Revelation 20 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

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2308 2309 who has part in the resurrection, the first one! Over these, the second death does not have 2307 (...continued) 'the first resurrection' is not an event but an order of resurrection including all the righteous who are raised from the dead before the millennial kingdom begins." (298-99) But surely this is reading a great deal of dogmatic material into the text that is not genuinely present there! 2308 This is the fifth of Revelation's seven "beatitudes," or pronouncements of "blessedness." See Revelation 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6 (here); 22:7 and 14. Aune notes that this is “the only beatitude in Judeo-Christian Greek literature with a double predicate (i.e., ‘blessed and holy’).” (P. 1091) What a failure it must be to live out one's life, and fail to know God, and the spiritual life that the knowledge of God imparts! What a tragic loss to pile up earthly goods and pleasures, and miss the eternal values that endure forever! 2309 The phrase äåýôåñïò èÜíáôïò, deuteros thanatos, “second death,” is changed to read thanatos ho deuteros, “death, the second one,” by Uncial Manuscript 051 and the “Majority Text” (A). The variant reading does not change the meaning of Revelation. Aune notes that “The concept [of a ‘second death’] does not occur in the rest of the New Testament, in second-century Christian literature or in pre-Christian Greek literature.” (P. 1091) We think Aune is mistaken in this, since the idea of living people being “dead” spiritually, and facing soon-coming physical, even eternal death, is found throughout the New Testament. See, for example, Luke 9:60, “Let the dead people bury the dead,” and 15:32, “this brother of yours was dead, and is alive again.” See BAGD with its statement that beside the meaning of “physical death” for the noun qa,natoj, there is also the meaning of death as a spiritual condition, in contrast to a living relationship with God. It is a “spiritual death,” to which human beings are subject unless they live “out of the power of God’s grace.” See John 5:24; 8:51; Romans 7:10; 8:6; 1 John 3:14. Such spiritual death “stands in the closest relation to sin,” as is shown in Romans 7:13; Jacob (“James”) 1:15; 5:20: Paul thinks of the earthly body as a “body of death” (Romans 7:24). This meaning of qa,natoj cannot always be clearly distinguished from the related concept of “eternal death, since it merges into it. See Romans 1:32; 6:16, 21, 23; 7:5; 2 Corinthians 7:10; 2 Timothy 1:10; Hebrews 2:14. And so, whether described in John’s phrase, “the second death,” the concept of a spiritual death that precedes physical death and leads to “eternal death” is certainly found in the New Testament. Here again, as elsewhere throughout Revelation, John takes up a concept found in his sources, but adapts it in his own unique way. Aune goes on to state that the phrase “second death” first occurs “in Plutarch [who lived approximately from 46-120 A.D.; possibly a younger contemporary of John, possibly a little later; John’s phrase may well have come first!]...who is very familiar with Egyptian myth and ritual...The phrase o` deu,teroj qa,natoj occurs in a positive sense for the death of the yuch, (continued...) 1020
2309 (...continued) ‘soul,’ on the moon (preceded by the death of the sw/ma, ‘body,’ on earth), which frees the nou/j, ‘mind,’ to ascend to a blissful existence on the sun... “Second, the conception of two deaths was promulgated by various philosophical traditions....[such as Macrobius, who writes:] ‘The followers of Pythagoras [who died 497 B.C.] and later those of Plato [427-347 B.C.] declared that there are two deaths, one of the soul, the other of the creature, affirming that the creature dies when the soul leaves the body, but that the soul itself dies when it leaves the single and individual source of its origin and is allotted to a mortal body’... ”In Epictetus 1.5.4 [1st-2nd century A.D. Stoic philosopher] it is said that while most people fear the deadening of the body, few care about ‘the deadening of the soul...In actuality the ‘deadening of the soul’ is a metaphor for the person who avoids acknowledging the truth. th In Odyssey 12.22 [9 century B.C.] the term disqanh,j, ‘twice dead,’ is used to refer to Odys- seus’ trip to Hades...along with his future physical death... “The source of this notion in the Hellenistic world, even though the means of transmission is not known, is the Egyptian conception of the second death...The phrase ‘to die the second death’...occurs frequently in the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead [1240 B.C.]... referring to the total destruction of the...’soul,’ after bodily death...The ultimate Egyptian origin of this concept in Greek, Christian, and Jewish literature is supported by the pairing of the notions of the second death and the lake of fire in Revelation 20:14 and 21:8, which also occurs in Egyptian texts... “There are two possible meanings for ‘second death’ in Judaism: (1) exclusion from the resurrection, i.e., remaining in the grave, or (2) assignment to eternal damnation...The Egyptian significance of second death and the lake of fire, i.e., complete and total destruction, cannot be meant in Revelation, as Revelation 14:9-11 and 20:10 make clear.” (Pp. 1091-93) Again, we disagree with Aune. He is right in holding that in these two passages, John envisions unending, conscious suffering. But John is not consistent in this, since he also twice envisions Babylon / Rome being “burned up,” totally consumed by fire–see Revelation 17:16 and 18:8. Aune assumes that the Bible teaches a unified doctrine of “eternal torment,” but this is simply not the case. Sometimes it speaks of “eternal torment,” but at other times it speaks of “annihilation.” This is the nature of biblical “prophecy” of the future. It is not clear, but is enigmatic–as taught in Numbers 12:7-8 and 1 Corinthians 13:9-12. The biblical prophet “sees through a mirror darkly,” in dreams and visions containing “riddles,” rather than in exact, “face to face” photographic reproductions, characterized by clarity and exact precision! We conclude that John means that humanity has it in common that all must die physically–physical death is certain to come, especially in the environment of Roman Asia, with the threat of martyrdom for confessing Christians. But that death is not to be feared, since the Little Lamb has suffered just such a death, and still lives. The death that believers should fear is of another sort than physical death–it is eternal death, separation from God and His eternal (continued...) 1021
Page 1 and 2: THE THOUSAND YEAR VICTORY OVER EVIL
Page 3 and 4: 2259 2260 2261 2262 2263 key of the
Page 5 and 6: 2264 2265 2266 2267 2268 2269 drago
Page 7 and 8: 2265 (...continued) serpent, places
Page 9 and 10: 2270 2271 2272 2273 / satan and he
Page 11 and 12: 2271 (...continued) Isaiah 24:21-23
Page 13 and 14: 2271 (...continued) “In that sens
Page 15 and 16: 2271 (...continued) Tobit 8:2-3, Th
Page 17 and 18: 2272 (...continued) 1 Chronicles 16
Page 19 and 20: 2274 2275 2276 2277 2278 and locked
Page 21 and 22: 2279 The verb plana,w, planao, "to
Page 23 and 24: 2284 (...continued) him to be loose
Page 25 and 26: 2289 2290 2291 2292 them; and the i
Page 27 and 28: 2289 (...continued) ed Neo-Babylon,
Page 29 and 30: 2289 (...continued) ed over to him
Page 31 and 32: 2294 2295 2296 2297 nor his image,
Page 33 and 34: 2299 (...continued) There is a conf
Page 35 and 36: 2304 2305 20.5 The rest of the dead
Page 37: 2307 (...continued) rection...Antit
Page 41 and 42: 2312 2313 2314 with him [the] thous
Page 43 and 44: 2317 2318 2319 released from his pr
Page 45 and 46: 2320 2321 2322 2323 2324 2325 four
Page 47 and 48: 2326 2327 2328 war -of whom their n
Page 49 and 50: 2329 2330 2331 2332 width of the ea
Page 51 and 52: 2333 (...continued) beloved city,
Page 53 and 54: day and night into the ages of the
Page 55 and 56: 2345 2346 2347 the face of Whom the
Page 57 and 58: 2348 2349 20.12 And I saw the dead
Page 59 and 60: 2354 2355 2356 according to their w
Page 61 and 62: 2354 (...continued) Newport well st
Page 63 and 64: 2363 2364 2365 2366 underworld were
Page 65: 2369 (...continued) earth. All thes

Revelation 20 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

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