THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST TO HIS SERVANT JOHN
Introduction Part III
Historical Background and Prophecy of the Destruction of Jerusalem
Holy Lord,
The Bible is a book of faith,
but it is also a book recounting the history of Your relationship with humankind.
It relates real events in the lives of people who carried forward You divine
plan for humanity. As we prepare to study this last Bible book, send Your Holy
Spirit to guide us in understanding the times in which the Holy Spirit inspired
writer received his visions and faithfully recorded that became the Book of the
Revelation of Jesus Christ to His Servant John. We pray in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
+ + +
Meanwhile, the holy apostles and disciples of our
Savior were dispersed throughout the world. Parthia, according to tradition,
was allotted to Thomas as his field of labor, Scythia to Andrew, and Asia to
John, who, after he had lived some time there, died at Ephesus.
Eusebius, Church History 3.1.1
It is said that in this persecution the Apostle and
evangelist John, who was still alive, was condemned to dwell on the island of
Patmos in consequence of his testimony to the divine Word.
Eusebius, Church History 3.18.1
A study of the Book of Revelation requires understanding the times in which the inspired writer, believed to be St. John, lived. The cultural and political influences in the seven Roman cities of Asia Minor mentioned in Revelation must be considered as well as the persecution faced by the Christian communities established there. Christians in those cities were members of the communities that received letters Jesus directed St. John to send to them, revealing the prophetic events John witnessed. Since the cities form a circle surrounding Ephesus, the churches may have been faith communities within St. John the Apostle's ecclesial jurisdiction (see the map "The Seven Cities of Revelation" in the Maps section of the website).
Growth of the Church in the First Century AD
When Jesus began his earthly ministry, He chose seventy/seventy-two disciples (Lk 10:1), and from them, He set apart the Twelve Apostles [Geek = apostolos, meaning: "one sent off," "emissary' (Lk 6:12-16; 10:1). Just as the twelve sons of Jacob/Israel became the physical fathers of the Old Covenant Church established at Mt. Sinai, so too would these twelve men become the spiritual fathers and the first bishops of the New Covenant Church. Jesus' disciples would serve the Apostles in the hierarchy of the new order just as the seventy elders of Israel served in the Old Covenant Church (Ex 24:1, 9). In that hierarchy, Sts. Peter, James (Bishop of Jerusalem), and John Zebedee (Bishop of Ephesus) became the "pillars" of ecclesial authority (Gal 2:9), fulfilling a role similar to that of Aaron and his two eldest sons in the first hierarchy of the Old Covenant Church (Ex 24:1, 9). It was to the Apostles, as the first bishops of the universal Church, that Jesus gave power and authority to govern His Kingdom of Heaven on earth (Mt 16:18-19; 28:16-20; Mk 16:15-16; Jn 17:16-26; 19:22-21:23; the Book of Acts of Apostles).
Through His death and resurrection, Jesus defeated sin and death. After His resurrection, He taught His disciples for forty days before ascending to the Father (Acts 1:1-3). However, it was on Resurrection Sunday that His instruction began: Then he told them, This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms, was destined to be fulfilled.' He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures (Lk 24:44-45).
At the end of His forty-day period of instruction, Jesus commanded the disciples and Apostles to stay in Jerusalem and pray until they received a baptism by the Holy Spirit. After His Ascension to Heaven from the Mt. of Olives, they obediently returned to Jerusalem, and 120 disciples, together with the Virgin Mary and Jesus' kinsmen, gathered together in the Upper Room of the Last Supper to pray and await the coming of the Paraclete/Holy Spirit (John 16:5-15; Acts 1:4-5, 12-14).
They prayed for nine days (a novena). The tenth day was the celebration of the Old Covenant feast of Shavuot, which means "weeks" in Hebrew (Lev 23:15-22). In Jesus' day, this feast was known by the Greek word he pentekoste (the Pentecost), meaning "the fifth-day." It was a title derived from the revelation of God to the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai on the fiftieth day after leaving Egypt. The Feast of Weeks/Pentecost was one of the three "pilgrim feasts" in which every man of the covenant was commanded to present himself with his offerings before God's holy altar (Ex 23:14-17; 34:18-23; Dt 16:5-17; 2 Chr 8:13). This sacred annual feast commemorated the birth of the Old Covenant Church at Mt. Sinai when God descended in a fiery display on the mountain and gave the Law to his covenant people (Ex 19:16-19, 20:1-21). See the chart with the liturgical and civil calendar.
In the liturgical calendar of the annual Holy Days, the Feast of Weeks/Pentecost was the only feast other than the Feast of Firstfruits that did not have a specific yearly date (Lev 23:5-44). The Feast of Pentecost was celebrated seven weeks (counted as the ancients counted it was fifty days) after the Feast of Firstfruits, a feast that fell on the first day after the first Sabbath (Saturday) during the Holy Week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:9-14).1 The Feast of Firstfruits celebrated the offering to God of the first of the barley harvest in a communal liturgy within the daily Tamid worship service with a prescribed sacrifice of a single, unblemished male lamb. All the other feasts had different appointed dates during the year, which meant the day of the week on which each of those feasts fell changed every year (as in our celebration of Christmas on the 25th of December which might fall on a Saturday one year and on a Monday the next). However, the Feast of Firstfruits and the Feast of Pentecost, fifty days later (counting Firstfruits as day #1), always fell on the first day of the week on the day we call Sunday.
Jesus, the first fruits of the Resurrection (1 Cor 15:23), arose from the dead on the morning of the Feast of Firstfruits (Mt 28:1-6; Mk 16:1-2; Lk 24:1; Jn 20:1-2). Sometime after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in the first century AD, the Rabbis changed the date for the annual observance of Firstfruits to Nisan 16th. Therefore, the change also affected Pentecost fifty days later. The result was the feasts no longer continued to fall on the first day of the week, on our Sunday. The reason for the change was so the two festivals no longer coincided with the resurrection of Christ (on the Feast of Firstfruits, the first day of the week during the seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread) or with the events of the Feast of Pentecost, fifty days later (see Jubilees 6:17 and Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 13.8.4 [252]).2
On the pilgrim Feast of Pentecost, when faithful Jews from all over the Roman world came to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast (Acts 2:1, 5-10), God the Holy Spirit descended in fire upon the community of the 120 New Covenant Church praying with the Virgin Mary in the Upper Room (Acts 1:12-15; 2:1-3). Filled with God the Holy Spirit, the Apostles and disciples spilled out into the street and began to preach Jesus Gospel of salvation in many languages and dialects (Acts 2:4-13). At this momentous event, St. Peter, the Vicar of Christ, delivered his first homily to the Jewish crowd on their way to the Temple for the morning worship service (Acts 2:14-41). It was the birth of the New Israel: The universal (Greek katholikos; Latin catholicus) Church.
Jewish and Roman persecution
of the Church:
Jewish persecution of
Christians began with Jesus' earthly ministry and continued until Judea was
devastated by the armies of Rome in the Jewish Revolt that began in AD 66.
However, Roman persecution against Christians didn't start until AD 64,
initiated by Roman Emperor Nero Caesar (ruled 54-68 AD) who blamed the
Christians for a fire that devastated Rome. It was a persecution that waned
after his suicide. Roman persecution continued (with varying degrees of
intensity) until AD 313 when Roman Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of
Milan, a Roman decree in which Christianity became an "approved" religion
protected under Roman law.
The First Jewish Revolt of AD 66:
The Jewish Revolt of AD 66 was
"the end of the world" for the Old Covenant Jews. The Romans responded to the revolt
by destroying Jerusalem and the Temple by fire on the 9th of Ab (Av)
in July/August AD 70 and was never rebuilt. Today the Muslim shrine, the Dome
of the Rock, sits on the site of the Jerusalem Temple. Since the Jerusalem
Temple was the only place on earth to offer sacrifice to God, the Old Covenant
(Sinai) exercise of sacrifice and worship ceased. The Jews who survived
recreated a Judaism (known today as Rabbinical Judaism) without the old liturgy
(given by divine command in Leviticus-Deuteronomy) and they were not able to
adhere faithfully to the Law of Moses or the prescribed sacrificial system of
the twice-daily Tamid sacrifice and the Old Covenant Law. The Jewish priest
who adopted the Roman name Flavius Josephus survived the war and lived to write
his account of the destruction in The Jewish Wars. Josephus' book is the
only history that exists as an eye-witness account of this period in Jewish
history. We will refer to this work frequently in our study as well to Josephus'
history of his people, Antiquities of the Jews.
New Covenant believers in Judea, Samaria, and the Galilee, now known as Christians (Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Pt 4:16), did not participate in the Jewish revolt against Rome. Their failure to support the Jews was the final break between Jews and Christians, many of whom still shared family bonds. Recognizing the signs predicted by Jesus in the Gospels, they escaped across the Jordan River into Perea and remained there during the years of war which lasted from AD 66 until AD 73 AD with the destruction of the last Jewish stronghold at Masada. In the Jewish revolt against Rome, many thousands perished or sold into slavery as a result of the war. As a captive of the Romans and an eyewitness to the destruction of Jerusalem, Josephus recorded the event in his book The Wars of the Jews. He wrote: Now the number of those that were carried captive during this whole war collected to be ninety-seven thousand; as was the number of those that perished during the whole siege eleven hundred thousand [the siege of Jerusalem]; the greater part of whom were indeed of the same nation, but not belonging to the city itself; for they were come up from all the country to the feast of Unleavened Bread, and were on a sudden shut up by an army, which, at the very first, occasioned so great a traitness among them that they there came a pestilential destruction upon them, and soon afterward such a famine, as destroyed them more suddenly (Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 6.9.3 [420-421]).
The Roman siege of Jerusalem, which began in the spring of AD 70 during the feasts of Passover (Nisan 14th) and Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15th " 21st), came precisely forty years after Jesus was crucified during the Feast of Unleavened Bread on the 15th of Nisan in the year AD 30. The Roman siege lasted three and a half months and ended with the destruction of one of the most beautiful buildings in the ancient world at that time, the Jerusalem Temple. The fire that destroyed the Temple was so fierce that the walls of the Temple crumbled and collapsed. It was an event prophesied by Jesus during His last week in Jerusalem: Jesus left the Temple, and as he was going away, his disciples came up to draw his attention to the Temple buildings. He said to them in reply, You see all these? In truth I tell you, not a single stone here will be left on another: everything will be pulled down' (Mt 24:1-2).
The utter destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction and desecration of holy Temple by the Roman army on the 9th of Ab, AD 70 was a source of grief for the Jewish people worldwide. Roman general Titus set up his legions' standards, with images of Roman idols within the burned-out walls of the sacred Temple and offered sacrifices to the pagan Roman gods (Josephus, Wars of the Jews 6.6.1 [316]). The Jews did not miss the significance of the destruction of the Temple by the Roman army was on the same day of the year (the 9th of Ab) as the destruction of King Solomon's Temple by the Babylonian army in 587/6 BC. The Roman Emperor Vespasian financed the building of the Roman Coliseum with the loot confiscated from the towns of Judea, Jerusalem, and the Temple treasury. His son, General Titus, took the sacred furniture of the Temple that survived the fire, the golden lamp-stand (menorah), the golden table of the "Bread of the Presence" and other sacred items back to Rome as trophies of war. Their images can be seen in Rome today on the victory arch erected by Emperor Vespasian to commemorate his son's victory known as the "Arch of Titus." Missing is an image of the Ark of the Covenant that disappeared shortly before the destruction of Solomon's Temple (see 2 Macc Chapter 2).
bChristian persecution
under the Roman emperors Nero and Domitian (please refer to list of Roman Emperors in the handout from Introduction
Part II):
As mentioned previously, there
was a brief but intense period of widespread persecution of Christians during
the reign of Roman Emperor Nero Caesar that began in the summer of AD 64 after the
destruction of three-fourths of the city of Rome by fire. It was a catastrophe
that Nero blamed on the Christian population. The Roman historian and
government official Tacitus provided a vivid description of the persecution of
Christians during the reign of Nero. He wrote: In order to stifle the rumor
that he had himself set Rome on fire, Nero falsely charged with the guilt and
punished with the most fearful tortures the persons commonly called Christians,
who were hated for their wicked practices. Christus, the founder of that name,
was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, in the
reign of Tiberius; but the pernicious superstition, repressed for a time, broke
out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through
the city of Rome also, whither all things horrible and disgraceful flow from
all quarters as to a common receptacle and where they are encouraged.
Accordingly, first those were seized who confessed; next on their information,
a vast multitude were convicted, not so much on the charge of burning the city,
as of hating the human race. In their very deaths they were made the subjects
of sport: for they were covered with the hides of wild beasts, and worried to
death by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to, and when the day waned,
burned to serve for the evening lights. Nero offered his own gardens for the
spectacle, and exhibited a Circensian game, indiscriminately mingling with the
common people in the dress of a charioteer, or else standing in his chariot.
For this cause a feeling of compassion arose toward the suffers, though guilty
and deserving of exemplary capital punishment, because they seemed not to be
cut off for the public good, but were victims of the ferocity of one man (Tacitus,
Annals XV,44).
Both Sts. Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom in Rome during the height of the period of persecution (AD 67). St. Peter suffered crucifixion, as prophesied by Jesus (Jn 22:18-19), and St. Paul, because he was a Roman citizen (Acts 22:25-29), died by beheading The Romans reserved crucifixion for non-citizens and foreign enemies of the state. Most Christian communities were shocked and unprepared for such vicious attacks. The period of official Roman persecution was intense but lasted a relatively short period of three and a half years (as the ancients counted), waning in intensity after the start of the Jewish Revolt in AD 66 and coming to an end with the death of Nero in AD 68.
The next decades were mostly peaceful for the Church. Since Christians did not take part in the Jewish Revolt against Rome, the Church enjoyed relative peace under the rule of Roman Emperor Vespasian (AD 69-79) and his son Titus (AD 79-81). There is some evidence of persecution during the latter years of the reign of Vespasian's younger son (and Titus' brother), Emperor Domitian (81-96 AD), but there is no historical evidence of the widespread persecution the Church suffered during the reign of Nero. The Roman government repeated that first vicious wave of oppression with equal ferocity during the reign of Emperor Diocletian who was succeeded by Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor.
In AD 313, Constantine passed the Edict of Milan, recognizing Christianity as an approved state religion and protecting Christians from persecution. Although the majority view of Biblical scholars placed the writing of the Book of Revelation during the reign of Emperor Domitian, the minority view of scholars place John's visions between AD 68 -70 during the period of Roman history known as the "reign of the four emperors." These were the years between Nero's death and Vespasian's elevation from a successful senior general to the emperor of the Roman Empire. It was a period before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in the summer of AD 70 and the Temple that Jesus commanded John to measure in Revelation 11:1.
The Apocalyptic passages from the
Synoptic Gospels (see the chart in the
handouts from Introduction Part I):
St. Matthew's apocalyptic
passages are found Matthew chapter 24, but the focus of chapter 24 begins with
the significant passage in Matthew 23:1-36 where Jesus, in His role of God's
supreme prophet (Dt 18:15-19), delivered seven curse-judgments against the
religious leaders (Mt 23:1-32). Jesus' discourse concluded in a statement of
judgment against the leadership of the Old Covenant Church that is a prophetic
announcement of a covenant lawsuit: You serpents, brood of vipers,
how can you escape being condemned to hell? This is why—look—I am sending
you prophets and wise men and scribes; some you will slaughter and crucify,
some you will scourge in your synagogues and hunt from town to town; and so you
will draw down on yourselves the blood of every upright person that has been
shed on earth, from the blood of Abel the holy to the blood of Zechariah son of
Barachiah whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. In
truth I tell you, it will all recoil on this generation (Mt 23:33-36;
underlining added for emphasis). In Israel's covenant relationship with
Yahweh, obedience reaped covenant blessings, but rebellious violations of the
Law of the covenant resulted in covenant curse-judgments (see Yahweh's list of
covenant blessings and curses/judgments in Lev 26:3-46 and Dt 28:1-68).
Referring to the passage from Matthew 23:33-36:
Question: Why did Jesus call the leadership of the Old
Covenant Church "you serpents" and "a brood of vipers"? Hint: see Gen 3:1 and
Rev 12:9.
Answer: Satan is the great serpent (Rev 12:9). Vipers are
little snakes; Jesus was accusing the leadership of the Old Covenant
Church of acting contrary to the will of God for man's salvation and having become
Satan's spawn instead of children of God.
Question: Who are the prophets and wise men and scribes Jesus will send to the covenant people?
Answer: Jesus' disciples and Apostles.
Question: What is it that will recoil on "this generation"?
Answer: Divine judgment!
Another passage where Jesus condemned His generation appears in Matthew 17:17: Jesus said, Faithless and perverse generation! How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you?'
Questions:
1. What did Jesus call His
generation of the covenant people? Also see Lk 9:41.
2. What generation in the Old
Testament did God condemn as "perverse" (also translated as accursed' or
unfaithful')? See
Num 14:27, 35; Dt 32:5, 20.
3. Why were these two generations,
so many centuries apart, condemned by this judgment?
Answer:
1. Jesus called His generation a perverse/corrupt/accursed generation.
2. Yahweh called the first
generation of the Sinai Covenant a "perverse/corrupt generation." Jesus'
statement was almost a repetition of Yahweh's words when He condemned the
generation that witnessed to the miraculous events of the Exodus and the Theophany
at Mt. Sinai: Yahweh then spoke to Moses and Aaron and said: How much
longer am I to endure this perverse community ...' (Num 14:26-27a).
3. No other generations in salvation
history witnessed such mighty miracles of God, and still, they failed to be
obedient in accepting God's sovereign authority.
The below chart provides a comparison between the divisions in the Book of Revelation and the apocalypse passages in St. Matthew's Gospel that follow Jesus' announcement of judgment in a covenant lawsuit (see handout 1 to this lesson). Do you see a significant connection?
|
DIVISIONS IN REVELATION (in the form of a covenant lawsuit) |
MATTHEW'S MINI APOCALYPSE Jesus' announcement of a covenant lawsuit to the leaders of the Old Covenant Church: You serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape being condemned to hell [Gehenna]? [..]. In truth I tell you, it will all recoil on this generation(Mt 23:33, 36; underlining for emphasis). |
|
VISION OF THE SON OF MAN Chapter 1: The history of the covenant. |
Matthew Chapters 1-2: The history of Jesus' birth. |
|
The four sets of seven judgments in Revelation. |
Matthew Chapters 23:33-24:25 ~ Jesus prophecy of judgment against His generation. |
|
THE SEVEN LETTERS Chapters 2-3: Specific stipulations dealing with false prophets, persecution, lawlessness, love grown cold, and the duty of perseverance. |
24:3-5, 9-13: Tell us when is this going to happen and what sign will be of your coming and of the end of the world? [...] Take care that no one deceives you because many will come using my name ... Then you will be handed over to be tortured and put to death ... and many will fall away ... love in most people will grow cold, but anyone who stands firm will be saved! |
|
THE SEVEN SEALS Chapters 4-7: The concern with wars, famines, and earthquakes |
24:6-8: You will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed, for this is something that must happen, but the end will not be yet for nation will fight against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. |
|
THE SEVEN TRUMPETS Chapters 8-14: Recounts the Church's witness to the world, her flight into the wilderness, the great Tribulation, and the False Prophet. |
24:11-27: Many false prophets will arise .... The good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed to the whole world ... so those in Judea must escape to the mountains .... Alas for those with child, or babies at the breast when those days come! [...] For then there will be great distress, unparalleled since the world began ... for false christs and false prophets will arise .... |
|
THE SEVEN CHALICES Chapters 15-22: Describes the darkening of the Beast's kingdom, destruction of the Harlot, gathering of eagles over Jerusalem's corpse, and the gathering of the Church into the heavenly kingdom. |
24:28-31: Wherever the corpse is, that is where the vultures will gather. Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened ... and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send his angels with a loud trumpet to gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. |
|
Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2000 |
|
The generation that witnessed
the great works of God in the Exodus experience should have been full of faith,
but before the "ink" (so to speak) was dry on the covenant document of the
tablets of the Ten Commandments the Israelites broke the covenant. Israel's first fall from the grace was the sin of the Golden Calf. Please read Exodus 32:1-29.
Question: What did the people say in Ex 32:4?
Answer: They cried out that the Golden Calf was their God.
In the Egyptian Delta, the Egyptians worshipped a living bull known as the Apis bull. The people believed the animal was the physical manifestation of Ptah, the chief Egyptian agricultural, and fertility. The Egyptians worshipped of the Apis bull with fertility rites; it was the same worship the Israelites appeared to be offering the calf idol in Exodus Chapter 32. The act of pagan worship by the Israelites was the first violation of the covenant, and in the civil war that followed, 3,000 rebel Israelites perished (Ex 32:28).
Read Acts Chapter 2:
In Peter's first great sermon
(Acts Chapter 2), he announced to the Jewish crowd that "The Day of the Lord," the
"Last Days," have come (Acts 2:20). In the Old Testament, "the Day of the
Lord" referred to God's judgment (Is 13:9-10; Amos 5:18-20;
Joel 1:15; 2:1-31).
St. Peter began his homily by quoting Joel 3:1-5. What advice did Peter give
the crowd in Acts 2:40? How did he characterize his generation? Does this remind
you of Jesus' statement in Matthew 17:17? Does St. Peter's sermon agree with
what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 23, when He announced that God would visit
His judgment on "this generation?" It is the generation to which John was instructed
to address his apocalyptic message. Judgment would indeed fall on that
generation with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70, the fulfillment
of Jesus' prophecies in Matthew Chapter 23:33-24:25.
Question: How did St.
Peter condemn his generation of the descendants of Israel who rejected Jesus as
the promised Redeemer-Messiah in Acts 2:40?
Answer: He called them a perverse generation.
Question: After St. Peter's address to the crowd, how many people
joined the New Covenant Church on the Jewish Feast of Pentecost fifty days
after Jesus' Resurrection? See Acts 2:41.
Answer: There were 3,000 men, not counting women and children,
added to the Church.
After reading Matthew Chapter 24, notice the order of the topics covered in St. Matthew's mini apocalypse:
The Book of Revelation repeats a similar pattern but has a final command:
The Gospel of John does not have a "mini" apocalypse like the three synoptic Gospels. Perhaps because the Holy Spirit intended to reveal the maxi apocalypse in a separate book. See the comparison between the Synoptic Gospels and the Book of Revelation in the chart below.
|
REVELATION Chapter 6 |
MATTHEW Chapter 24 |
MARK Chapter 13 |
LUKE Chapter 21 |
|
1. Wars: verses 1-2 |
Wars: verse 6 |
Wars: verse 7 |
Wars: verse 10 |
|
2. International Strife: verses 3-4 |
International Strife: verse 7a |
International Strife: verse 8a |
International Strife: verse 10 |
|
3. Famine verses 5-6 |
Famine verse 7b |
Famine verse 8c |
Famine verse 11b |
|
4. Pestilence verses 7-8 |
Pestilence verse 11 |
||
|
5. Persecution verses 9-11 |
Persecution verses 9-13 |
Persecution verses 9-13 |
Persecution verses 12-19 |
|
6. Earthquakes verses 12-17 |
Earthquakes verse 7c |
Earthquakes verse 8b |
Earthquakes verse 11a |
|
7. De-creation verses 12-17 |
De-creation verses 15-31 |
De-creation verses 14-27 |
De-creation verses 20-27 |
The Babylonian army destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon on the 9th of Ab/Av in 587/6 BC, and five centuries later, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Temple on the 9th of Ab in AD 70. Are the similarities with the Synoptic Gospels just an amazing coincidence or a prophesied act of divine judgment? Matthew 24:14 gives the time frame for this event, and 24:36 provides the information that "only the Father knows" when Jesus' prophesies would occur.
Pedictive prophecy in Scripture:
Revelation
is a book of prophecy: Blessed is anyone who reads the words of this prophecy
(Rev 1:3). Biblical prophecy is
not prediction" in the occult sense of Nostradamus or the psychic cable
channel. Placed in a covenantal context with a specific covenantal orientation
and reference, the purpose of prophecy is more an evaluation of humanity's ethical
response to God's Word of command and promise. An example would be Jonah's
prophecy of the destruction of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in the eighth
century BC. The city of Nineveh believed Jonah, repented the people's wickedness,
and the devastation was averted.
Yahweh
spoke of His words revealed in the prophetic voice of His prophets: At one
moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to
pull down, or to destroy it; if that nation against which I have spoken turns
from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it.
Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom
to build up or to plant it; if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My
voice, then I will repent of the good with which I had promised to bless it
(Jer 18:7-10).
Divine
revelation can have both perfect and imperfectly fulfilled prophecy. In
Scripture, imperfectly fulfilled prophecy points forward in time to another
event of perfect fulfillment.
Some
examples of Old Testament prophecy perfectly fulfilled:
Examples of prophecy imperfectly fulfilled:
Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church on prophets: CCC #s 64, 218, 436, 497, 702, 712, 719.
The Bible is a book about "covenant":
See the chart on Yahweh's
Eight Covenants in the handouts. The Bible is not an encyclopedia of
religious information; it is not a collection of moral parables, nor is it a
collection of stories about the distant past. The Bible is God's written revelation
of Himself and man's relationship to Him through the covenant bond He
establishes with those men and women He calls into a unique relationship. The
theme of the Bible is God's covenant relationship with His people. Throughout
salvation history, obedience to God's covenant yielded blessings, but
disobedience rained down Covenant curse-judgments. For example, see the Covenant
blessings and curses of the Sinai Covenant with the Old Israel (Lev 26 and Dt 28).
The Old Testament defined God's relationship with Israel in terms of the covenant, the marriage bond by which He joined her to Himself as His chosen people. While covenant blessings and curses in the Old Testament were temporal, covenant blessings and curses in the New Covenant Kingdom of Jesus Christ are eternal with the covenant bond expressed as a marriage bond between Jesus the Bridegroom and the New Israel, the universal [catholic] Church as His Bride.
Let's look more closely at the Old Covenant blessings and curses. Please read Leviticus 26:3-46 and Deuteronomy 28:1-69. The book of Deuteronomy is the last of the books of Moses. It contains Moses' final homilies to the new generation of Israelites who had grown up during the forty years wandering in the wilderness and who are now about to take possession of the Promised Land. Only Joshua and Caleb were alive from the previous generation who had witnessed such incredible miracles in the Exodus experience—one a prince of the tribe of Ephraim and the other a gentile convert adopted into the tribe of Judah. In reaffirming the covenant treaty between Yahweh and His people, Moses enumerated the blessings Yahweh promised for obedience to the covenant in Deuteronomy 28:1-14, but he also warned the people of the curses that will befall them if they are disobedient to their covenant promises and obligations (Dt 28:15-68). Notice that in the Old Covenant, both the blessings and the curses were temporal. The covenant blessings included health, fertility, good harvest and freedom from oppression, while the curse-judgments removed the gift of fertility for sterility, good harvest became famine, and freedom dissolved into foreign invasion and oppression
Please read the curses in Deuteronomy 28:15-69. These covenant curse-judgments became prophecies fulfilled in the First Jewish Revolt in AD 66-73:
Matthew 24:1-2: Jesus left the Temple, and as He was going away His
disciples came up to draw His attention to the Temple buildings. He said to
them in reply, "You see all these? In truth I tell you, not a single stone here
will be left on another; everything will be pulled down."
On the 9th of Ab
(Av), AD 70, the fire set by the Romans engulfed the Temple and melted the gold
that covered the roof and wall ornamentations and ran down between the cracks
of the stones. After the battle, the Roman soldiers poured cold water on the hot
stones to break them apart so they could secure the gold that had melted into
the cracks. Today no trace of the beautiful Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem survives, just as Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24:1-2. The Roman soldiers in their
quest for gold and vengeance so devastated the Temple that not one stone was left
standing upon another.
Relationships between
people and between nations bound by covenants:
God has always defined His
relationship with humankind through the sacred bond of the covenant, from the first
covenant with Adam and Creation to the eight and final New Covenant established
with the blood Jesus Christ. In the Sinai Covenant and the creation of the
nation of Israel, God joined Himself to His chosen people in a covenant expressed
as a great King to His vassal people, a Divine Father to His human children,
and as a marriage bond between Yahweh and His bride, Israel. The formal
covenant treaty arrangements in the Bible bear a striking resemblance to the
structure of peace treaties of the city-states and empires of the Ancient Near
East. See Meredith G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King: The Covenant Structure
of Deuteronomy (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1963); Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger, Many Religions—One Covenant: Israel, the Church and the World
(page 50); and Marc Van De Mieroop, A History of the Ancient Near East
ca 3000-323BC.
The Covenant Treaty:
In the ancient Near East,
relations between individual states were codified and structured through
treaties between the great kingdoms and their vassal states and also between countries
regarded as equals. The agreements preserved in ancient Near Eastern documents
are those of the Hittite state and Assyria, but there are references in other ancient
texts which suggest that this same formalized treaty format was standard throughout
the Near East. A great king could issue two types of treaties: a royal grant
covenant which provided, from the king's benevolence, a grant without obligation
and time limit. The second type was the covenant treaty (generally between the
great king and a vassal state), which established cooperation from the great
king in exchange for services or obligations to which the vassal was committed
under the binding oath of the treaty (usually included military service, an
annual tribute, etc.).
In the formation of a covenant, both the dominant king and his vassal swore an oath in treaty form, thereby binding the two parties. The concept of oath swearing in treaty formation is critical to understand Biblical covenants. In the Bible, Yahweh establishes two types of covenants between His vassals and Himself as the great King:
In the formation of a covenant, both the dominant King and his vassal swear an oath in treaty form, thereby binding the two parties with each party received a copy of the covenant treaty and ratify the covenant in blood sacrifice and sacred meal. The Ten Commandments are the covenant documents of the Sinai Covenant, written on the front and back of two stone tablets. In the ancient Near East, each party kept their copy of the treaty in their most sacred shrine. In the case of the Ten Commandments, both Yahweh's copy and Israel's copy were in the Ark of the Covenant, also called the Ark of the Testimony (Ex 25:21; 32:15). The standard Near Eastern covenant treaty had six parts, but the Biblical covenant had five; the missing section was the list of false gods who witnessed the pagan documents:
| 1. Preamble: | Identifying the Lordship of the Great King, stressing his greatness, dominance, and immanence. |
| 2. Historical Prologue: | Recounting the Great King's previous relationship to his vassal (with emphasis on the benefits or blessing of that relationship). |
| 3. Ethical Stipulations: | Enumerating the vassal's obligations to the Great King (his guide to maintaining the relationship). |
| 4. Sanctions: | A list of the blessings for obedience and the curses that will fall on the vassal if he breaks the covenant. |
| 5. Succession Arrangements: | Arrangements and provisions for the continuity of the covenant relationship over future generations. |
A marriage covenant followed a similar format with covenant duties and obligations. Covenants formed marriages from which came families. A covenant with an equal creates "brothers" Covenants with non-equals, like a great king and his vassal, created a father/son relationship. The vassal owed the king the loyalty and obedience a son owes a father. Yahweh expressed His covenant with Israel as a Great King to a vassal people, a Divine Father to sons/children (Ex 4:22), as in the covenant Yahweh formed with King David where He expressed the relationship as a father to a son (2 Sam 7:14). However, more meaningfully and unlike pagan treaties, the corporate covenant with Israel was as a loving husband to his chaste bride (i.e., Ez 16:8-14). When Israel strayed from Yahweh to embrace other gods she was an unfaithful wife, a harlot breaking the marriage covenant (Ez 16:15-19, 30-38, 59-60), and when Israel's Judahite kings failed they became rebellious sons.
Covenant Treaties of Old Testament:
One of the best examples of a
Covenant Treaty in the Old Testament is the covenant renewal treaty found in
the Book of Deuteronomy. It was written by Moses just before new the generation
of the Sinai Covenant took possession of the Promised Land (the original Exodus
generation had died during the forty years between the giving of the Law at
Sinai and arriving at the plains of Moab and the entrance into the Promised
Land). The book naturally divides into five sections that correspond to the
five parts of an ancient covenant structure.3
| 1. Preamble | Deuteronomy 1:1-5 |
| 2. Historical Prologue | Deuteronomy 1:6-4:49 |
| 3. Ethical Stipulations | Deuteronomy 5:1-26:19 |
| 4. Sanctions | Deuteronomy 27:1-30:20 |
| 5. Succession Arrangements | Deuteronomy 31:1-34:12 |
In the ancient Near East, when a vassal kingdom violated the terms of the covenant agreement, the great king would send emissaries to warn the offenders of the coming judgment and enforce the sanctions. If the covenant relationship could not be re-established and the violations continued, the great king's emissaries would call a "covenant lawsuit" against the offending vassal. In the Bible, it was the mission of God's holy prophets (who acted as God's emissaries) to bring a restoration of covenant obligations or, when failing to call the nation to repentance, to act as Yahweh's prosecuting attorney to deliver the message of the covenant lawsuit against the offending people. In Hebrew, a covenant lawsuit is called a rib/riv. For example:
In every case the holy prophet, acting as Yahweh's emissary, was sent to warn his generation upon whom the covenant curse-judgments would fall. Some examples in Scripture:
for Yahweh indicts (literal Hebrew = brings a riv,' covenant lawsuit to) the citizens of the country: there is no loyalty, no faithful love, no knowledge of God in the country..."
The Covenant Lawsuit in the book of Hosea is laid out in the classic covenant treaty format:
| 1. Preamble: | Hosea chapter 1 |
| 2. Historical prologue | Hosea chapters 2-3 |
| 3. Ethical Stipulations: | Hosea chapters 4-7 |
| 4. Sanctions: | Hosea chapters 8-9 |
| 5. Succession Arrangements: | Hosea chapters 10-14 |
The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel is especially noteworthy as a covenant lawsuit because it parallels the visions of John in Revelation. The books of the prophets Daniel and Zechariah are not covenanted lawsuits; however, their visions also have parallels in the Book of Revelation (see the charts in Introduction Part I and in the handouts). The books of Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah are keys to understanding the Book of Revelation.
It is important to note that each of the Old Testament covenant lawsuits was addressed to the prophet's generation in the context an attempt to restore the covenant relationship. When the people ignored the covenantal context of the prophet's curse-judgments, the result was the enactment of the sanctions stipulated in the covenant. The point is, if John's prophetic vision is the announcement of a divine covenant lawsuit (it follows the classic format) then John is addressing the current generation who rejected the Messiah. But, it is also vital for us to understand that he is also addressing the New Covenant Church symbolized in the letters to the seven Churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3.
Each of the seven letters in Revelation chapters 2-3 is also formatted like a covenant treaty. In other words, the Old Covenant Church faced judgment for rejecting the Messiah while the New Covenant Church became the successor: the New Israel who was bound in covenant to Christ by the same duties and obligations. This point is key to unraveling the interpretation of the book of Revelation. John's revelation is a prophecy with a specific covenantal orientation and reference. Note: A covenant lawsuit is not a divorce in the "marriage covenant" between God and Israel as some Protestant scholars have suggested; it is a judgment. God's covenants are irrevocable:
Jesus the Messiah came fulfilling the prophecies of the prophets of Yahweh in past generations. He came as prophet, priest, and king to form the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31-44 (CCC 436, 1547), but He also came as Yahweh's prosecuting attorney against an apostate Old Covenant people. See Matthew 21:43-46 for Jesus' covenant lawsuit announcement against the Old Covenant Church: (Jesus speaking to the Priests, scribes, and Jews at the Temple): I tell you, then, that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. [...] the chief priests and the scribes realized he was speaking about them...(Mt 21:43-45). Also see Is 8:14, Dan 2:34-44, Lk 2:34 and the document Covenant Treaties in the Old and New Testaments in the Documents section of Agape Bible Study.
Understanding Scripture: This study follows the guidelines of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
The importance and significance of numbers in Scripture
Numbers are sometimes literal
representations of items, days, or events, but more often a number has more
significant meaning beyond its literal numerical value. The number 7, for
example, is used repeatedly in Revelation. Please refer to the List of Sevens
in Revelation in the Chart section. To properly grasp the significance of the symbolism
of numbers in the Book of Revelation, it is essential to know that the number 7
signifies spiritual perfection or fullness and completion. It is also the
number of the Holy Spirit. Please read The Significance of Numbers in Scripture
document in the "Documents/Scripture Study" section of the website. This
document will help you understand the critical role numerical symbolism plays
in the Bible.
It is also useful to know that in Biblical times, people did not count a sequence as we do today. They did not have the concept of using a zero place-value; therefore, any sequence of numbers started a count from the first number in the series and ended with the last and included parts of hours, days, months, or years. For example, Scripture tells us that Jesus was in the tomb for three days. That is not three days as we count. He was crucified on a Friday, remained in the tomb on Saturday, and He resurrected from the dead on Sunday morning. We would count from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon as the first day and Saturday to Sunday morning as half a day. The way we compute the time, Jesus spent less than two days in the tomb. Ancient peoples would begin the count with Friday and end with Sunday, which would yield three days. This time frame for the time Jesus spent in the tomb is also an example of the symbolic significance of the number three. In the Old Testament the number three represented "completion, that which is solid or substantial and entire." It was one of the four so-called "perfect" numbers (three, seven, ten and twelve). But in the New Testament we also understand that three represents the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. The way the ancients looked at numbers and their symbolic significance is essential understanding the full significance of Jesus' three days in the tomb.
Marriage customs at the time of Jesus:
For the Old Covenant people,
a wedding ceremony lasted seven days. On the seventh day, after the final
words uniting the couple in the covenant of marriage, the bridegroom would lift
the bride and carry her into the bridal tent or room prepared for them. Then
he would set her down, and for the first time he would lift her veil (which
explains how Laben dupped Jacob in Gen 22-25). The lifting of the bridal veil
was called the "apocalypse" (means "unveiling). It was the unveiling of the
bride just before their physical union when the two become one. Understanding
this custom and the common use of the word "apocalypse/unveiling" at the time
John had his visions is an "unveiling" of our understanding and interpretation
of John's heavenly vision.
This lesson concludes the introduction to the Book of Revelation. The background information covered in the three-part Introduction will be indispensable in understanding this very challenging book of prophecy and fulfillment. May God bless you in your study.
Endnotes:
1. In ancient times, there
was no concept of a zero place-value, and so every counting began with the
first in the sequence as #1. That is why Scripture records that Jesus was in
the tomb three days from Friday to Sunday. In the seven weeks from the Feast
of Firstfruits to Pentecost, counting the Feast of Firstfruits as day #1, there
were fifty days.
2. The Jewish book of Jubilees, 6.17, identifies the giving of the Law celebrated on the Feast of Shavuot (Weeks/Pentecost) on the first day of the week, fifty days from the Feast of Firstfruits as the ancients counted. Flavius Josephus, the first-century AD Jewish priest/historian (c. 30-100 AD), wrote about the altering of the day of the celebration for the Feast of Pentecost during his lifetime. He wrote: And truly he did not speak falsely in saying so; for the festival, which we call Pentecost, did then fall out to be the day next to the Sabbath (Antiquities of the Jews 13.8.4 [252]). The Karaites and Samaritans are the only Jews who continue to observe Firstfruits as a feast within the seven-day celebration of Unleavened Bread. They also celebrate the Feast of Pentecost fifty days later (as the ancients counted) with both festivals falling on the first day of the week, Sunday (A History of The Jewish People in the Time Jesus, page 37; The Second Jewish Book of Why, page 38).
3. See Kline, Treaty of the Great King; also Sutton, That you may Prosper: Dominion by Covenant, Tyler, Tx: Institute for Christian Economics, 1987.
Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2019 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.