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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 8:12, a third of the sun, moon and stars darkened
The fourth trumpet darkens a third of the lights in the sky, echoing the ninth plague, three days of darkness over Egypt.
Revelation 8:12, in every translation this tool compares.
Turning the lights down on a stage tells the audience the scene has changed. In the ninth plague Moses stretched out his hand and thick darkness covered Egypt for three days. Yet the Israelites had light where they lived. At the fourth trumpet, sun, moon and stars each lose a third of their light. A third of the day and a third of the night lose their light.
Darkness sent as judgment from heaven on the oppressor. Exodus 10:22 in Greek has darkness (skotos) over the land; John has the lights struck so that a third of them is darkened (skotisthe).
Exodus has total darkness for three days over Egypt. John has partial darkness, a third of the day and night, over the world. Exodus does not name the sun, moon and stars; John strikes all three. Beale suggests the three days and Israel's light may lie behind the limit to a third.
Beale says the plague of darkness was aimed at Egypt's sun god. John's darkness falls on idolaters and on the world they trust instead of God. Jewish writers already read the plague as a picture of exile from God, and Beale reads the fourth trumpet the same way.
Not the sixth seal again. There the whole sun, moon and stars are struck; here only a third, so Beale and the ESV Study Bible see a partial trial before the end.
Beale says the woe is partly based on Exodus 10:21, three days of darkness over Egypt. That plague was in part an attack on Ra, Egypt's sun god. The limit to a third may come from the three days and from Israel's having light in their homes (Exodus 10:23). He notes Wisdom 17 read the plague as symbolic: the Egyptians became prisoners of darkness, cut off from providence. He also cites Ezekiel 32:7-8, Joel 2:10 and 3:15 and Amos 8:9. In the vault's Septuagint, Exodus 10:22 reads egeneto skotos gnophos thyella epi pasan gen Aigyptou treis hemeras. Keener, the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the ESV Study Bible, the CSB Study Bible, the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible and Wright all cite the ninth plague. Walton reads the darkness as a strike at Amon-Re. The grade is drawn here: the plague is the clear model, though the wording differs.
Heiser reads Aune. The fourth trumpet partly recalls the darkness of Exodus 10:21-22, a blow at Egypt's sun gods. The Wisdom of Solomon read that plague as exile from the true God. Amos 8:9 is likely in view too. Aune also wonders about the fourth day of creation, when sun, moon and stars were made. Then the trumpet would undo day four and return to chaos.
Beale and Aune, as Heiser reports, both see Exodus 10. Aune also hears Genesis 1:14-19; the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible notes darkness as a symbol of the primordial world (Genesis 1:2). The CSB Study Bible weighs whether the lights shine for less time or less brightly. Beale reads the darkness as probably not literal, a picture of the idolaters' separation from God. MacArthur reads God really dimming the sun, moon and stars by a third for a time, so that the cold upsets weather, plants and living things.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 8:12 and Conclusion to the First Four Trumpets
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 8:12
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 8:12
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 8:12
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 8:12
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 8:12
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 8:6-13
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, on Exodus 10:21-29
- Septuagint, Exodus 10:21-22, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- SBL Greek New Testament (MorphGNT), Revelation 8:12
- 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 8:12
