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Revelation

About this book
Chapter 8

1 Now when the Lamb opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.⁠ 2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.⁠ 3 Another angel holding a golden censer came and was stationed at the altar. A large amount of incense was given to him to offer up, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar that is before the throne.⁠ 4 The smoke coming from the incense, along with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.⁠ 5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth, and there were crashes of thunder, roaring, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. 6 Now the seven angels holding the seven trumpets prepared to blow them. 7 The first angel blew his trumpet, and there was hail and fire mixed with blood,⁠ and it was thrown at the earth so that a third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.⁠ 8 Then the second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain of burning fire was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea became blood,⁠ 9 and a third of the creatures living in the sea died, and a third of the ships were completely destroyed. 10 Then the third angel blew his trumpet, and a huge star burning like a torch fell from the sky; it landed on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.⁠ 11 (Now the name of the star is Wormwood.) So a third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from these waters because they were poisoned.⁠ 12 Then the fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. And there was no light for a third of the day and for a third of the night likewise.⁠ 13 Then I looked, and I heard an eagle flying directly overhead, proclaiming with a loud voice, “Woe! Woe! Woe to those who live on the earth because of the remaining sounds of the trumpets of the three angels who are about to blow them!”

Texts in conversation

Compare Wisdom of Solomon 18:14 and Revelation 8:1

Deuterocanon · New Testament

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Summary

Revelation’s image of silence in heaven echoes the Wisdom of Solomon, where quiet comes before divine judgment during the night in its retelling of Egypt’s judgment. Both emphasize silence as a way of building suspense before divine judgment begins.

Passages

Wisdom of Solomon 18:14

Deuterocanon
11 Both servant and master were punished with the same just doom, and the commoner suffering the same as king; 12 Yes, they all together, under one form of death, had corpses without number. For the living were not sufficient even to bury them, since at a single stroke, their most cherished offspring was consumed. 13 For while they were disbelieving all things by reason of the enchantments, upon the destruction of the firstborn they confessed the people to be God’s children. 14 For while peaceful silence wrapped all things, and night in her own swiftness was half spent, 15 your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, a stern warrior, into the midst of the doomed land, 16 bearing as a sharp sword your authentic commandment, and standing, it filled all things with death, and while it touched the sky it stood upon the earth. 17 Then immediately apparitions in dreams terribly troubled them, and unexpected fears came upon them. 18 And each, one thrown here half dead, another there, made known why he was dying;
50 BCE – 50 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Wisdom of Solomon

Revelation 8:1

New Testament
1 Now when the Lamb opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 3 Another angel holding a golden censer came and was stationed at the altar. A large amount of incense was given to him to offer up, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar that is before the throne. 4 The smoke coming from the incense, along with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it on the earth, and there were crashes of thunder, roaring, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
92–96 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Revelation

References

"... In Old Testament and Jewish tradition “silence” is associated both with Egypt’s defeat and Israel’s redemption at the Red Sea. This likely derives from Exodus 14:14 LXX, where Moses commands the Israelites to “be silent” [sigaō] and not fight, because the Lord would destroy the Egyptians. Wisdom of Solomon 18–19 is especially interesting. A “quiet silence” (18:14) immediately precedes God’s judgment of the firstborn in Egypt—this just after Moses’ intercessory prayer, which appears to be equated with a propitiation of incense (18:21). The deliverance of Israel is then repeatedly described as a new creation (19:6–8, 11, 18–21). For related descriptions of the judgment of Egypt, we may compare Targum Exodus 15; Psalm 76:6–9; Mekilta deRabbi Ishmael 7:20–23. Finally, there is a Jewish tradition that in the fifth heaven angelic servants praise God at night but become silent during the day so that the praises offered by Israel could be heard by God (b. Chagigah 12b; b. Avoda Zara 3b). A partial basis for both this Jewish tradition and Revelation 8:1 may be Psalm 65:1–2: “There will be silence before Thee, [even] praise in Zion ... O Thou who dost hear prayer” (compare Midrash Psalms 65:1; b. Eruvn 19a; Midrash Psalms 31 on Psalm 31:18; Testament of Adam 1:11–12; 4Q405 20 II, 7). A variant of this theme is reflected in Targum Ezekiel 1:24–25, which asserts that when the guardian cherubs were in motion, they “were blessing and thanking” God, but “when they stood still, [they] became silent” in order to hear God’s revelatory word, which in the context of Ezekiel 1–2 is a pronouncement of judgment on Israel ..."
G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 2495–2496.

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Wisdom of Solomon 18:14 and Revelation 8:1

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