----->>>>>>>>>
I'm confused by Rev 8:12:
Rev 8:12 ...KAI EPLHGH TO TRITON TOU hHLIOU KAI TO TRITON THS SELHNHS KAI TO
TRITON TWN ASTERWN, hINA SKOTISQHi TO TRITON AUTWN KAI hH hHMERA MH FANHi TO
TRITON AUTHS, KAI hH NUKS hOMOIWS.
For quick orientation, I'll give an English text too, but I am not sure of
the accuracy of this text:
Reve 8:12 (NASU) ...and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a
third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened
and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way.
I have a hard time visualizing this. When a third of the sun and a third of
the moon and a third of the stars are darkened, does that mean that the sun
and the moon look as though there were a partial eclipse, and one third of
the stars just disappear? And what does it mean when it says hH hHMERA MH
FANHi TO TRITON AUTHS? and what about KAI hH NUKS hOMOIWS?
<<<<<-------------
(Edward Hobbs now:)
Let me preface my response by a personal memory. When I was in college, I
had the bright idea of making a movie of the Revelation to John, so as to
help people understand it better. (Oh, the arrogance of youth!) So I
began plotting out how it could be pictorialized, and I ran into just this
problem-- it probably CAN'T be pictorialized/visualized. Much of the book
uses apocalyptic symbols as literary devices, and puts them together so as
to make precisely the points intended, not to cause the mind to create an
image. Sometimes it isn't impossible, but odd--think of the dragon with
seven heads and TEN horns and seven diadems OK, one diadem on each head,
but what about the horns? Four heads with one horn, and three with two
each? (ch. 12) Then in ch. 13, a beast with ten horns and seven heads
(like the dragon), but this time TEN diadems, one for each horn--which must
be four unicorns and three double-horned heads.
The key is precisely to follow the symbolism, but give up trying to
visialize it. Even here, sometimes the symbols do double-duty: The seven
heads on the (new, scarlet) beast (with ten horns) symbolize BOTH the seven
hills of Rome, AND seven kings. [But there is also an eighth king, who
actually also belongs to the seven.] Those who think that this refers to
events in John's own time understand this easily: The seven kings are the
five JulioClaudian emperors, the sixth following are the Flavians
(Vespasian and his two sons, Titus and Domitian); the seventh (Titus)
"remains only a little while" (2 years), and then an eighth (Domitian) who
is (Christians of the time believed) Nero Redivivus (i.e., one of the
previous seven), who was the next emperor aftr Nero to persecute the
Christians.
I don't argue for this interpretation--it is only one of many. I give it
only as an example of how interpretation can go on from the Apocalypse
without being able easily to visualize things.
Edward Hobbs