Revelation 8-9 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

979 980messenger / angel, the one having the trumpet, “Release the four messengers / angels, theones having been bound at the great River Euphrates!” 981977(...continued)ing” (translated by Aune as ‘announcing,’ p. 482) is changed to the feminine accusative singularpresent participle le,gousan, legousan, “saying,” by P47, Uncial Manuscript 0207, Minuscules1611, 2053 and the Majority Text (A). It is changed to the genitive singular form of thefeminine active participle legou,shj, legouses, “saying,” by a corrector of Sinaiticus. It ischanged to the masculine singular genitive active participle le,gontoj, legontos, by Minuscules1006, 1841, 1854, 2329, 2351 and the Majority Text (K). We think that there has been aproblem in the primitive text, and later copyists have dealt with the problem in their individualways, depending upon what they understood the participle to be related to–the feminine singularaccusative noun fwnh,n, phonen, “voice,” or the masculine singular nominative nounav,ggeloj, aggelos, “messenger / angel.” We do not understand what the masculine accusativeparticiple is related to. However, with all of these variant readings, still the meaning ofRevelation, which is ambiguous at this point, is hardly changed at all.978The dative ordinal numeral êô, hekto, “to (the) sixth,” is omitted by Alexandrinusand Uncial Manuscript 0207. The omission does not change the meaning of Revelation, butmakes its statement a little less exact.979The cardinal numeral ôÝóóáñáò, tessaras, “four,” is omitted by P47. Here again, theomission makes John’s statement somewhat less exact, but hardly changes its meaning.980We have previously seen a group of four messengers / angels at 7:1; here anothergroup of four messengers / angels appears.981These four messengers / angels have a quite different task from the previously seenfour messengers / angels. The first four stood upon the four corners of the earth, "holding fastthe four winds of the earth, so that wind should not blow upon the earth, nor upon the sea, norupon any tree." But these four messengers / angels are pictured as having been bound at theedge of the Euphrates River, awaiting their release which would result in the death of a third ofhumanity.But why at the River Euphrates? Swete answers: “The Euphrates was on the east ‘theideal limit’ of the land of Israel...Beyond it lay the great heathen kingdoms of the east, Babyloniaon the east bank of the river, the Assyrian Empire further to the northeast. An invasion ofIsrael by these nations is likened to an overflow of the [Euphrates] in Isaiah 8:7...It is possiblethat [John] had in mind the unknown and at the time greatly dreaded resources of the ParthianEmpire.” (P. 121)Just as Israel had constantly and justifiably feared the ravaging armies of the Assyriansand the Babylonians that came out of the east, crossing over the Euphrates to conquer theirland, so the Roman Empire in the first century lived in fear of similar enemies in the east--theParthians, with whom they entered into treaty, but who still posed a danger to their easternflank.(continued...)449