Seven Bowls of Wrath: the ecological relevance of Revelation

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Summer, 2008 by Richard Woods

   John has modeled his plagues of trumpets (and bowls) on the plagues
   of Egypt. One must assume that his plagues, like the Egyptian
   plagues, are not the vindictive punishment of human sin but rather
   the result of human rejection of God's invitation. The plagues of
   Egypt were not punishment of Pharaoh; they were designed to procure
   the liberation of God's people: "Let my son go" (Exod 4:23). Just
   as the appeal to Pharaoh was vain, so, John believes, God will
   continue to encounter human intransigence [Harrington: 108].

Beale and Aune are less reticent than Harrington to employ the language of punishment, even given the repetitive "divine passive" construction that shifts agency at least slightly towards the permissive will of God. It is worth noting, however, that the typical NT vocabulary of punishment is lacking in Revelation. Of the half-dozen terms routinely used by Christian writers, only one, ekdikeo, finds its way into John's Greek, and that only in two verses, 6:10 and 19:2, where it is usually translated as "vengeance." Overall it may be granted that the blows of Revelation are primarily meant to move people to repentance, not to harm them or Creation. That they do so results from human impenitence, not divine malice.

On this reading, God intends to transform, renew, and heal Creation. At the finale of Revelation, God does not obliterate the present world and create a different one, as seen in the appearance of familiar features such as Jerusalem itself, purified and renewed. There is no more warrant to posit that the images of the "first" heavens and earth passing away, the sea vanishing (21:1), or the mountains and islands "fleeing" from the presence of God (6:14, 16:20) mean the annihilation of the cosmos or the "universal destruction of the earth" (Beale: 842,844) than there is to accept a literal reading of the plagues of the first six bowls or, for example, the geographical reality of "Har Megiddo" (see especially Beale: 838-41). After all, the angel takes John to the top of a great and lofty mountain to witness the descent of the Holy Jerusalem (21:10). Nations, sick people, even sinners still walk the earth (see Rev. 21:27 and esp. 22: 15), even if the latter are not allowed entry into the New Jerusalem. Neither literalism nor a foolish consistency are traits of the author of Revelation!

As for the location of Armageddon (16:16), the site of the final confrontation between the followers of Christ and the forces of Satan, it must be taken as a symbol of ultimate conflict, not a specific geographical locale. John is sufficiently generous in his descriptions to banish any prospect of locating it outside the walls of Jerusalem (20:9), as Megiddo lies about 60 miles north by northwest of the Holy City. As Beale remarks, "The battles in Israel associated with Megiddo and the nearby mountain became a typological symbol of the last battle against the saints and Christ, which occurs throughout the earth." (Beale: 838.)

Generally, the calamitous events of the final plagues, metaphorical or not, are characteristic of the apocalyptic imagery common to Christian and late Jewish writings of the period, including violent storms, wars, and disturbances in the heavens--the "birth pangs" of the new world (see Matt 24.6-8, 24:29; Mark 13:24-26; Luke 21:25-27; Acts 2:19-20 = Joel 2:10, 30-32. Cf. also 4 Esdras 5:5, 7:39-40). As a hundred generations of Christians have believed in one way or another, such omens are applicable in every age, including--perhaps most especially--our own.