Read The Jewish Annotated New Testament Online
Authors: Amy-Jill Levine
9
Let anyone who has an ear listen:
10
If you are to be taken captive,
into captivity you go;
if you kill with the sword,
with the sword you must be killed.
Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.
11
Then I saw another beast that rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.
12
It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and it makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound
*
had been healed.
13
It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of all;
14
and by the signs that it is allowed to perform on behalf of the beast, it deceives the inhabitants of earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that had been wounded by the sword
*
and yet lived;
15
and it was allowed to give breath
*
to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast could even speak and cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
16
Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead,
17
so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.
18
This calls for 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.
*
NAMES INSCRIBED ON THE BODY
In one of the most mysterious and distinctive features of this book, John imagines the righteous of Israel as “sealed [
sphragizein
]” on their foreheads with the name of God and the Lamb (7.3–4; 14.1; 22.4; cf.
4 Ezra
6.5), and the unrighteous, the dupes of the beast, as likewise receiving “marks [
charagma
]” on the forehead or right hand with the encrypted name of the beast (13.16–18). The great
pornē
of Babylon also has inscribed on her forehead a name—“a mystery,” John asserts—that rather unmysteriously identifies her as “Babylon the great, mother of whores and of earth’s abominations” (17.5).
Whether labeled seals, marks, or simply names, these forehead insignia clearly have functions beyond simply identifying their bearers. The sealing of the righteous follows quite explicitly from a scene in Ezekiel in which God calls a scribal angel to put a
taw
(or X-mark) on the foreheads of everyone in Jerusalem who rejected the desecration of the Temple, and it is those inscribed who alone escape the bloodbath of the executioner angels (Ezek 9). As with the doorpost marks that in the Passover story of Exodus, safeguarded the Israelites from the slaying of the firstborn (Ex 12.21–27), these forehead marks are
apotropaic
, magically protective of their bearers from supernatural dangers.
The magical force of seals with heavenly names or pedigrees to protect and empower their bearers appears in Greek ritual manuals from Roman Egypt (
Patrologia Graeca
[Migne] 3.226; 4.3039; 7.583; 36.39). In many Jewish and Christian apocalyptic texts the bearers of such seals are protected, during heavenly ascent, from dangerous mid-air demons and ambivalent lower angels (
Ascen. Isa
. 10.23–31;
Apoc. Eli
. 1.9–12;
Hekhalot Zutrati
415–16;
Hekhalot Rabbati
219–24). Some books, like the Gnostic
Books of Jeu
, even included diagrams of the seals to be drawn on the body or inscribed on metal or gemstone. Many museums hold large collections of such inscribed gems, many of which served as protective “seals.” The gold “rosette [tzitz]” that the Jewish high priest was supposed to wear on the front of his turban, inscribed with “Holy to YHWH,” reflects an earlier idealization of such amulets (Ex 28.36–38) and may have been in John’s mind in the depiction of the people of the heavenly city (22.4). In Jewish tradition the tetragrammaton held special power to sanctify the bearer without diagrams, an idea that fed into the traditions that a golem could be activated through the inscription of a specific holy name.
What then of the number 666 on the unrighteous, which John carefully distinguishes as a
charagma
rather than a
sphragis
(13.16–17)? The number is, as John makes clear, a name, and while it certainly does not protect its bearers from divine judgment, it does protect their ability to buy and sell goods—to mark them as consecrated insiders of their own sorts—and thus serves as an effective parody of the seals on the followers of the Lamb (14.1).
14
Then I looked, and there was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion! And with him were one hundred forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
2
And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps,
3
and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the one hundred forty-four thousand who have been redeemed from the earth.
4
It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins; these follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from humankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb,
5
and in their mouth no lie was found; they are blameless.
6
Then I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live
*
on the earth—to every nation and tribe and language and people.
7
He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
8
Then another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
9
Then another angel, a third, followed them, crying with a loud voice, “Those who worship the beast and its image, and receive a mark on their foreheads or on their hands,
10
they will also drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and they will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
11
And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image and for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”
12
Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of
*
Jesus.
13
And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.”
14
Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like the Son of Man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand!
15
Another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to the one who sat on the cloud, “Use your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.”
16
So the one who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.
17
Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.
18
Then another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over fire, and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Use your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.”
19
So the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the vintage of the earth, and he threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.
20
And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the wine press, as high as a horse’s bridle, for a distance of about two hundred miles.
*
15
Then I saw another portent in heaven, great and amazing: seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is ended.
2
And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.
3
And they sing the song of Moses, the servant
*
of God, and the song of the Lamb:
“Great and amazing are your deeds,
Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,
King of the nations!
*
4
Lord, who will not fear
and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your judgments have been revealed.”
5
After this I looked, and the temple of the tent
*
of witness in heaven was opened,
6
and out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues, robed in pure bright linen,
*
with golden sashes across their chests.
7
Then one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever;
8
and the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were ended.
16
Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”
2
So the first angel went and poured his bowl on the earth, and a foul and painful sore came on those who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped its image.
3
The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing in the sea died.
4
The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood.
5
And I heard the angel of the waters say,
“You are just, O Holy One, who are and
were,
for you have judged these things;