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Echoes of Revelation
Revelation never quotes the Old Testament outright, yet no New Testament book refers to it more. See both texts side by side, why they don’t match, and what John does with them.
Revelation 8:11, Wormwood
The star named Wormwood turns the waters bitter, the judgment Jeremiah announced on idolaters, and John's word follows the Hebrew, not the Greek translation.
Revelation 8:11, in every translation this tool compares.
A bitter taste that matches a bitter wrong makes a fitting punishment. In Jeremiah God says he will feed his people wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink, because they followed idols and false prophets. At the third trumpet the falling star is named Wormwood. One third of the waters turn bitter, and many die from drinking them.
Wormwood and water that kills, given as judgment. The Hebrew of Jeremiah 9:15 (9:14 in Hebrew) and 23:15 has la'anah, wormwood, and poisoned water (mei rosh). John names the star Wormwood (Apsinthos) and makes the waters bitter.
The Greek translation of both verses has no wormwood. It says God will feed them distress or grief and give them bitter water or water of gall. John's Wormwood matches the Hebrew word, as Silva notes the Greek never uses it. Jeremiah aims at Israel and its prophets; John strikes a third of the world's waters.
Beale says the punishment fits the crime: as idolaters polluted the people, God pollutes their water. In his reading Babylon, the world system, has drawn earth-dwellers and some in the church into idolatry. The result is bitter suffering for both.
Not a word from the Greek Old Testament. The Greek translation of Jeremiah never names wormwood. John's name for the star matches the Hebrew word la'anah.
Beale says the scene is based on Jeremiah 9:15 and 23:15, where God feeds Israel wormwood and poisoned water because its leaders led it into Baal worship. He notes that everywhere else in the Old Testament wormwood is a metaphor for affliction from God's wrath (Deuteronomy 29:18; Proverbs 5:4; Lamentations 3:15, 19; Amos 5:7; 6:12), often tied to idolatry. In the vault's Septuagint, Jeremiah 9:15 reads psomizo autous anankas kai potio autous hydor choles, and 23:15 odynen … hydor pikron; neither uses apsinthos. The Hebrew of both has la'anah and mei rosh. Silva, as Heiser reads him, says apsinthos is not found before the New Testament, that the Septuagint never uses it, but that Aquila used it for la'anah in Proverbs 5:4. So John's name agrees with the Hebrew word, a link drawn here from those facts. Keener, the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the ESV Study Bible, the CSB Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible all cite Jeremiah 9:15 or 23:15. Walton describes the plant. The grade is drawn here.
Heiser reads the ESV Study Bible on the plant and then Silva's word study: the Greek word is not attested before the New Testament, the Septuagint does not use it, but Aquila renders la'anah in Proverbs 5:4 with it. He reads Jeremiah 9:15, where God feeds his people bitter food and bad water. Then he reads Beale. The punishment fits the crime of idolatry. Babylon, the world system, brings bitter judgment on the earth-dwellers and on the unfaithful in the church. He dismisses asteroid and volcano readings.
The sources agree on Jeremiah. They differ on the star and on what the name points to. Beale reads the star as Babylon's angel, and he and Heiser read Wormwood through its Old Testament use for bitter judgment. The CSB Study Bible reads a meteorite causing pollution. MacArthur reads an event still to come, perhaps a comet, and takes wormwood as a bitter poison from a root that brings drunkenness and then death. The CSB Study Bible notes wormwood is bitter but not poisonous, and Silva, via Heiser, suggests bitterness and poison were linked in ancient speech.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 8:10-11
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 8:10-11
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 8:10-11
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 8:10-11
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 8:10-11 and cross-references at Revelation 8:11
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 8:11
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, on Jeremiah 9:15
- Septuagint, Jeremiah 9:15 and 23:15, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- Hebrew text of Jeremiah 9:14 and 23:15, Miqra according to the Masorah (Sefaria)
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 8:11
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 8: The Seventh Seal and the First Four Trumpet Judgments, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
- John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible (ESV), note on Revelation 8:10 and 8:11
