He Shall Have Dominion

decade of the first century by Roman historians. . . . Volcanic
phenomena . . . in the Egean archipelago . . . are in the background
of this description, and of others throughout the book; features
such as the disturbance of islands and the mainland, showers of
stones, earthquakes, the sun obscured by a black mist of ashes, and
the moon reddened by volcanic dust, were the natural consequences
of eruption in some marine volcano, and there — adjoining
Patmos — was in a state of more or less severe eruption during the
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first century.
W. Boyd Carpenter writes: “Perhaps no period in the world’s history has
ever been so marked by these convulsions as that which intervenes
between the Crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem. Josephus
records one in Judea (J.W. 4:4:5); Tacitus writes of them in Crete, Rome,
Apamea, Phrygia, Campania (Ann. 12:58; 14:27; 15:22); Seneca (Ep. 91), in
AD 58, mentions their extending their devastations over Asia (the
proconsular providence, not the continent), Achaia, Syria, and
Macedonia.”
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These judgments reflect the plagues upon Egypt at the Exodus. 34
Jerusalem is now the equivalent of Egypt (see Rev 11:8). She and other
cities in Israel are worse than Nineveh (Mt 12:41), Tyre, Sidon, and
Sodom (Mt 11:21–23). She has become a “synagogue of Satan” (Rev 2:9;
3:9) — much like Jesus warns (Jn 8:44).
With the fifth trumpet we witness an outbreak of demonic torment
(Rev 9:1–21). The fallen star here is Satan, “the angel” of the pit (v 11).
The demons confined to the pit (2Pe 2:4; Jude 6; Lk 8:31) are loosed to
torment Israel (vv 2, 3; cf. Rev 18:2), just as Christ warns (Mt 12:43f). The
period of torment is “five months,” which indicates the final siege of
Jerusalem by Titus, when the Jews go mad as they are hopelessly
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trapped. This siege lasts five months: “Titus began the siege of
Jerusalem in April, 70. The defenders held out desperately for five
months, but by the end of August the Temple area was occupied and the
32. James Moffatt, Revelation, in EGT, 5:404. See: Seneca, Lucilius 91; Tacitus,
Histories 1:2–3 and Annals 12:58; 14:27; 15:22.
33. W. Boyd Carpenter, “The Gospel According to Matthew,” Ellicott, 6:146.
34. Cf. Rev 8:5 with Ex 19:16f, Rev 8:7 with Ex 9:18ff; 8:8–9 with Ex 7:20f; 8:11
with Ex 10:21. Cf. Dt 28:15, 60ff.
35. Josephus, J.W. 5:1:1, 5.