intentional homicide. (See Num. 35:11, etc.) Deceivers: not just overt liars, but those who falsify information in any way to mislead others to do what gives them an advantage. Sorcerers: “Those who misuse drugs in connection with the occult". Greek, pharmakeia: it means one who prepares magical remedies. Idolaters: that same word is used in the Bible to describe a man who craves money and the decadent things of the world…One cannot devote their lives to acquiring all the extravagant things of the world and at the same time seek God. We are fooling ourselves when we try. This doesn't mean that should God decide to bless us with plenty that somehow we are displeasing Him. It's an issue of priorities. (Mat. 6:31-33) Deceivers: the chief attribute of Satan… much false doctrine is probably intentional or may come from willful ignorance in that it serves a man-defined purpose…Ttoday there are many false teachers and preachers of false doctrines who claim to be doing God's work but in fact are primarily seeking an opportunity to acquire personal wealth and power.” (Bradford) Their portion: or share; i.e., this is what they get in contrast to vv. 6-7.
9. And one of the seven messengers who had the seven bowls that were filled with the last seven plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here! I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife!”
Come, I will show you: paralleling the whore of Bavel in 17:1. Remember what we were told out the outset, “Blessed are the reader and hearers of the words of this prophecy, provided they obey the things written in it!” (Rev. 1:3) “It goes without saying that the readers and the hearers must take an intellectually honest approach to reading and hearing the words of this prophecy otherwise that which is intended to impart God's truth can be turned into gibberish. And despite the rising mantra within the secular world and even in some parts of the Church that faith in anything is a good faith, God's blessing only ever comes from believing what is true and holy, and not from believing that which sounds good but isn't. Therefore it behooves us to make our best efforts to untangle the Book of Revelation using all the tools at our disposal and constructing our understanding of it from the bottom up and not the top down. To construct an understanding from the top down means to begin with a doctrine and then to reshape the words of John's Apocalypse to validate that doctrine… The deep mysteries of this prophecy only come to light as we pass through various phases of human history when the prophesied events and circumstances of John's book happen…Perhaps no other event in human history since John wrote his Apocalypse has so dramatically reshaped the world, and has opened to the door for many of the heretofore unimaginable phenomena predicted, than the return of Israel as a Jewish state. So the other thing we must always factor in when studying Revelation is how the Old Testament Prophets and their books are front and center throughout because it is their divine oracles that provide the context for understanding John's visions…We are not able to decipher everything or answer every question, because more human history must yet unfold before we can. Even so there are things we can know…Wherever rational and possible, the book should be taken in its most plain and literal sense.” (Bradford)
10. And he carried me away in spirit onto a huge, lofty mountain and showed me the holy city, Yerushalayim, coming down out of the heaven—from Elohim--
“The New Jerusalem is the godly contrast to the wicked Babylon. (See 17:1-3) … The descriptions of each are personified by women. In the 1st case it speaks of a woman who desires everything this world and Satan has to offer; while the woman in the 2nd case speaks of a woman (the bride) that is pure and godly and seeks only after God and the Lamb. It is from the same group of angels (who carry out the Bowl judgments) that one reveals the future to John about both the whore of Babylon and the bride of the Lamb. It is the same group of angels that carry John off in the spirit to see the evil nature of the whore of Babylon, that also carry John off to witness the descending of the new holy Jerusalem…. The origin of a thing defines the nature and sometimes the fate of that thing. The origin of Babylon the Great is wicked humanity. The origin of the New Jerusalem is Heaven and so it bears Heaven's nature; but it is NOT Heaven. What it is is the ideal Jerusalem; the ideal abode of God's ideal people. It is NOT the old Jerusalem that ascended to Heaven to get cleaned up, a new paint job, and sent back down. It is a Jerusalem that has been created by God in the spiritual realm.” (Bradford)
11. having Elohim’s majesty. Its radiance was similar to [that of] a most precious stone—like a jasper stone, being clear as crystal--
Majesty: or honor.
12. having a large and high wall which had twelve gates, with messengers over the twelve gateways, on which the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel had been inscribed.
“While the New Jerusalem is primarily about the redeemed people who live in it, nonetheless the vivid descriptions of the city itself tell us that the infrastructure is important as well… As believers we need to face the fact that the New Jerusalem is awfully Jewish!” (Bradford)
13. From the east, [there were] three gates, from the north, three gates, from the south, three gates, and from the west, three gates.
14. And the city’s wall had twelve foundation [stone]s, and on them twelve names of the twelve emissaries of the Lamb.
“The Jewish John had a very definite message he intended for his readers, and it came from a Jewish cultural mindset that revered and believed the ancient Hebrew prophets who foretold of the end of the world and even what comes thereafter. When we follow that path it allows us to establish some broad but major mile makers that…enlighten what has much too often become needless confusion about the End Times: at the end of the Battle of Armageddon, the Millennial reign of Christ begins. Also called the Millennial Kingdom, this 1000-year era takes place on the present earth as we know it (Revelation chapter 19 tells the elaborate story). The second mile marker is that because of the Armageddon conflict, Jerusalem will have been mostly destroyed and so a rebuilt Jerusalem will become the city from which Yeshua rules over the world's governments. The rebuilt city will have some substantial geographic differences to it in contrast with the current Jerusalem because the Mt. of Olives will have split into two halves, moved apart, and water will be flowing through the gap. (Zkh. 14:3-4; 14:8) This rebuilt Jerusalem of the Millennial Kingdom is NOT the New Jerusalem descending from Heaven that we see in Revelation 21. However, it is the Jerusalem that Ezekiel describes in the final 8 chapters of his book of prophecy (40:1-4). A third mile marker: the Millennial Jerusalem will have a glorious, literal, fully-operational Temple as also described in Ezekiel, complete with a Priesthood of Levites (41:1; 43:18-21) The fourth mile marker: it is at the end of the 1000 years that Satan will be released from his captivity in the Abyss. He will lead a worldwide rebellion…, but just as with Sodom and Gomorrah, God will miraculously send fire down from Heaven and the rebellion will be immediately put down... The fifth mile marker: after destroying all the evil rulers and principalities that exist, Christ hands rulership of the earth that He has held for a 1000 years back over to The Father (1 Cor. 15:20-25). The sixth mile marker: now God dissembles the earth and the entire Universe back to its elemental level, and remakes it into a new creation (21:1). The seventh mile marker: the New Jerusalem descends from Heaven onto the new earth… missing something that all prior iterations of Jerusalem had; it will have NO TEMPLE. (21:22)… when we conflate Ezekiel's Temple with the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21, things can get rather confusing and out of sequence. We don't have to do that because as I have demonstrated to you Holy Scripture, when taken honestly, plainly, and as handed down to us, gives us a much clearer picture. It's only that humans have muddied the waters with our manmade traditions and doctrines.” (Bradford)
15. And the one speaking with me had a golden measuring rod, so that he could measure the city along with its gates and its wall.
16. And the city is laid out with four corners, [a square] with its length also the same as its width. So he measured the city with the rod. On the [basis] of stadion, [it measured] 12,000. Its breadth and length and height are identical.
Stadion: or furlong, 1/8 of a Roman mile (which is 1,000 paces), translating to 125 paces or about 600 to 625 feet (200 meters), so the total here is 2,400 kilometers or 1,500 miles in each direction! With today’s geography, this would take up about the entire area designated by YHWH as the inheritance of Avraham’s descendants. (Genesis 15:18) We do not know how large the “new earth” will be, but it is certain that there will be topographical changes even before the 1,000 years of chapter 20 because Y’hezq’El’s temple would not even fit on the current Temple Mount. Height: it is unclear whether it is a cube or a pyramid in shape. Ifc the former, it might be “to reflect the characteristics of the Holy of Holies… All of New Jerusalem is as holy and undefiled by sin as was the Holy of Holies… All barriers between God and man have been removed. Redeemed and re-created man, living on a redeemed and re-created earth, is as free from sin and uncleanness as the angels. Even more, since the Evil One and sin itself have been done away with, there is no possibility for mankind to sin and do evil, thus bringing on uncleanness. So just as God was safe in Heaven from having His holiness defiled because of the barrier of being not only apart from planet earth but also of existing in another dimension--the spiritual dimension--so upon the new earth God will also be safe from defilement such that it reminds us of when He and Adam and Eve walked among the Garden of Eden together (Gen. 3:8-10), with no barriers.” (Bradford)
17. And he measured its wall: 144 cubits [by] human measurement (that is, of the messenger).
144 cubits is about 72 meters or 288 feet. It is unclear whether this is the height or thickness (breadth) of the wall.
18. And the building-material of the wall was jasper, and [of] the city, pure gold, similar to clear glass.
19. And the foundations of the city wall were adorned with all kinds of precious stones—the first foundation [with] jasper, the second, sapphire, the third, chalcedony, the fourth, emerald,
20. the fifth, sardonyx, the sixth, sardius, the seventh, chrüsolithos, the eighth, beryl, the ninth, topaz, the tenth chrüsoprase, the eleventh, jacinth, [and] the twelfth, amethyst.
Jacinth: or turquoise. A similar list of precious stones connected with the twelve tribes of Israel is seen in the high priest’s breastplate. (Exodus 28:17-20) The stones, as translated into Greek in the LXX about 300 years earlier, match in 8 of the 12 cases; the change in language over 300 years is one reason it has been difficult to identify some of these stones exactly for the new high priest’s garment, but the parallel is clear. Three of the stones (the whole third row) are missing from the description of the covering of the “King of Tzur” (a glimmering snakeskin?) when he was still in Eden (Y’hezq’El/Ezek. 28:13), but the ones that are listed are identical in Hebrew to those in Exodus 28 (plus the gold that is present in both other cases as well). We can infer from this (among other reasons) that both the high priesthood, which stood in for sinful humanity while Israel was first being formed, and now the fully-redeemed and restored representation of humanity transformed back to its original intent, were both meant to return both the splendor and authority usurped by the serpent to the humanity from which he swindled it, and this was accomplished by the Lamb who was the only one worthy to open the title deed to the earth. (Rev. 5:2ff)
21. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was [made] out of one pearl apiece. And the city’s public square [was of] gold, pure as transparent glass.
This is the origin of the idiom “pearly gates”. But one would certainly be curious to see the size of the oysters they came from! Public square: or possibly "main street". Many other legends about “heaven” have been built around this phrase as well. But it is interesting that the form of the word here for “city” refers more to its inhabitants than its structure, and this lines up with what Iyov said, “I know that when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” (Iyov 23:10) He was speaking of his innocence, but many other passages in Scripture speak of YHWH refining us so we can become like pure gold. (Zkh. 13:9; Mal. 3:3; 1 Cor. 3:12-13; 1 Kefa 1:7) So it really is about the people—the “living stones” (1 Kefa/Peter 2:5) that make up this city for YHWH to dwell in.
22. But I saw no temple in it, because the Master Elohim, the Ruler of All, is its sanctuary, along with the Lamb.
“The Jerusalem that Ezekiel writes about beginning in Ezekiel 40 is mostly about the Temple, and that is where most of his attention is focused. Yet… John sees… NO Temple! And it is not because John chooses not to address the Temple of the new earth, but rather the existence of a Temple is of the old order and not the new order, so there isn't one. Second, the Temple that Ezekiel writes about in his book can only be one thing: the Temple of the Millennial Kingdom when the old order still reigns, sacrifices continue to occur, and a Priesthood still exists, because after the Millennium the earth will never again have a Temple…Why? …Because God is the Temple. How can God be "the Temple"?… Let's understand what a Temple is: it is the place where a god is housed. In ancient cultures, in some cases it was a way to keep that god contained and available to you like a genie in a bottle. In other cases, it was a way of protecting that god from being stolen from you or from another god coming to take his power or place. A Temple was, therefore, designed as a god's residence. And since the god lived there it was also the place where that god's priests performed their ritual service to the god and where special worship of that god took place. Therefore, I think the intent of saying that God is the Temple is to say that He no longer needs protecting nor do His worshippers need to be protected from His presence. Nor is worship of Him confined to one place (one building, actually) on the entire planet. Further the lack of a Temple precludes the need for a formal Priesthood... So whatever amounts to worshipping God, and making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the Eternal Era, it is different than in the Millennial Kingdom era and all earlier times since the Torah was given on Mt. Sinai.” (Tom Bradford)
23. And the city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of Elohim has enlightened it, and its lamp is the Lamb.
As light was created first, then the light-bearers (Gen. 1), the actual light is YHWH, while the means by which the light is made practical and applicable is Yeshua. (Yochanan 1:9, 18) Tom Bradford says, “The new earth will no longer be lit by a sun or a moon. Technically, the words say that it is the city of Jerusalem where this is the case… New Jerusalem is the center of the biblical universe at this point, and so possibly it is just a manner of speaking that what goes for the city is representative of how it is for the remainder of planet earth. Assuming this means that the entire planet will have no sun or moon to provide light and not just in Jerusalem, then this is a further indicator that the underlying governing dynamics of the earth and universe have changed. This will no longer be a universe of opposites; the existence of day does not mean night must also be present.” (v. 25)
24. And the nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth bring the splendor and honor of their nations into it.
Compare Psalm 138:4. But the “living stones” from which this city is built also come from every tribe, tongue, ethnic group, and nation (5:9; 14:6), so this is another way in which this verse should be taken. “The presence of kings says that these nations will have their own governments. However, the New Jerusalem will be the central point of the world's governments. Why will there still be nations? Probably… for practical reasons. Even the angels had a hierarchy in Heaven... Even though humans will exist in some type of different, glorious body that never dies, we will apparently retain the essence of what makes us human: individuality… There will be millions, maybe billions, of people on earth and since God is a God of order, then for the human population to progress and thrive, orderliness in the form of government will be needed. So why won't everyone just live in New Jerusalem?…Might it be that God will indeed allow some specially-elect group to live in the New Jerusalem as a kind of eternal reward? And all others, still believers and still part of God's Eternal Kingdom, would be relegated to live outside of the city in what is called ‘the nations’? If so, what would be the criteria? …We do have a statement from [the Messiah] that eternal humans are going to be organized into groups of lesser and greater. (Mat. 5:19) Obedience to God's commandments by His followers in this present life… affects our eternal life.” (Bradford)
25. And its gates will not be shut daily, because there will be no night there,
Clearly our bodily needs will be different by that time as well, so sleep may not be as necessary.
26. so they can bring the splendor and honor of their nations into it.
So much is being brought in that, if the gates were ever to close, a major bottleneck would develop.
27. And by no means shall anything profane enter into it, nor those who construct an abomination or a lie—only those who have been enrolled in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Lie: in this case, probably the Hebraic idiom for an idol (Zkh. 10:2), a representation of something that really does not exist or cannot live up to what is claimed about it. But no lies of any kind will be permitted in this holy city either. Lamb’s Book of Life: one of the “books that must be opened” when we are all judged. (20:12; Dan. 7:10) “According to everything we've read to this point nobody in existence on the new earth can be there without first being written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And that matter was decided back at the time of the Great White Throne judgment. And since death and evil have been done away with, then it is impossible that there could exist on the new earth even one person who lies or does shameful things. So what can this final verse mean? I think this verse… starts a new thought… meant as a hard-hitting warning to John's listeners and readers that all of these wonderful and amazing things that John has learned about in his divine visions that will constitute eternal life in the re-created earth and heavens of the future are only available to those who currently--during this present life on this present earth--do not live shameful lives and are not liars… Deceit is the primary essence of evil, and Satan's overriding and underlying attribute is that he is a Deceiver. Neither the Deceiver nor the blatant and unrepentant sinner will… experience the glory and perfection of the new earth, new Universe, and New Jerusalem.” (Bradford)
CHAPTER 22
1. Then he showed me a river of living water, clear as crystal, flowing out from the throne of Elohim and of the Lamb.
“While Revelation is usually seen as a book that is all about endings, in fact it is a book about new beginnings…[but also] a call to holiness for God's people. And why should God's people be holy? ‘Because I am holy.’ (Lev. 20:26; 1 Kefa 1:14-16) … This call to holiness is so that people willingly belong to God and ultimately receive the benefit of salvation as their reward. Third, as Peter touches on, John's Apocalypse calls God's people to obedience…, to persevere and to remain faithful to the end so that this promised salvation will be their inheritance. Fifth, God is to receive all the glory for every aspect of Creation and Re-Creation, and for providing a means of redemption for those who love Him, as well as the justice of condemnation for those who don't… The source of the river of living water in Ezekiel is this Temple building he describes. However, as Revelation chapter 21 verse 22 informs, the new earth and the New Jerusalem will have no Temple building. Rather, the opening verse of Revelation 22 says that this river of living water will be flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb… Living water is for the purpose of purification and in reality only God can purify that which is unclean. In Old Testament times, and early in New Testament times prior to the destruction of the Temple, living water was essential in daily ritual. It was what mikvehs had to be filled with. It was what priests had to wash with before they could serve at the Temple. Living water was water that came from a moving source like … a river, or a fresh water sea that had an inlet and an outlet or was spring fed, or even the ocean. However this use of water as a cleansing agent was but symbolic of a work that God has to do spiritually upon and within a person or an object. The water itself had no magical power to remove defilement; rather it was sincere obedience to God's laws regarding the means He provided to make that which was unclean clean again that was the point. Therefore the water flowing from God's and the Lamb's throne represents the eternally continuing flow of purification that emits from the divine throne. But it will not be used in a ritual way to purify anyone or anything, because the new cosmos will be in an eternally pure state and defilement a thing of the past. The imagery of a river that purifies is also present in the Psalms. Psalm 46 is very well known in Christianity because of its first words: ‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.’ However, when those words are taken in the context of the entire Psalm we see something much larger emerge: We find the ideas of what is written in this Psalm in Revelation chapters 21 and 22 especially. The earth gives way; mountains disappear into the oceans; a river flows from the city of God where He lives; the earth melts. God brings an end to wars, and God-is-with-us. So what happens in the Eternal Era was long expected in Hebrew culture.” (Bradford) Clear: literally, bright. Flowing: literally, proceeding from the source along a particular, well-defined passageway to spread its influence. It sounds as if the source is one throne belonging to both Elohim and the Lamb. Yeshua did say that His Father had granted him the privilege of sitting with Him on His throne. (3:21)
2. In the middle of its public square, both on this side of the river and [the other] side, was the Tree of Life, producing twelve [crops of] fruit, monthly, each yielding its own fruit, and the tree’s leaves result in the healing of the nations.
“We have a strong contrast developed between two representative cities: wholly unclean Babylon (17:1) and fully pure New Jerusalem… Humans in all ages have been given a grand total of two choices to identify with, and only two: Babylon or New Jerusalem. The world or Heaven. Satan or God. Evil or righteousness. While there are people in every era that have attempted to straddle the wide canyon between those choices, and none more so than in modern times, no such compromise or 3rd choice or hybrid of the two is available. If we identify with one, then the other is abandoned… The 7 letters that begin the Book of Revelation… are meant for all Believers and all congregations of Believers as well. Some are commended for persevering, others are condemned for their lack of faithfulness. The warning is severe for those who make concessions with evil for the sake of getting along in their societies: their salvation history will be reversed. They will become outsiders. They will not be permitted to be part of the eternal Kingdom of God. The choice is stark: be determined and long-suffering to obey God and by doing so remain faithful and receive the most amazing eternal reward we can imagine, or, compromise, disobey, and lose our inheritance altogether. There is no middle ground.” (Bradford) Middle: the same position it held in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:9). This time, however, there is no rival tree here, for that test has been passed and overcome by the Second Adam and mankind fully reinstated. Monthly: How are there months if the city has no need of the moon? But read carefully; it does not say the moon does not exist, but only that it is not needed here. It may be needed in other parts of the new earth. Its own: possibly each will yield a different type of fruit, maybe the types Adam and Hawwah got to taste in Eden. Healing: no longer pharmaceuticals by which so many are held hostage today (for that word is related to the “sorcerers” in 21:8), but rather the natural soothing, therapeutic effects that YHWH has made freely available to all but which are kept from so many by either laws against homeopathy or prohibitive prices, to preserve the advantage of the monopolizers.
3. And there will no longer be any curse. And the throne of Elohim and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will minister to Him.
“The Tree of Life that first made its appearance in the Genesis Creation story is back. The Tree of Life had the property of giving anyone who ate its fruit eternal life. Because Adam and Eve sinned by believing the Serpent over God, and then eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, God barred them from eating from the Tree of Life. Thus the potential for never dying gave way to the certainty that Adam and Eve would perish. And that has been the condition of mankind ever since, and it will remain so for most living Believers throughout the Millennial Kingdom period. But upon the re-created new earth, the Tree of Life will return, be made accessible, and all may eat freely from it because eternal life is theirs without further qualification.” (Bradford) Curse: can also mean “cursed thing”, but this is a byproduct of the (single) curse itself, which is being alluded to by all of these allusions to the Garden of Eden and this new creation, which precludes this possibility from ravaging YHWH’s creation again. . “To a Jew in John's day it would be important to have it made clear that the curse of the Law (death) is no longer in effect on the new earth. And this fits well with Yeshua's statement in Matthew 5 that upon the passing away of the old earth and heavens, the Torah would be abolished. Therefore it may well be that there is an intended connection between the leaves of the Tree of Life serving or healing the nations and the end of the curse… “ (Bradford) Minister: render acceptable service, especially in the context of religious homage such as carried out by the priests and Levites in the days of the Tabernacle and Temple. “We have God and the Lamb.... spoken of completely separately… sharing the same throne. If one sets manmade doctrines on the shelf and reads the Bible in its plain sense, the Bible characterizes the Father as the supreme chief of the Godhead. He directs Yeshua, [who] clearly states that He can ONLY do what the Father tells Him to do. (Yochanan 5:19; 8:28) …[Messiah] hands rule of the earth back over to God (the Father) at the end of the Millennium… Yeshua as the saving will of God was sent to operate and fulfill His purpose on Earth, while …the Father continued to operate in Heaven. There is no hint that Yeshua operated simultaneously on earth and in Heaven… [But here] we essentially have two persons occupying the same throne, with only one to be worshipped... The plurals and singulars don't match up. Therefore [some] commentators believe that in perhaps the late 2nd or early 3rd century, somebody (no doubt a gentile Christian) added the words ‘and the Lamb’ to emphasize Jesus who is otherwise left out… The mention of Heaven as a separate place from Earth, a place of another and different dimension where God and the angels dwelled, is no longer here...Whereas God's home had always been Heaven, now His home is earth as He dwells among humans and probably the angels as well.” (Bradford)
4. And they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.
See His face: This bespeaks a complete removal of our sin and mortality, for at present, seeing Him would consume us. We will be able to know Him face to face again, as Adam did before he disobeyed. This account is of the full-circle restoration of humanity, so that we can again govern the rest of YHWH’s creation in the way we were always meant to. (Gen. 2:15) Foreheads: where the high priest had the tzitz which read, “Dedicated to YHWH.” “The meaning is for the worshipper to identify with God and no other.” (Bradford)
5. And there will be no night there, nor will they have need of the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Master Elohim will shine [His] light on them, and they will exercise dominion into the ages of the ages.
“The Universe is no longer one of opposites since there will only be daytime. Any kind of darkness is viewed negatively by the Holy Scriptures… When humans can't understand something, or something is secret, the term "dark" is regularly applied. There are basically two kinds of darkness the Bible speaks of: choshek, that is a spiritual darkness of deception and oppression, and layil that simply means the absence of daytime; in other words nighttime. But even nighttime is seen negatively because nighttime is when the lawless operate best, as when thieves come to steal. Neither kind of darkness will exist on the New Jerusalem, and probably also not on the entire new earth.” (Bradford) If they will all rule, over whom will they have dominion? The animals and all of the rest of creation, for that was the job YHWH gave us from the beginning. (Gen. 2:15) But more: “Don't you know that God's people are going to judge the universe?… Don't you know that we will judge angels?” (1 Cor. 6:2-3)
6. And he said to me, “These things that have been said are trustworthy and true. YHWH, the Elohim of the spirits of the prophets, has sent His messenger to show His servants the things that must come about in rapid succession.
His messenger: Yeshua (1:1). “In 21:5 the speaker is identified as ‘The One’ who is sitting on the throne. ‘The One’ or ‘The Ancient One’ have been used previously in the Bible to indicate God the Father. So in 21:5, it seems that it was Yehoveh, the Father, who uttered: "These words are trustworthy and true". But now in 22:6, these same words seem to be coming from Yeshua the Lamb. The speaker identifies Himself as "I am coming very soon". (Bradford) Verse 12 identifies this as Yeshua. Spirits: the activating or essential element of a person that influences that person's thoughts, motives, and behaviors. “For the prophets it meant that they allowed God to move within that element of themselves so that their thoughts, motives, and behaviors reflected His will and not their own… The purpose of these divine visions… is so that God's worshippers will be privy to what is going to happen soon. Some of the ancient Greek manuscripts of Revelation include the word ‘soon’ or ‘quickly’ and others do not… The 1st and 2nd generation of Believers (particularly the Jewish Believers) thought that [Messiah's] return and thus the happenings of the End Times were imminent. After those generations, when time passed and nothing happened, and as gentiles gained more control over the Believing congregations, the sense of urgency lessened considerably. However, …the End Times is 2000 years closer… than when John wrote this book. And since we know that in order for most of these things to come about, Israel must have returned as a nation to their original land, which it did a mere 70 years ago, then no doubt the beginning of End Times events is going to come sooner than later. That knowledge ought to fill us with a renewed sense of resolution and devotion to prepare not only our own hearts and to bring our thoughts and behaviors in line with God's commandments, but also to do our level best to influence others to seek God and His Son, Yeshua …, for eternal protection.” (Bradford)
7. “Behold, I am coming without delay. Blessed is the one who guards [and preserves] the words of the prophecy of this book.”
“A sense of urgency is introduced into this book's call to holiness. It is made by repeating the same essential message over and over; and that urgency revolves around the timing and certainty of Yeshua making His long-awaited return…At [that] moment…, the spiritual condition and therefore the eternal future of each and every human being that is living, or has ever lived, will be forever frozen. This means that when the Trumpet sounds … it does not signal a final opportunity to make a decision or to rethink a wrong one; rather it means the time for decision has come and gone. Permanently. This is the context in which we must understand the final few precious words of the Bible.” (Bradford) This verse acts as the other “bookend”, paired with 1:3. “We must embrace this book as a treasure and as a command. [YHWH] does something very unusual in it; He gifts us with a glimpse of not only the historical future, but also of the eternal future after the end of history. He sets out requirements for us to participate in the Millennial Kingdom and after that the new earth and new Universe; but also the things that disqualify us. Yet, some of those disqualifiers are no longer politically or socially popular to utter, and so societies and even churches have often sought to find ways to dilute.” (Bradford)
8. When I, Yochanan, saw these things, and [understood what I] heard. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the messenger who had shown me these things.
Though before this a different messenger—one of seven previously seen in the book (21:9)—had shown him many things, it appears that the messenger speaking to him immediately before this is Yeshua himself, who had been speaking to him until 21:8. (vv. 6-7, and v. 12 below) With this in mind, take special note of what he says next:
9. But he said to me, “Beware that you don’t [do that]! Because I am your fellow servant, and [one] of your brothers, the prophets, and [one] of those who guard the words of this book. Worship Elohim!
Yeshua (v. 16) reminds us that he, too, worships YHWH as Elohim, and we are not to worship anything or anyone less than Him alone. He, although sinless and already raised to a higher level of existence and authority, still intends to be “the firstborn of many brothers”, blazing the path for us to do the same things he is doing (v. 7), ultimately turning us into what he is—but that could never be the case if he were YHWH Himself.
10. And he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the season is [drawing] near.
Contrast this with 10:4, where some of what came before was sealed up. “While Daniel was told to keep the visions of the future that were given to him a secret (Dan. 12:4), John was told to publish those he received. Why could John reveal what Daniel had to conceal? Daniel tells us what the criteria is for revealing what at first God wanted held back: that knowledge would increase. …Not only Revelation but also the words of the Old Testament Prophets in past times were often not understood or they were outright misunderstood until with the passage of time, enough history unfolded so that the circumstances surrounding the prophesied events became imaginable or even apparent. John had substantially more knowledge and understanding than Daniel because John lived 7 centuries after Daniel… While for Daniel salvation was little more than the Jewish people being rescued from their Babylonian captivity and returning, in freedom, to their homeland, that was but a shadow of what was coming. John came to understand salvation on an entirely different level. No longer was salvation only a liberation from an earthly oppressor; it had become a spiritual reality of far more impact because it crosses all cultural boundaries and transcends all eras. Even the One who performed the saving act was known to John. Daniel was given a brief insight into several distant, even End Times, events. But he could make little sense of them because they were utterly bizarre to his mind. (Dan. 8:27) …John had the benefit of Daniel's, Ezekiel's, Isaiah's, and all the other Old Testament Prophets prophecies. Still; most of the visions were to take place so far from John's time, as we are now privileged to know, that there was no way that he could possibly understand the features, shapes, objects, and human institutions that he was being shown. But rather than being confused to the point of illness as with Daniel, John was awed to the point of wrongly worshipping the messenger.” (Bradford)
11. “The one who is unjust, let him remain unjust still, and the one who is defiled, let him remain defiled, but the one who is righteous, let him continue to act [accordingly], and the one who is holy, let him continue to behave in a holy manner.
The window by which we can repent is about to be shut. This verse “is a modern Theologian's nightmare. It says something about God that many do not want to admit or entertain. It is that our loving and longsuffering Lord can also be severe… [This is] an offshoot of the story of the divine hardening of Pharaoh's heart in Exodus… Because [YHWH knows everything] He will at times set His hand against someone such that they seem to lose the ability to make a different choice than they've already made. That is, God blocks their ability to reconsider and repent…These startling pronouncements; they are a kind of rewording of something Daniel said: ‘The wicked will keep on acting wickedly, and none of the wicked will understand. But those with discernment will understand.’ (Dan. 12:10) Since the wicked will go on behaving wickedly they will not understand either the goodness of the Lord or the meaning of the events of the End Times as they begin to happen… Over time, and eventually, character tends to become fixed and unchangeable and consequently determines each person's destiny. This is more a proverb than a law because while not true 100% of the time, it is true far more than it is not.” (Bradford)
12. “Here I come—and suddenly! Moreover, my reward is with me, to give back to each one [what he is due] commensurate with what he has accomplished.
Suddenly: “Messiah's return is imminent and it will occur instantly when that time comes. Therefore, as these two troubling statements say, and as we discussed earlier, it is important that a person not delay in making their decision for Christ before He returns because at the moment of it that person's condition and future are set in stone before he or she has a chance to change their mind…It cannot be more plainly said that what we do during our lives on earth will have a serious impact on our eternal lives…Notice who is speaking: it is Yeshua. So it should come as no surprise that we see this principle that our obedience and works based on God's Laws during our lives will be the determining factor for our place and our reward in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mat. 5:17-19), even though our basic membership in the Kingdom is determined solely on our sincere trust in [Messiah].” (Bradford)
13. “I am the Alef and the Tav, the first and the last, the origin and the goal.
“All throughout Revelation we clearly are witness to some sort of division of authority and labor in which YHWH and the Lamb are spoken of distinctively, separately, and even set in a hierarchy with the Father as the ultimate and the Son (the Lamb) as the subservient. Now, upon the Re-Creation that begets a new earth and a new Universe, that reorientation seems to have ended and … the division of authority, labor and hierarchy seems to have dissolved back into exactly as it was in the beginning… All will become clear as our eternity with this same majestic and mysterious God begins.” (Bradford) Origin: or beginning; Yeshua earlier described himself as “the beginning of YHWH’s creation” (3:14), and he (as the “last”) will sum it all up at the end and give everything he has repaired back to the Father, so the YHWH Himself may be the only focus. (1 Cor. 15:24ff) He is also called the “goal of the Torah” in regard to righteousness. (Romans 10:4)
14. “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to [access] the Tree of Life and enter into the city by way of the gates.
Wash their robes: “Commentators and theologians debate over whether there was a manuscript error regarding this phrase because to many of them this statement smacks of a believer essentially saving him or herself by washing their own robe…The washing of robes as a metaphor for holiness was spoken about much earlier” ‘These people dressed …are the people who have come out of the Great Persecution. They have washed their robes and made them white with the blood of the Lamb.’ (7:13-14) How can a robe be made white by being soaked in… blood? Wouldn't it come out red? We have to step back and understand that this was simply a common manner of speaking and that the idea is that those who are holy and righteous have the right to enter the gates of the New Jerusalem and eat from the Tree of Life.” (Bradford) Right: privilege or authority. By way of the gates: and not like a thief or a robber, sneaking in some other way. (Yochanan 10:1) The Tree of Life is currently barred to us, but if we follow His instructions, we can again one day soon regain access.
15. “Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the fornicators and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who has a liking for and practice of whatever is false.
Dogs: often an idiom for male (sometimes homosexual) pagan temple prostitutes, but the analogy could extend to anyone who ravenously “feeds” off their prey like a wild and ruthless, unmannerly canine. “In biblical Jewish society and even in ancient Hebrew times, dogs were held in contempt as being filthy and nearly without worth. They were not pets and in Jewish ritual they were unclean. Dogs were viewed as shameless, without any redeeming virtues. Thus as you can imagine, the term dog was used as a nasty epithet hurled toward an enemy or a despised person for any number of reasons… Sorcerers… invariably used magical concoctions (drugs) as part and parcel of their sorcery.” (Bradford) Fornicators: or sexually immoral, whoremongers, chaste; Gk., pornos, which include male homosexual prostitutes as well. Idolaters “can include atheists who essentially worship themselves as supreme beings therefore putting themselves in the place of God… Each of these behavioral categories does NOT mean that if you have at some time in your life committed one or the other of these behaviors that you will not inherit eternal life. Rather we are to understand these as behaviors that have grown to the level of chosen identities and lifestyles. Although on the surface this is a list of those excluded from the city of New Jerusalem, it is meant to communicate those who are excluded from the new earth entirely; otherwise it is nonsensical since the new earth is an eternally created place of purest holiness with sin and evil having been completely eradicated. ” (Bradford)
16. “I, Yeshua, have sent my messenger to bear witness to you of these things regarding the called-out congregations. I am the root and the offspring of David, the brilliant star of the early morning.”
This is a reiteration of 1:1, which also includes Yochanan, who relayed this message from the angel to us all. Root: or source. He, as the prototype for Adam, the first to bear YHWH’s image, and then the second one to flesh it out, he both formed the blueprint for David and then took his place in human history in the royal lineage of David.
17. Both the spirit and the bride say, “Come!” and let the one who hears [also] say, “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come, and whoever wishes, let him receive the living water freely.
Bride: those who are part of the New Yerushalayim. (21:9ff) “We Believers…are responsible to tell the world the truth, even though most do not want to hear it. Our job is only to obey; and in this case obedience is to speak the truth of the Gospel to the unsaved. Our job is NOT to persuade or to save; that is the job of the Holy Spirit.” (Bradford) Thirsty: This is an allusion to Yeshayahu/Isaiah 55:1, so read the entire context: why waste your resources on anything less than water truly satisfies? Bradford summarizes, “There has never been another message or offer such as this in history, and never will there be. But there is a consequence for refusing this offer or, just as bad, perverting the message”:
18. I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone should add to these things, Elohim will add to him the plagues that have been described in this book.
19. And if anyone should take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, Elohim will take away his share in he Tree of Life and [his allotment] from within the holy city, of those who have been enrolled into this book.
He is echoing Moshe’s warnings in regard to the Torah (Deuteronomy 4:2), suggesting that the same holds true for the whole of Scripture. “Should anyone treat God's Word and message carelessly and have the arrogance to want to make changes to its meaning, intent, and content then God will remove what would have otherwise been theirs” (Bradford)
20. The one who is bearing witness of these things says, “Yes, [indeed], I am coming suddenly.” Amen! Do come, Master Yeshua!
21. May the empowering favor of the Master, Yeshua [the Messiah] be with all [the holy ones. Amen!]
INTRODUCTION: This is a vision Yochanan the Envoy had while exiled for Yeshua's sake on the island of Patmos (1:9), off the coast of present-day Turkey. (See photos above.) It was a penal location designed to be inescapable, much like the island of Alcatraz today. When studying its details, we need to remember that it was essentially a dream--a waking dream, yes, but full of the same kind of imagery that had more symbolic than literal meaning, though it had very specific meanings known to its original audience, being largely culled from many parts of previous Scriptures. Much of it is echoed in an Aramaic apocalyptic document found by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely in 1923 among the Vatican archives and traced to the Essene sect, known best for their Qumran community but often paralleling the Renewed Covenant in their themes. Fragments of this same document in Hebrew are also said to have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, without the direct references to Yeshua as such. The upshot of the book is that truth will ultimately triumph, so we should endure and overcome the temporary suffering that we may need to endure for the sake of that purpose. One key to reading it is that it is not necessarily chronological. It is presented “in sections that are organized thematically, and then within those thematic sections it is chronological. But they are giving us a view of events of the end—different stretches of time leading up to the end and focusing on particular things in each one of those segments. It’s too much to tell people everything that’s going on when you’re trying to teach things topically. So you take one stretch of time and you focus on one particular line of action. Then you step back and… focus on another line of action.” (Alexander Lawrence)
THE UNVEILING OF
Yeshua the Messiah
PART II: Chapters 12-22
