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When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
Verse 1. There was silence in heaven: which is to represent as it were a general consternation, and an expectation of dreadful events at the opening of the seventh seal, and when seven Angels stood prepared to sound seven trumpets. Witham.
I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
Another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer. Much incense was given to him, that he should add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne.
Verse 3. Stood before the altar, having a golden censer. In the visions is an allusion to the tabernacle and its parts. The altar of perfumes was in the sanctum, hard by the entrance into the sanctum sanctorum, and here the golden altar is said to be before the throne of God. The incense from the censer is said to be the prayers of all the Saints, which the Angel offered up. The altar seems to signify our Saviour Christ, as the prayers of all the faithful are always made through the merits of Christ, our only chief Mediator or Redeemer. By the fire cast upon the earth, (verse 5) is signified the fire of divine charity, now to be exercised by the ways of justice, to draw persons to their conversion by punishments. Witham.—We may observe both in this and other places of the Apocalypse, that Saint John makes continual allusions to what was done in the temple of Jerusalem, for which he gives us symbolical reasons. Thus on the present occasion, the incense which was offered morning and evening in the temple, on the golden altar, is represented as done here in heaven. Calmet.
The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand.
The angel took the censer, and he filled it with the fire of the altar, then threw it on the earth. Thunders, sounds, lightnings, and an earthquake followed.
The seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
The first sounded, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. One third of the earth was burned up, and one third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
Verse 7. The first Angel sounded, and so forth From this place to the eleventh verse of chap. 20 the visions are differently expounded. Some interpret them, without applying them to any particular events, as general comminations, in a mystical and allegorical sense of the many persecutions which God permits to happen to his Church. Others think that they are all predictions, which shall not happen till a little time before the end of the world, in antichrist’s time, after which will follow the day of the general judgment, the punishment of the wicked, and the reward of the just. But there are others, both ancient and later writers, as in particular Alcazar, the bishop of Meaux (Bossuet,) Pere Alleman, to whom we may add among the Protestants, Dr. Hammond, whom the bishop of Meaux calls the most learned of all the English Protestants. According to the interpretations which these writers have followed, these predictions of Saint John (except the last persecution, when the devil shall be let loose, Calmet. 20:7 in the time of the great antichrist) have already happened in the three first ages, during the persecutions of the heathen emperors, as I shall briefly take notice. Hail therefore, and fire, blood, falling of stars, and so forth some look upon as mystical representations, to signify that a great many trials and persecutions shall happen to the good, and a great many punishments and chastisements shall fall upon the wicked; with this grand difference, that the sufferings of the good shall be short and momentary, and their reward a crown of endless glory; but the wicked, if any of them escape punishments in this world, can never escape eternal torments with the devils in the next. 2. It is also a very common opinion, that all these disasters shall happen in a great measure, literally about antichrist’s time, a very short time before the end of the world. 3. Others apply all these events to the judgments which God’s justice exercised either upon the Jews, in the time of Trajan and Adrian, or upon the heathen Roman emperors, and upon the pagan city of Rome, for persecuting the servants of God. Witham.—As these Angels with their trumpets, according to Pastorini, denote the sufferings of the Church during the seven ages that it lasts, it may not be improper to point out the time, according to his opinion, when each Angel sounded the trumpet. Thus the first trumpet denotes the persecutions of the first three centuries, in which the Christians suffered death by the sword, (denoted by blood) by being stoned, (denoted by the hail) and by fire, when the third part of the trees were burnt, that is, the third part of the clergy were destroyed. Pas.
TR omits “One third of the earth was burned up”
The second angel sounded, and something like a great burning mountain was thrown into the sea. One third of the sea became blood,
Verse 8. The great mountain denotes the heresy of Arius, which caused the greatest troubles in the Church, and destroyed many churches, which are here denoted by the ships. Pas.
and one third of the living creatures which were in the sea died. One third of the ships were destroyed.
The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from the sky, burning like a torch, and it fell on one third of the rivers, and on the springs of water.
Verse 10. A great star fell. The bishop of Meaux thinks this agrees very well to Cochebas, or Barcochebas, who in Adrian’s time pretended to be the true Messias of the Jews; his name also signifying a star. He was the chief cause of those wars, and of the utter destruction of the Jews. Witham.—The third trumpet points out to us the punishment that falls upon the Roman empire, in its destruction by the northern nations. These people spread themselves over the third part of the rivers and provinces of ancient Rome. The star is called wormwood, from the bitter calamities and miseries which they inflicted upon the Roman empire. Pas.
The name of the star is “Wormwood.” One third of the waters became wormwood. Many people died from the waters, because they were made bitter.
The fourth angel sounded, and one third of the sun was struck, and one third of the moon, and one third of the stars, so that one third of them would be darkened; and the day wouldn’t shine for one third of it, and the night in the same way.
Verse 12. The third part of the sun was smitten. This may signify a third part of men killed in those wars, or (according to the opinion that refers all to antichrist’s time) that in those days the sun and moon shall not give above a third part of their light. Witham.—Here we behold a noble figure of the Church, which whilst in its most flourishing state, like the sun, is suddenly obscured, and a third part extinguished by the heresy and schism of the Greeks, under Photius, which began in 866, and infected all orders of Christians, clergy and laity, princes and individuals, signified by the sun, moon, and stars. Pas.
I saw, and I heard an eagle, flying in mid heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe! Woe! Woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the other blasts of the trumpets of the three angels, who are yet to sound!”
Verse 13. The voice of one eagle: in divers Greek copies, of an Angel, saying, Wo, wo, wo! It is to foretell, in general, greater punishments and miseries. The Prot. translation has followed those Greek copies that read an Angel; but Dr. Wells, in his amendments, has restored that reading of an eagle which the ancient Latin interpreter had met with. Witham.—An eagle, on account of its swiftness, is here represented as chosen to announce by its cry of wo on the three succeeding ages of the Church, greater disasters to be sustained than in the preceding ages. Pas.
TR reads “angel” instead of “eagle”