Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Revelation 16:12-21, the Euphrates dried and Armageddon
The sixth bowl dries up the Euphrates to make way for the kings from the east, and three frog-like spirits from the dragon, the beast and the false prophet gather the kings of the world to battle at the place called Armageddon. The seventh bowl brings a voice saying it is done, the greatest earthquake ever, the splitting of the great city and hundred-pound hailstones.
Revelation 16:12-21, in every translation this tool compares.
The sixth bowl dries up the Euphrates, clearing a road for eastern kings, and three frog-like demonic spirits go out from the dragon and his two allies to gather the world's rulers for war at a place called Armageddon. In the middle of this Jesus warns that he will come unannounced and blesses those who stay alert. The seventh bowl brings God's declaration that it is finished, a record earthquake that splits the great city, Babylon's judgment and enormous hail, but people still curse God. What place Armageddon names, a battlefield or a mountain, is debated.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/unclean-spirits\/","n":"Unclean spirits and exorcists","s":"Spirits that defiled and harmed people. Exorcists of the day used names, oaths, spells and foul smells to drive them out. Jesus gave an order.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/heavenly-jerusalem\/","n":"The heavenly Jerusalem","s":"Jews looked for a Jerusalem built by God for the age to come, and some spoke of it as already waiting in heaven. Exiles and resident aliens knew what it was to look for a city that would be home.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/exodus-plagues\/","n":"The plagues of Egypt","s":"The blows God struck on Egypt before the exodus, from water turned to blood to the death of the firstborn, while Israel was spared. Revelation's trumpets and bowls replay them on the whole world.","r":""}
Informed hearers took the kings from the east as Parthians (Keener; Wright; Wright and Bird; the cultural backgrounds notes). Pompey had made the Euphrates the frontier, Parthians crossed it only to fight Rome, and a later writer said "only a river separated these two most powerful empires" (the cultural backgrounds article Parthia). Stories had Nero returning with a Parthian army (Carson, Moo and Morris), and a false Nero won Parthian backing less than a decade before Revelation (the article A New Nero). Heiser hears them as Babylon, the old Mesopotamian enemy. Jews hoped God would dry the river for the exiles (Isaiah 11:15-16; 4 Ezra 13; the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener). The frogs recall Exodus 8 (Keener). In the Jezreel Valley below Megiddo, which guarded the main pass, Deborah, Gideon, Saul and Josiah fought, and Thutmose III before them (the Zondervan dictionary; the atlas; Keener). Keener calls Mount Megiddo the commonest reading, a plain made a symbolic mountain; the ESV Study Bible insists "Megiddo was a plain, not a mountain", though the dictionary writes of Mount Megiddo and its low hills. Heiser reads the Hebrew behind the name as har mo'ed, the council's mountain of Isaiah 14:13, which is Zion.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 16:12, 16:13-14 and 16:16
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Revelation 16:12, 16:13, 16:14, 16:16 and 16:21
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 16:10-21
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 34, The Story of the Book of Revelation, section 9
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 41, The Mount of Assembly
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Revelation 16:12-14 and 16:16
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 16:16
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, articles Parthia and A New Nero
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, chapter on Revelation, Date (The existence of a Nero myth)
- Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Armageddon
- Carl G. Rasmussen, Zondervan Atlas of the Bible, Jezreel Valley, and Campaign of Thutmose III against the Canaanites
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 15-16: The Seven Angels, Seven Plagues, Seven Bowls of God's Wrath, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
