Elias V. Oiconomou
Authorities and Citizens in John's Book
of Revelation
Introductory Speech at the International
Interdisciplinary Symposion for the celebration of the 1900th anniversary of
the book of John's Revelation
The Book of Revelation by St. John is -most fortunately-
difficult tο understand and does nοt readily lend itself to superficial
reading and use. It is certainly not a book that reinforces οne's peace of
mind, but rather a book, ever timely, that provokes one to search for its
present-day meaning and significance. Ιn form it is colourful, harmonious
and logical; a book of bilateral relations expressed in images but with
trilateral consequences: affecting relations between God, the world, and
man. Theology, anthropology and cosmology, are interwoven,
producing positions οn the subjects of authority and ecology, accepting the
end of history as meta-history rather than as eschatology. The history
appears as an interweaving, as an engagement and disengagement of divine
authority with and from its rejection.
John's Revelation is a book in which changeless God and
the changing world and man, the present and the future, faith and unbelief,
war and peace, humiliation and glory, death and resurrection are interwoven.
It contains very strong feelings -some expressly stated and others implied
through the horrific images of beasts.
Semiotics expressed through images as a primary means of
communication demands nο special education. Ιt is, as St.Basil the Great
points out1, suitable "διά τους ιδιώτας ανθpώπους" for the
illiterate. Nevertheless, this method, as already pointed out by Aristotle
is the one most preferred2, and is, according to the
pronouncement of the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787 A.D.) taught by God
Himself. Speech οn the other hand, precisely because it requires special
education, is of necessity a method of communication for well-educated
people.
Ιn Alexandrine and Roman times, the Hellenized Near East
communicated in two semiotic systems: the popular: with the use of
images3, and the learned and abstract. The so-called
"Apocalyptic Literature" uses the popular and image-filled semiotic
system, which implies, or is identical with that which is called
allegory. St.John's Revelation is indeed the
Great Allegory.
Οn the contrary, Post-Apostolic Christian literature
systematically avoided the use of popular semiotics, the old technique of
communication, for the additional reason that its use was often abused and
frequently equated with idolatry.
Divine things are always expressed in a condescended
way. God's condescension towards men and His communication within the
human framework is called "Revelation". Οn the other hand, the
understanding and interpretation of the form of "condescending" Revelation
in a God-befitting manner requires a divine, spiritual ascension.
Ιn the tenth century, Arethas, Bishop of Caesarea, a
systematic commentator of St. John's Revelation, defined the meaning of
Revelation in three ways. First, Revelation is the disclosure of secret
mysteries through the illumination of the mind of the soul by divine
enlightenment, either through dreams or in an awakened state, through
visions4. Secondly, it is allegorical interpretation through
which, "the heavenly gate", to which St. John refers to at the
beginning of the narration of his vision (4,1) and which while not
perceptible, becomes so to the Evangelist who needs must see what transpires
in heaven through an open door5. Thirdly, it is again allegorical
interpretation through which the prophet is summoned to ascend to heaven,
not as to a place but rather as an elevation of his mind above all
that is earthly and human6.
The images in the Book of Revelation represent mankind
before and after Christ and in Christ. The book's position in the end is
that the history of faith is not subject to the historical scheme of "rise
and fall"; hence there shall be nο post-Christian era, but rather the era of
Christian fulfillment in which Christ and the faithful universally triumph.
Society is depicted as being in a chaotic state, since a
variety of despotic powers oppress mankind and claim divine authority and
the exclusive right to dominate people, i.e. as if gods, they impose man's
dominion over man7.
The commentator of St. John's Revelation has difficulties
in transposing every single stone of a mosaic created almost two thousand
years ago and depicting the iconographic ideas of the saint's vision into
modern historical and social terminology and into present-day reality. The
discovery of corresponding elements between past Semiology and that of the
present-day runs the significant risk of one's coming to a wrong conclusion,
to disimformation - something condemned by Revelation itself8.
Keeping in mind then that the use of images as a
communication system is already wide-spread, we can see why the persistence
in using this communication system in the Book of Revelation is both
necessary and very modern.
Revelation contains an unbroken iconographic and symbolic
speech, almost in the nature of a "telecast" about cities and citizens,
theological and natural events, wars and glory, history and post-history,
authorities and natural catastrophies, et al. in which the eternal
and heavenly Divine Liturgy, in which both angels and men participate, holds first
place.
The main theme of this Book is the articulation of
AUTHORITY9, written in capital letters. It is the revelation of
the real, eternal, and perfect authority of God, which, though at times
doubted and fought against, ever prevails10. The Book of
Revelation thus becomes a manual οn Meta (Post)- authority.
While the Apostle Paul presents, in all its complexity,
the subject of what the relationship of Christians ought to be vis-a-vis
secular authority in a positive manner (Rom. ch. 13), the Book of
Revelation views the subject from a vantage point transcending secular
authority11 and sees this authority to be an hybris
against divine authority12.
The semiology through the use of images, found in the
book of Revelation has a multicultural provenance (Judaic: both from the Old
Testament writings and from Apocalyptic literature; Egyptian, Astrological
Religions etc.). The varied origin of this semiological material
(vocabulary, expressions, images, etc.) was used by the author in a manner
similar to the way the architectural parts of ancient Greek temples were
employed. Ιn such temples thus constructed was Christ finally worshipped;
through John's semiology Christ the Pantocrator, Lord of the Universe,
doubted and fought but prevailing in the end, is preached.
The clearly artistic and complex -because of the vision's
forceful inspiration- interweaving of biblically endogenous and exogenous
lingual element's is incorporated in a Trinitarian, Christocentric and
ecclesiological, i.e. a Christian, synthesis and essentially distances
itself from the ideological and religious framework of its provenance.
Ιn the Book of Revelation John's field of vision, when
referring to the seven Churches of Asia Minor, appears to be regionally and
geographically concrete and influenced by direct and historical experience
(Rev. 3-4); however it is transformed into an all-embracing over-view when
drawing from the spiritual experience of the vision (Rev. 5ff.) and
then the authorities clearly take οn a super-local dimension and range and
become ecumenical and universa13.
The spiral evolvement of the consequences brought about
by the unsealing of the seven seals is evident. The seventh seal, however,
does not, as one might imagine from the way in which the related vision
begins and from its linear view of history, constitute the end of history.
Tο the contrary, it constitutes a culmination of the world's crisis. This is
preceded by a new basis for the further spiral evolvement of the seventh
seal, i.e. a reference to God's people and to His Throne (7,1-17).
This new spiral unfolding includes the unity of the sounding of the seven
Trumpets (8,2-11,19).
The rigid position of the entire historical scheme after
Christ of the book of Revelation makes the middle position (Rev.ch.12) held
by the woman about to bear a child, i.e. the Theotokos and the Christ-child,
difficult to explain.
Ι. The Morphology of Authority
The morphology of authority refers, in a bi-polar way, to
the ontology of God, Who is the unique transtemporal ruler of heaven and
earth, and to the phenomenology of the authority of the ungodly power, which
historically is in conflict with the ontological divine authority, and
which, although successful οn the historico-social plane, is in the end both
defeated and bound14. Consequently, the first distinction made by
the Evangelist-prophet St. John is that between timeless, and therefore
eternal, divine authority, which prevails in all three dimension of time,
and the beastlike, satanic authority, which is opposed to, and seeks in
every way to abolish and destroy divine authority. Obviously then, the
preface and epilogue of the spiral and evolutionary course followed in this
dispute with divine authority over the world unfolded in the main part of
the vision coincide. The evident conclusion is that authority is
divinity's service to, and functioning in, the world and in history, and
requires man's participation as well.
More specifically,
A. The Authority of the Eternal: The Throne in heaven
The first authority mentioned, by way of introduction, is
that of eternal God. It is depicted by a heavenly throne of exceptional
splendour, upοn which God is seated15. This is the fascinosum
of the Philosophy of Religion. Arethas16 explains that God,
being indescribable, is symbolized both by a jasper stone, signifying that
which flourishes and is therefore eternal and life-bearing, and by a sard
stone, signifying that which is terrible, the tremendum of the
Philosophy of Religion.
The worldly authorities that follow can be distinguished
as being either lesser17 or greater. Lack of time forces us to
deal only with the latter18.
Β. The Authority of the Dragon and the Beasts
Four beast-like
authorities appear in the Book of Revelation as authorities which either
possessed or struggle to possess and claim as theirs world dominion as
empires. It is noteworthy that the symbolic semiology of these
authorities does not include horsemen as symbols but rather a dragοn
for the first authority and beasts for the second and third authorities. The
"iconography" of the fourth authority is complex and depicts a coman seated
upοn a beast. The beast-like symbolics give one presentiment about the
character of domination.
1.The Authority of the huge fiery dragon (Rev.
12,3-4, 7-9, 10-18).
The dragon is also called "the ancient serpent"19,
the "Devil and Satan". The term "Devil" signifies the slanderer and the
misrepresentation of the truth; what in current language is called
misinformation. It is he who "deceives all the world". He appears suddenly
beyond earthly reality, "in heaven". This dominating regime possesses seven
heads with ten horns, seven crowns and a tail. With its tail it drags a
third of the stars out of the sky and casts them down to earth20.
The huge, fiery dragon's intention is to exterminate the
awaited Child, to whom the woman in labour is about to give birth: the Child
who will become the universal powerful ruler2l. According to the
ancient exegetes22, it is about a preventative act born from the
anxiety of a wicked power such as Herod's authority.
This intention, however, is not realized because the
newborn Child is saved from the threat and his mother is protected in a
desolate place revealed by God23.
A war then breaks out in heaven between Michael's angelic
forces and the angels of the dragon. The forces of the dragon are defeated,
and he and his angels are casted down to earth. Thus God remains the
indisputable rule of heaven24, while the dragon is forced to make
the earth the base of his activities.
Despite all this, the dragon continues to pursue the
woman οn earth as well. He is, however unsuccessful because she acquires the
wings of an eagle and thus escapes from danger. The dragon recourses to the
natural element of water in order to drown her but fails, the woman being
aided by the earth, which opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the
dragon had poured from his mouth. Thus is the natural environments'
participation in her rescue underlined.
This failure nοw enrages the dragon, who nοw turns to the
rest of her descendants. These are the people who obey God's commandments
and who testify unto the truth revealed by Jesus25. According to
Arethas the commentator, the allegory here refers to the Church: to "the
persecution of the Church"26. If we change the deductive course
of the story to an inductive one, then the earthly war of the dragon against
the faithful and the Church is seen as a reaction against his initial and
super-historical vanguishment by God -a reaction with temporary results. The
conclusion is evident. This authοrity is οnly outwardly and temporarily
powerful since, in reality, it has already been defeated ontologically
and eschatologically.
The designs against this authority begin before the birth
of the Child, before the birth of Christ. The prophet observes that the
dragon stands οn the sand of the sea as if expecting to give up his power
and plans to another authority. And a new figure does indeed appear, but not
a new authority.
2. The Authority of the beast of the sea.
It is the authority which comes from the sea and
therefore "the sea- power" authority. It is not a protogenous authority but
one that receives and accepts authority from the dragon27. It is
enrusted with military power, dynastic dignity and title, and broad
authority. The meaning of the authority given is evident, as is the peaceful
handing down of despotic authority from one power to another. Ιn regard to
the Messiah28, the succeeding authority undertakes to implement
the programmed plans and aims of its predecessor.
As characteristics of this new authority after the
Messiah's birth and salvation the prophet mentions the "ten horns" with the
"ten crowns" οn them and the "seven heads", as well as its beast-like
qualities, i.e.its resemblance to a leopard with the feet of a bear and the
mouth of a lion29.
Its resemblance to a leopard obviously symbolizes its rapacity; the
feet of a bear, its overwhelming power and the mouth of a lion, its power of
extermination and destruction. One of its heads seemed to have received a
death-blow30, but its wound was apparently not mortal since it
had been healed3l. Here we clearly discern an imitation or an
usurpation of Christ the Lamb. The beast's salvation causes universal
admiration32, and people submit themselves to him, worshipping
both authorities, that of the beast and that of the dragon.
The satanic element in this absolute authority is
precisely its demand that it be accepted and worshipped as a deity33.
This demand is expressive of the pseudotheological ideology characteristic
of a despotic state.
After universal submission, the authority's atheistic
blasphemy is revealed: the unrevealed "blasphemous names" obviously refer to
the calling into doubt of God's existence (literally, of His name),
the sanctity of His temple (of His tent) - since questioning the
meaning and the existence of the holy place is a way of waging polemics
against the faith -and life after death (literally, those who have
pitched their tents in heaven)34. These are the three
well-known axes around which the antireligious polemic revolves and which
are usually diachronically applied. We have here the arrogance of authority35.
This authority provokes a war "against the Saints" and defeats them. This
victory strengthens its universal power36 and is followed by the
demand that it be worshipped by all the people living οn earth, who do not
number themselves among those who believe in Christ37.
3. The Beast-like Authority of the Beast of the Earth
(Planetarchy).
Contrary to that of its predecessor, the regime of the
second beast- like authority is aboriginal and native38. It is
symbolically characterized by two horns as opposed to the ten horns of the
beast of the sea (Rev 13,1 ), and resembles the Lamb, but speaks
"like a dragon". The image is indicative of craftness.39 Here the
regime has been transformed into one that appears mild and religious, but
manifest itself in a beast-like manner "speaking like a dragon". It reverts
to that quality of the dragon40 cast down to earth and exercises
the powers of the first but weakened beast41, that with authority
of the sea42. It universally imposes the worship of the first
beast healed of its mortal wound43. It employs impressive
technical means of deception44 and imposes the fashioning of
images of the first wounded but healed beast and decrees that all those who
do not worship the image-idol of the beast be put to death45. Ιn
other words, it deifies the authority that preceded it and imposes upοn
every class of people46 complete religious and political
submission with a specific and evident sign of subjection to the
regime in power, placed "οn their right hand or the forehead"47.
It threatens those who do not accept this specific mark of submission with
the penalty of not being able to carry οn commercial transactions48.
Given that the system of survival is realized through "buying and
selling", the tight control, expressed herein as complete religious
submission to the authority of the beast49 suggest a self-deified
state authority that uses its absolute control, that which today we call
"the market" to impose and establish itself.
Tightly regulated economy appears in the Book of
Revelation as a practical consequence of self-deified authority. Οn the
contrary real divine authority does not strictly exercise a controlled
economy, since God "makes His sun rise οn the evil and οn the good, and
sends rain οn the righteous and the unrighteous"50.
John records the symbolic code number of the despotic
being as the number of a human being and not of a demon51.
There is a rich bibliography52 reflecting the
futile efforts to decode the number of this cryptographic system which is in
one way or another inaccessible. For the historical method of
interppretation the Emperor Dometian (8l-96 A.D.) - as well as others also
-who in official documents was put forth as "Lord" and as "God"53,
seems a reasonable choise. He used to punish cruelly all those who refused
to conform to his demand that has to be honored as a god. Thus, he punished
Flavius Clemens, who was a consul and his uncle by having him hanged, and
accused his wife Domitilla of atheism and had her exiled.
For the citizen of today's modern world and century, for
today's man, who in amazement searches for analogies and similarities
scattered throughout former and present times, the name of the historical
person implied as embodying this cruel despotism spoken of in Revelation is
not so important. More important is the clarification of the quality of that
authority. What is foremost is the seeking out of its authoritarian quality,
authority in rem and not in personam. Herein lies the
difference between the historical examination and view of Revelation and the
symbolic correspondence of its synthesis. The individuals pass οn, but the
antireligious and the despotic outlook and mind-set can revive and be
expressed each time by or with new individuals.
The factor of time, which is considered by the historical
method of interpretation to be its main purpose, is theologically
unattainable; Christ excluded all possibility of man's being able to know
the time of history's completion54.
4. The Authority of Babylon (Rev. l7,l - l8, l - 24).
This authority is shown by one of the seven angels who
had the seven bowls of the anger of God. It is described as "the sin of the
great prostitute"55. It concerns the typology of the
multi-national State established upοn a multitude of peoples56
and which obtains the cooperation of the kings of the earth and evokes the
enthusiasm of the population57.
After the introductory characterizations, the prophet is
carried "by the Spirit" to the desert. There the authority is depicted as a
woman sitting upοn a scarlet beast. Hence, she, too, expresses the
beast-like authority. The prophet emphatically states that this beast "is
full of blasphemous names", that is, insults against God. It consists of ten
kings58 and lies οn seven hills, or "heads"59. The
woman-like authority is clothed in purple and scarlet dress, adorned with
gold, jewels and pearls (Rev. 17,4). Ιn her hands shed holds a gold
cup filled with "abominations" and the impurities of her fornication (Rev.
17,4).
This authority is called "Babylon"60. It also
has the name of "the mother of fornication", i.e. the source of religious
syncretism61and idolatry62. It signifies the universal
authority63 of confusion and the leveling of all values64.
This empire will destroy itself by the God- inspired undermining wrought by
its allies, who will hate and ravish it, and by fire raise it to the ground65.
C. The regime that will finally prevail:
The New Heaven and the New Earth
The new God-befitting authority ("see, the tabernacle of
God is among men"), corresponds to nature which has been completely renewed:
"the new heaven and the new earth" seen by John. It is an authority of
complete renewal: "nοw Ι make old things new" (Rev.21,5), because it
is a full authority: "Ι am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the
end".
Life flows from the throne (i.e. the authority of God) as
a river creating an ever-green ecological environment (Rev. 22, 1-3),
a society worshipping God and having a continuous vision of Him: "they shall
see His face" (Rev. 22,4), i.e., a society in which the faithful
shall live forever in eternal divine light (Rev. 22,5).
The dialectic of the authority does not, in
accordance with the usual scheme, end up in a synthesis of the
antithesis to a thesis, but in the thesis about the eternal authority of
God, in which those who strove in a God-pleasing manner οn earth
participate.
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Notes
1. Mansi 13,20.
2. "An indication of this is our esteem for the senses,
most of all the sense of sight" (Metaphysics, Ι, Ι).
3. The relationship between myth and word: Myth is a
narrative and iconographic semiology. Ιt expresses its ideas as history; it
is another form of word. The word is the result of the induction of the
historical narrative to abstract expression (philosophical) i.e. without the
conscious use of an image. The distinction between myth and word is chiefly
a matter pertaining to the semiotic system.
4. "And revelation is the manifestation of the secret
mysteries, through the enlightenment of the soul's princely faculty, through
divine oracles, either through visions or as from divine
illumination", (P.G. 106, 501).
5. "Not because he saw a perceptible door opened in
heaven... but because thus it appeared to the Evangelist,
as if it were necessary to look through an open door in order to see what
was within'; (P.G. 106, 565).
6. "'Ascend here', she does not mean to
a certain place, but that one should lift his mind up from the
mundane and human" (P.G. 106, 565).
7. The time element in the Johannine vision is spherical
with a triparte axis.
8. Cf. p.69, about the authority of the fiery dragon.
9. The expresis verbis Semiology of the book includes the
terms, authority, king, kingdom as well as throne, city, sit upοn,
potentates, chiliarchs, etc. cf. 16,6. The concept of dynasty is
implied from the text, while the concept οf empire is expressed
periphrasitically: by the number of kingdoms subjugated to the authority
mentioned.
10. Οscar CulΙmann (Der Staat im Neuen
Testament, 1961 p.52) believes that the problem of the State is posited
in the Book of Revelation.
11. Cf. Cullmann, op. cit. p.52
l2. Indirectly in its ancient Greek sense, directly in
the neo-Greek sense of blasphemy ("names of blasplιemy" et. Sim)
13. The authorities that appear in the Book of Revelation
as a vision of the Prophet of what transpires in heaven are manifested and
refer to the entire earth where the citizens who suffer their consequences
reside.
14. Rev. l,9fl. and 20, 1 fl. in combination.
15. Rev. 1,9: "... and there in heaven stood a
throne with one seated οn the throne. And the one seated there looks like
jasper... and by your will they existed and were created" (4,2-11).
16. P.G. 106,568.
17. The lesser authorities: the charging horsemen.
Charging in sequence, after the opening of each of the first four seals by
"the Lamb that appeared to be slain"; individual riders, οn horses of
different colours (white, red, black and green, i.e. copper-green) who
signify authorities or situations which dominate in society. That which is
described is the mounted ruler and the hummiliating effects upοn people of
his advancement. Aretha's application of the historical understanding to the
first seal (P.G. 106, 588) and his equating the white horse with Christ or
with a symbol of the progress "of the Apostolic preaching" possesses nο
semiological or meaningful basis. Ιn Revelation Christ is symbolized as "the
lamb that appeared to be slain" and not as a horseman, and indeed one of a
number of horsemen who inflicted suffering upοn people (Ed . Lοhse , Die
Offenbarung des Johannes, NTD 11, 1971, p. 46). The purpose of the first
horseman is given: "he came out conquering" and "a crown was given
him"; apparently the crown of a victor.
The charging horseman of the second seal (Rev.
6,4) mounted οn a red horse, has as his purpose the great slaughter of men
and the removal of peace from the earth. The colour red symbolizes blood,
and Arethas of Caesarea, consistent with his interpretation concerning the
white horse, considers the red colour to signify the blood of the martyrs.
The phrase "so that they would slaughter one another" he believes to signify
the lack of harmony, because of which people are led to slaughtering one
another.
The charging horsemen of the third seal, mounted οn a
black horse holds a scale (Rev. 6,5-6), while from the four beast
surrounding the throne of God is heard the interpretative word: "A quart
of wheat for a day's pay, and three quarts of barley for a day's
pay, but do not damage the olive oil and
wine!"
The ancient exegetes such as Arethas of Caesarea (P.G.
106, 598-92), skip over -although they know- the clear meaning of the
pricing οf barley as signifying hunger, and interpret the statement
alegorically, speaking of divine judgment (the scale) and the ethical
differentiation of people. The newer exegetes clearly speak about hunger
and esclation of prices from eight to tenfold (Lοhse, p. 46).
The charging horseman mounted οn a copper green horse of
the fourth seal is death, who is followed by Hades (Rev. 6,8).
The charging horseman mounted οn a copper green horse of the fourth seal is
death, who is followed by Hades (Rev. 6,8). Arethas (P.G. 106,
593) interprets this colour as "the symbol of wrath" and the
remainder allegorically. Newer exegetes speak οf the death of 25% of the
population from cholera, slaughter, hunger and wild beasts,
i.e. people will be captured by wild beasts.
The contents of the fifth and sixth seals refer to the
subsequent consequences. When the contents of the fifth seal are revealed
the souls of the martyrs put to death "for the word of God and for the
testimony they had given" (Rev. 6,9) appear and seek retribution. This
phrase is precisely similar to that which declares the reason for John's
presence in Patmos (Rev. 1,9). The reply is that they must wait a
little more for the final judgment of all, righteous and unrighteous, until
the other martyrs arrive. They already receive the white garments as a
symbol of righteousness.
The sixth seal (Rev. 6,12-17) reveals violent
cosmological consequences: a great earthquake, a black
(i.e. darkened) sun, a blood-like moon, a sudden fall of
stars (meteorites) to the earth, a change in the shape of the
sky and geological upheavals.
The harmony of natιιte is done away with and the
Cosmos is transformed in
chaos.
The natural catastrophes are followed by social
consequences: the members of the seven-part social structure: the kings of
the earth, the potentates, chiliarchs, the rich, the mighty, the slaves and
the freemen are all equated before the danger and seek safe shelter from
"the face of the one seated οn the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb" in
the caves. Rev. 6,15.
18. Ι choose the chatacterization "lesser" in to
distinguish them from the authorities symbolized by beasts.
19. The serpent symbolizes temptation, enmity and deceit.
20. Allegory provokes us greatly to understand the image as indicating the
secularization of the intellect, its abandonment of its lofty occupation
with theological thought and its focusing upοn materialistic outlooks.
21."whο is to rule all the nations with a rod of irοn"
(Rev. 12,5).
22. Aretha of Caesarea, P.G. 106, 664.
23. Rev. 12,5-6.
24. Rev. 12,10-12.
25. Rev. 12,17.
26. P.G. 106, 668.
27. "And the dragon gave it his power
and his throne and great authotity . (Rev.
13,2).
28. Cf. 12,4f.
29. Rev. 13,2.
30. Cullmann, οp. cit., pp. 54-55, points out that
the imitation of God belongs to the innermost essence of the Devil; he lays
claim to all that belongs to God and he reveals himself as possessing divine
attributes.
31. Rev. 13,3.
32."of all the eatth" (Rev. 13,4)
33. Cullmann, 55.
34. Rev. 13,6.
35."and Ι will never see grief" (Rev.
18,7).
36."and it was given authority over every tribe and
people and language and tongue and nation" (Rev. 13,7).
37. "... whose names has
not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of the Lamb
that was slaughtered" (Rev. 13, 1-10).
38. "... Then Ι saw another beast that rose
out of the earth" (Rev. 13,11).
39. Cf. Matth. 7, 15:
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's
clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves".
40. Rev. 12,13.
41. "and one of its heads seemed to have
received a death-blοw, but its mortal wound had been healed" (Rev.
13,3).
42. "... and it exercises all the authority of
the first beast οn its behalf " (Rev. 13,12).
43. "and it makes the earth and its inhabitants
worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed" (Rev.13,12).
44. Rev. 13,13-14.
45. "and it deceives the inhabitants of the earth,
telling them to make an image for the
beast... and cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be
killed..." .
46. "and it causes all, both small and great, both
rich and poor, both free and slave... " (Rev. 13,16).
47. Rev. 13,16.
48. "so that nο οne can buy or
sell who does not have the mark, the name of the
beast or the number of its name" (Rev.
13,17).
49. The well-known economologist, Friedrich A.
Hayek, stated the following in regard to the above position taken by
Revelation when in l974 he received the Nobel Prize: "Financial auditing
is not οnly a control of a sector of human life, which can be distinguished
from the others. It constitutes a control of the means towards all our aims.
And he who possesses the singular control of these means can decide which
aims shall be facilitated, which values are to be considered as being
'higher' and which 'lower' -in short, in what men ought to believe
and for which goals they should struggle" (See the newspaper "Free
Press" (Athens, 24 Feb. l986, p. 9).
50. Matth. 5,45.
5l. "Here is wisdom: let anyone with understanding
calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person.
Its number is six hundred sixty-six" (Rev. 13,11-18).
52. E.Lohse, 80 ffl.
53. According tο Suetοnius 13, "Our Lord and God
commands that.. " (in Lohse, p. 80).
54. "It is not for you to know the times or
periods that the Father has set by his οwn authority" (Acts 1,7).
55. Rev. 17,1.
56. Ιn the text the phrase, "[The great whore] who is
seated οn many waters" is explained by the phrase, "the waters that
you saw, where the whore is seated, are peoples and
multitudes and nations and languages" (Rev. 17,2; cf. Rev.
17,15).
57. Rev. 17,2.
58. "horns" according to the semiology of the
prophet, (see in combination Rev. 17,3 and Rev. 17,12).
59. According tο the prophet's semiology (see in
combination Rev. 17,4 and 17,9).
60. The word, according to Old Testament etymology means
"confusion".
61. Ιn this way should the term "fornication" as
used by the Old Testament be rendered.
62. Ιn this way should the term "abomination"
taken from the Old Testament by understood.
63. It includes "peoples"; "multitudes", "nations"and
"languages"(Rev.7,15).
64. Rev. 17,18 "the
wοman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the eaιth".
65. Rev. 17,16 "and they will hate the whore,
and they will make her desolate and naked, and they will devour her
flesh and burn her up with fire. For God has put it in their hearts
to carry out His purpose".
ΘΗΣΑΥΡΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΚΑΙΝΗΣ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗΣ
