What is Michael doing with his angels in Revelation 12?
This Sunday's lectionary reading is from Rev 12.7–12 in celebration of the feast of Michael and All Angels. Although the festival focusses on Michael, everything almost this passages actually focussesaway from Michael and points united states of america to the victory of God and the lamb—even Michael's proper name! This is what I wrote in my Tyndale Commentary, as an introduction to chapter 12, comments on the particular verses, and a theological conclusion to the whole chapter.
We now come to what commentators universally agree is the central and pivotal chapter in the book. Although this chapter is non styled every bit an interlude to a series in way chapters 7 and 10–xi are, it stands out as distinctive in fashion and language. A decisive break with the previous narrative is marked past the opening comment, not 'And I saw…' but 'And a cracking sign appeared in heaven…'
The shape of this chapter and the i that follows are also distinctive. Together, Rev. 12–13 form the longest continuous narrative inside the whole book. But Rev. 12 itself has perhaps the clearest structure of whatsoever department, following into 4 interconnected parts:
- opening narrative nigh the woman, the child and the dragon (vv. 1–half-dozen)
- brusk narrative nearly war in heaven (vv. 7–9)
- poetic hymn of praise (vv. 10–12)
- resumption of the opening narrative of woman, child and dragon (vv. 13–17)
As we shall come across, sections ii and 3 are epexegetical of each preceding department, that is, they function to explain what has gone earlier, until the original narrative is resumed after the hymn has made articulate what this whole episode is almost. And explanation is needed considering of the unusual nature of the main narrative in 1–6 and 13–17, which contains many ideas that are not found in the Old Testament nor earlier in Revelation. We tin recognize the characters easily enough – the woman as the people of God awaiting deliverance, the dragon as 'that ancient ophidian called the devil', the kid who is the anointed rex in Psalm 2, Michael the great angelic prince of Israel – but the plot is strange to usa.
Still, it would not have been strange to John nor to his audience. It has clear connections to a myth that was widely circulated from the third century BC to the second century Advertisement in a variety of forms, the best known being the story of Leto, Python and Apollo. Python, a huge dragon, was warned by an oracle that he would be destroyed by one of Leto's children. Leto was a lover of Zeus who was married to Hera. When Hera learned that Leto was meaning, she banished her; Leto gave nascence to her twins, Artemis and Apollo, on the island of Delos (about 40 miles (70 km) westward of Patmos). Python pursued her in club to destroy her offspring, but she was carried away by Aquilo (Latin for the due north wind) and protected past Poseidon with waves. When four days one-time, Apollo hunted downward Python and killed him with arrows (both Apollo and Artemis were archers). [This is a summary of the version recorded by the Latin writer Hyginus in his collection of mythology Fabulae(no. 140). Hyginus (ca. 64 BC to Advertising 17) was a freedman of Augustus and the superintendent of the library on the Palatine.] This story was used every bit imperial propaganda, particularly by Domitian, to portray the emperor every bit Apollo, the son of the gods and defeater of the chaos monster.
John has previously blended Sometime Testament ideas with elements of the emperor cult, particularly in the vision of worship in Rev. 4. Hither, though, is a detail way of bringing the two together – past taking the characters from one narrative (the biblical story) and inserting them into the plotline from some other narrative (the Leto myth). This is a device we continue to run into today in many forms of political drawing. To brand sense of it, we need to recognize both the characters (which come up from 1 context, the scriptures of the Old Testament) and the plot (which comes from some other context, the world of Greco-Roman mythology, peculiarly equally appropriated in imperial propaganda). In doing this, John's vision report inverts the story, displacing imperial power from the office of Apollo by the Davidic messiah, and instead associating the empire with the chaos monster, the dragon.
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State of war in heaven (12:vii–9)
Annotate
7.The register of language now changes, and John's vision report switches from drawing on the Python/Leto myth to drawing on Jewish images of celestial gainsay. [In a related myth, Typhon, another dragon monster, fights Zeus and is cast downwardly to Tartarus by him. Though John'south audience might have been familiar with this story, the shape of information technology does not appear to accept been a major influence on the text.] The war in heavenis initiated with the enthronement of the male son, which implies a clash of authorities, fifty-fifty though the presence of Satan in heaven has not been previously mentioned (in contrast to the scene described in Chore 1:half-dozen–viii). The appearance of angelic warfare was taken by Jews and pagans as a sign that man warfare was almost to suspension out, though here the heavenly conflict actually leads to conflict on earth when Satan is cast down.
Michaelwas one of the four or seven ruling angels ('archangel'; Jude nine) and presumably one of those who blew the trumpets (see annotate on viii:ii). His name (mi-cha-el) in Hebrew means 'Who is like God?', a question parodied in the later question 'Who is like the beast?' in 13:4. Though some Jewish literature gives Michael a primordial role in against Satan in the creation, his main office is eschatological. He is described in Dan. 10:13, 21;12:1 as the 'chief of princes' who assists other angels in their warfare against other angelic powers, and as 'the groovy prince who protects your people', thus linking him with the woman as an image of God'southward people. Within the narrative, it is notable that it is non the enthroned male son who fights against the dragon, but one of his angels. His dominance has been delegated, and victory is certain; the struggle between the forces of expert and evil is in no sense a disharmonism of equals.
8. 'Might' or 'force' is a quality ascribed to God (7:12) and diverse angels (10:1; 18:21) likewise equally something claimed past Babylon (eighteen:10); Revelation could therefore be characterised as depicting an (diff) power struggle in which (contrary to appearance) the power of the dragon (which is behind the power of man empires) is not strong enoughto overcome the credible weakness of the child or the slain lamb. The phrase translated they lost their place in heavenis grammatically very odd, literally reading 'nor was their place institute any longer in sky'. The loss of a 'identify' contrasts with the 'place' prepared for the woman for her protection. Merely more than importantly, the same phrase is found in one Greek version (Theodotion) of Dan. 2:35, describing the destruction of the statue which represents human empires by the stone 'not made by homo hands' which symbolises the coming kingdom of God. It is as well plant in the Greek of Ps. 37:36, about the wicked who 'before long passed away and were no more'. Though the psalm reads similar a reflection on the wicked in general, in Qumran information technology was interpreted as predicting the eschatological overthrow of the Wicked Priest who opposed the Instructor of Righteousness. Michael is hither enacting the rule of the promised king, now enthroned with God, whose kingdom displaces all human empires and whose rule brings wickedness to an cease.
ix.John hither draws together the various traditions in the Sometime Attestation almost the primeval opponent of God. In the Greek One-time Testament, the word for 'dragon' or 'sea monster' and 'ophidian' are often the same, and so this identification is natural plenty, and information technology draws the chaotic monsters of the deep who were tamed by the ordering of God aslope the agent of evil who stands confronting the goodness of God. The serpentin the garden of Eden is not identified with Satan in the Genesis narrative, but by the first century this identification was common, for instance in Paul's encouragement that 'the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet' (Rom. sixteen:xx), an innuendo to Gen. 3:15. Devil(diabolos) meaning 'slanderer' is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Satanmeaning 'accuser', and the two terms are used interchangeably in the New Attestation. 'Satan' could refer to a man accuser (as in Ps. 71:13) merely came to mean the spiritual beingness who was the accuser of God's people (as in Chore one:6–8). The devil was especially associated with demons (who were understood as his malevolent angels) and in this capacity was called Beelzebub ('Lord of the flies', Matt. 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15) a name derived from a Philistine god (two Kings 1:2–3). He is the 'evil one' from whom nosotros pray for deliverance (Matt. 6:xiii) and is too Belial or Beliar, significant 'worthless one' (ii Cor. half-dozen:15). The devil is frequently depicted equally deceiving people by luring them into temptation, equally in Jesus temptations in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1–11; Luke 4:1–13). In the Johannine tradition he is 'the father of lies' (John 8:44) and Paul highlights his deceptive disguise (two Cor. 11:14).
When did Satan'southward fall occur, when he was thrown down? The account of the autumn of the 'morning star' (Latin Lucifer) in Isa. fourteen:12–14 appears to refer to the king of Babylon but has later on been read as a description of Satan's primordial fall and corruption – though there is no clear connection made in this passage. When the seventy-two return from their ministry of proclamation, healing and exorcism Jesus declares 'I saw Satan fall similar lightning from heaven' (Luke 10:xviii) – merely this must be understood equally an apprehension of Jesus' victory over evil in his cross and resurrection rather than the attainment of information technology. In John's gospel, the 'hour' of 'sentence on this world' in which 'Satan, the ruler of this world cast out' (John 12:31) is the moment when Jesus is 'lifted up', that is, his crucifixion. In the narrative here in Revelation, Satan's fall follows Jesus' exaltation to the throne, but we are before long told that 'the accuser' has been thrown down and victory won in the starting time case 'by the blood of the lamb' (five. xi). So at that place is a twin focus on Jesus' death andhis exaltation, expressed earlier by the presence of the slainlamb on the throne in Rev. 5.
Though Satan no longer has a place in heaven, he does continue to practise power onthe earth. John is recasting the temporal paradox of the Christian life into a spatial one. The time that the followers live in is one of testimony and victory yet at the same time one in which they feel suffering and apparent defeat. In spatial terms, they are sky-dwellers who are before the throne in heaven and found the temple of God, and so are protected from the power of Satan who has no place there. And nevertheless they continue as members of many tribes, languages, peoples and nations, living in their various cities on world where Satan, for a short fourth dimension (12:12), wields his limited power.
The hymn of praise (12:10–12)
Comment
10.In the second major alter of style inside this chapter, John hears the authoritative declaration of a loud vocalization from sky. In the nownosotros take reached the central point of the fundamental affiliate of the book – the pivot around which the whole narrative turns. John has been speaking the words of the exalted Jesus to the particular state of affairs of the Christian communities in the province of Asia. He has shared with them his vision of worship in heaven and of the slain lamb who shares the throne. He has depicted the chaos and evil unleashed on the globe under the permissive authority of God. And the repeated implicit and explicit question has been 'How long will this last? What volition God exercise about it?'. The preliminary answers take been offered in the ii interludes – that he has formed a people for himself from every nation, that he has called John and others to practice a ministry building of prophetic witness. Merely at present the fullest answer comes to the question, the one which his people and their testimony point to: that in Jesus' death, resurrection and exaltation the kingdom of Godand with it the authority of his Messiahor Christ accept now come. If the first half of the book has been edifice up to the revelation of this, not least through it frequent anticipations of it, then the second half of the volume depicts its working out, not least in the sentence that comes to all other rival kingdoms (empires).
Salvation has been acclaimed every bit belonging to God by the uncountable multitude in 7:10, and will be acclaimed again at the autumn of Babylon in 19:one. It represents a straight counter-claim to that of the Roman emperor, who claimed to bring salvation by subduing the empire'southward enemies and bringing peace and prosperity. Power is mentioned 12 times in the text, and (like the linguistic communication of force in five. 8 above) expresses the rival claims of God and his spiritual opponents (cf. 13:two; 17:13). In the by, Satan's accusations of God'southward people could be countered (Chore 1:8) or forgiven (Zech. three:1–four) past God, only now the accuser himself has been expelled, and no more accusations will be heard. 'Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus' (Rom. 8:1).
11.The language of triumph (nika ō) connects this cardinal passage to the exhortations in the messages to the seven assemblies in Rev. 2–three. Although it is the lambwho has triumphed, the victory belongs too to God's people, since they now relish liberty from the fear of accusation and participate in the kingdom and ability that has been made available to them. The victory has two parts to information technology, one which is de jurewhich establishes the victory, and the other which is de facto, in that it makes the victory existent and visible. The first is the blood of the lambwhich is a metonym for his death, and the second is the word of their testimony, that is, their faithful witness to the truth and transformative ability of the death of the lamb. Without the starting time, at that place is no basis for victory over Satan and the power that he exercises; without the second, there is no reality in it. And the two are bound closely together, since truthful testimony means that the witnesses do not shrink from deceasewhich is precisely following the blueprint of Jesus, the faithful witness, who 'loved us and freed u.s. from our sins by his blood'. To follow the crucified one means to live the cruciform live (Marker 8:34; Phil iii:ten). This kind of conquest, which involves suffering from violent oppression, is in precipitous and constant contrast with the conquest of the beasts who inflict violence. This does not mean either that simply the martyrs are saved, or that all God's people will die a martyrs death, only simply that this is emblematic of the kind of faith and its 'patient endurance' (1:ix) to which the whole community is called.
12.The victory of the lamb is both good news and bad news – good news for those who dwell inthe heavens, but bad news for the earth and the sea. This corresponds to John'southward experience of eating the whorl, which is both sweet and bitter (10:ten) since his prophetic bulletin is given both to those who receive the message of salvation and those who reject it. The spatial distinction between heaven and earth is once again about distinctions in spiritual reality, since those following the lamb are the ones who 'dwell in heaven' (13:6) while those who follow the animate being are described every bit 'inhabitants of the earth' (13:8). The earth here is bracketed with the sea, which in the Former Testament is the source of chaos and opposition to God. The devil's fourth dimension(kairos) is short, not in terms of days and years and then much equally being limited in extent by the authority of God.
Although it is not numbered by John, this is the next proclamation of woe following the ii which corresponded to the fifth and sixth trumpets (in 9:12 and xi:14). The declaration that 'the third woe is coming soon' (eleven:14) is followed immediately by this narrative and this warning of woe, which suggests that John understands the nowadays era, between Jesus' exaltation and his return, as the 3rd 'woe'. The first 2 woes plant the threats from the north and the e to the empire itself, and any other kind of threat to human peace and well-being; simply the tertiary woe is the threat that the empire itself presents as an instrument of the dragon in the oppression of the people of God. From the story of cosmic conflict in Rev. 12, we plough in Rev. thirteen to the specific expression of that manifested in Roman imperial power in the province of Asia.
Theology
Even though the figure of Jesus (depicted in person or in an image) is not equally central hither equally he is in chapters i and v, in this pivotal chapter the claims of Jesus are brought nearly sharply into focus as rival claims to that of the Roman empire. In the literary equivalent of a political drawing, John's vision report takes a piece of regal propaganda and inverts its effect. Rome is no longer the strong hero Apollo who vanquishes the chaos monster, simply is in fact allied with the chaos monster then is threatened with defeat. Jesus is not a marginal figure who is the inspiration for an insignificant religious move, merely is the Apollo figure who is the true bringer of victory and peace. The event of this on John's audience is to push them to a crunch of decision; they accept in dissimilar ways been affirmed and challenged in their loyalty in the vii letters, and the seals and trumpets have confronted them with the true source of uncertainty and the real answer to it. Now the crisis deepens: to ally oneself with the empire is to ally oneself with the spiritual adversary to both God and his people.
John'southward use of Old Testament traditions, item those of Daniel, paints this crunch of decision on a wide historical sail. Although the detail challenge faces John's audience is ane particular system of empire, his coalescing of the clarification of the beasts in Daniel 7 portrays their situation as one among the many that humanity faces from one era to the next. Inasmuch as they are the claims that only God tin can make, all such homo empires ultimately derive their power from the enemy of God. Jesus'due south victory by his expiry is not only the denial of the claims of empire, information technology is too the answer to the aspirations of the people of God down the ages to live in peace and worship God in freedom (Luke 1:69–75).
This narrative likewise confirms what John has already suggested well-nigh the times nosotros live in. The followers of the lamb live in the in-between time which was inaugurated with Jesus' death, resurrection and rising, and will be consummated with his render as depicted in Rev. 19 – 22. This is the historic period of the 'third woe', when Satan is at large in this world fifty-fifty though he has no potency in the heavenly realm. Therefore God'south people will go on to experience the presence and protection of God (considering Jesus' death has silenced the accuser and the (seven) Spirit(s) of God are away in the world) but they volition also feel suffering (tribulation) and opposition, because Satan continues to be at large for a 'short fourth dimension' until he is finally locked up and and then destroyed in the final judgement. This paradoxical blueprint of suffering and victory for Jesus' followers is the same matter that Jesus himself experienced; the hardships of existence a disciple are not a mistake, nor a sign of the failure of God, but are part and parcel of what it means to be a faithful witness.
The chapters that follow now unfold this state of affairs. We read in detail of the trials of John's audience living under the empire and its allies in Asia in the next chapter. We then read in stark contrast of the security and victory of the faithful and the certainty of God's judgement (Rev. fourteen). We read of the terminal plagues that are to come on the earth (Rev. 16), and the full disclosure of the nature of the empire (Rev. 17) before leading into the unfolding significance of the return of Jesus – the certainty of the end of evil (Rev. eighteen and 19) and vindication of the saints (Rev. 20), and the sparkling vision of hope for eternity (Rev. 21).
For commentary on the whole of chapter 12, you can purchase the commentary direct from IVP or from other online retailers.
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