Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Revelation 8:6

"And the seven angels that had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound." — Revelation 8:6 (ASV)

Two questions confront the interpreter at this point: (1) What is the relationship of the trumpets to the preceding seals and the following bowls? (2) Are the events described symbolic or literal?

In answer to the first question, there are two options: either the series are parallel and simultaneous or they are sequential. It is not possible to decide with certainty for either view, for each contains elements of truth. This commentary has already argued for the chronological priority of the first five seals to the events of the trumpets and bowls . But the sixth seal seems to take us into the period of the outpouring of God’s wrath that is enacted in the trumpet and bowl judgments (6:12–17).

The sequential factors are as follows: (1) There is a rise in the intensity of the judgments (only a part of earth and humankind is affected in the trumpets, but all are affected under the bowls). (2) There is a difference in sequence and content of the events described in each series. (3) The reference to those not sealed in 9:4 (fifth trumpet) presupposes the sealing of 7:1–8. (4) The explicit statement in 8:12 implies a sequence between seals and trumpets—“When he opened the seventh seal... I saw the seven angels... to them were given seven trumpets.” (5) The bowl judgments are directly called the “last plagues” because with them God’s wrath is “completed” (15:1), implying the prior trumpet judgments. When the seventh bowl is poured out, the words “It is done” are spoken (16:17).

On the other hand, there are parallelisms. The sixth-seventh seal (6:12ff.), the seventh trumpet (11:15ff.), and the seventh bowl (16:17ff.) all seem to depict events associated with the second coming of Christ. This last event parallelism may indicate that all these series (seals, trumpets, bowls) are parallel in their entirety or that there is a partial recapitulation or overlap in the three series. The text seems to demand some type of sequential understanding and hence rules out a complete parallelism.

The main question is whether the parallelism indicates that the events described under the sixth-seventh seal, seventh trumpet, and seventh bowl are identical or merely similar and hence really sequential. Here the following points are relevant: (1) The sixth seal brings us into the period of God’s wrath on the beast worshipers but does not actually advance beyond that event to refer to the coming of Christ (6:12–17). (2) The seventh seal introduces the trumpet judgments, which run their course, and the seventh trumpet seems to bring us into the kingdom of Christ (11:15–18). (3) The seventh bowl likewise brings us to the consummation and return of Christ, that is, if we keep in mind that the incident of Babylon’s destruction is an elaboration of events under the seventh bowl (16:17ff.; 19:11ff.).

But are all three series parallel in their last events or only parallel in the last trumpet and last bowl? It seems apparent that the “third woe” (9:12; 11:14) is never fulfilled by the seventh trumpet, unless the content of the seventh trumpet is the seven bowls, which is also the “third woe.” This is another way of saying that there is some limited recapitulation or overlap with the seventh seal and the first trumpets and in the seventh trumpet with the first bowls. This might be called a telescopic view of the seals, bowls, and trumpets. Further support for this view is also found in observing that interludes come between the sixth and seventh seals and between the sixth and seventh trumpets but not between the sixth and seventh bowls, which would be expected if the trumpets were strictly parallel to the bowls.

The second problem concerns the literalness of the events described under each trumpet. The important but hard question is not literal versus nonliteral but what John intended. Some things may need to be understood more literally and others symbolically. For example, the reference to the army of 200 million (9:16–19) can hardly be literal (cf. comment on 9:16). Either the number is figurative or the army refers to demonic powers rather than human soldiers. It is also difficult to handle literally the reference to the eagle that speaks human words (8:13). While there is no way to settle this problem finally, this exposition will attempt to steer between a literal approach and a totally symbolic one.

As in the seals, there is a discernible literary pattern in the unfolding of the trumpets. The first four trumpets are separated from the last three, which are called “woes” (8:13; 9:12; 11:14), and are generally reminiscent of the plagues in Exodus. While John refers in 15:3 to the Song of Moses (Exodus 15:1–18), he does not follow out the plague parallelism precisely, and the connections should not always be pressed.

Shofar “trumpets” (GK 4894; made of a ram’s horn) were used in Jewish life as signaling instruments. They sounded alarms for war or danger as well as for peace and announced the new moon, the beginning of the Sabbath, or the death of a notable. Trumpets were also used to throw enemies into panic (Jdg 7:19– 20). Their use as eschatological signals of the day of the Lord or the return of Christ is well established in the OT and NT (Isaiah 27:13; Joel 2:1; Zephaniah 1:16; Matthew 24:31; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16).