Revelationchapter 10
11 verses · John, by tradition · AD 95 or 96 · Revelation
When the seven thunders had spoken, I was about to put it in writing. But I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”
Introduction
John, by tradition, Revelation, Revelation Overview.
John wrote this chapter as an exile on Patmos, for seven churches that had just heard six trumpets sound. The seventh trumpet is held back, and the chapter turns to John himself. A mighty angel stands on sea and land with a small scroll open in his hand. Listen for the thunders John hears and is told not to write. Listen for the oath that the delay is over. Listen last for the taste of the scroll, sweet in the mouth and bitter in the stomach, and for the new commission that follows it.
Context
- Who
- A prophet on an island being handed his commission again, in front of the churches
- What
- An interlude before the seventh trumpet, with a mighty angel's oath, a small scroll that John eats, and his new commission to prophesy.
- Where
- Seen by John in exile on the island of Patmos and written for seven churches in the Roman province of Asia.
- When
- Late in the reign of Domitian, about AD 95 on the majority view, with a minority dating the book before AD 70 under Nero.
- Why
- To confirm John's authority as a prophet and to tell the churches that God's purpose will be completed without further delay.
Historical context
The angel is described the way divine glory is described elsewhere, clothed with a cloud, a rainbow on his head, a face like the sun, feet like pillars of fire. He plants one foot on the sea and one on the land, a posture that claims everything.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
He holds a little scroll, open. The big scroll of chapter 5 was sealed; this one is already open and small enough to hold in a hand.
Seven thunders speak and John is about to write it down and is told to seal it up and not write it. That is unusual in a book whose whole business is disclosure, and it says something plain: not everything gets told.
Then John is told to take the scroll and eat it, and that it will be sweet in his mouth and bitter in his stomach. Ezekiel was told to eat a scroll before he preached to Israel, and Jeremiah spoke of God's words being eaten as joy. The message has to go through the messenger before it goes out of him.
He is told he must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings, a man in exile on a small island being told his work is not finished and its reach is not small.
Significance
For the seven churches, this pause said their prophet's authority came from the same throne as the judgments. He did not select this material; he ate it, and it made him sick.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The sweetness and the bitterness together are the honest note. Good news about God's kingdom coming is sweet. What it means for the world that refuses it is bitter. A messenger who feels only one of the two has not swallowed the whole thing.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A Mighty Angel and Seven Thunders Sealed Up
Revelation 10:1-2
wrapped in a cloud: The angel comes wrapped in a cloud, with a face like the sun, traits John gave Christ at 1:16, so some read a christophany. Others, noting the oath he swears in verse 6, read a created messenger, and both have holders.
Revelation 10:1
“And a rainbow upon his head - A lovely token of the divine favour. And yet it is not too glorious for a creature: the woman, chap. xii, 1, is described more glorious still. And his face as the sun - Nor is this too much for a creature: for all the righteous "shall shine forth as the sun," Matt. xiii, 43.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Revelation 10:1
“He was clothed with a cloud: he veils his glory, which is too great for mortality to behold; and he throws a veil upon his dispensations. Clouds and darkness are round about him. A rainbow was upon his head; he is always mindful of his covenant, and, when his conduct is most mysterious, yet it is perfectly just and faithful.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
He held in his hand a small scroll: Wesley reads the small scroll in the hand of the angel as the rest of the sealed scroll of chapter 5, now open. Oecumenius sets the open scroll beside Daniel 7:10, where the books were opened. The Lamb had opened the seals of the first scroll.
Revelation 10:3-4
the seven thunders sounded their voices: , and John is about to write when a voice says Seal up what the seven thunders have said. It is the one revelation in the book John must withhold, like the sealed words of Daniel 12:4 and 12:9.
Revelation 10:3
“And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth - The lion is the monarch of the woods, and his roar is an image of terror. The point of the comparison here seems to be the loudness with which the angel cried, and the power of what he said to awe the world - as the roar of the lion keeps the dwellers of the forest in awe. What he said is not stated; nor did John attempt to record it. Prof.”
John was about to put it in writing when the voice from heaven said Seal up what the seven thunders have said. The seven thunders are heard in the book, and their words are the one message John heard and did not write.
Revelation 10:4
“Seal up those things which the seven thunders have uttered, and write them not - These are the only things of all which he heard that he is commanded to keep secret: so something peculiarly secret was revealed to the beloved John, besides all the secrets that are written in this book.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 10:4
“Though heard by John, they were not to be imparted by him to others in this book of Revelation; so terrible are they that God in mercy withholds them, since "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." The godly are thus kept from morbid ponderings over the evil to come; and the ungodly are not driven by despair into utter recklessness of life.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Revelation 10:5-7
lifted up his right hand: The angel swears by Him who lives forever that There will be no more delay, the Greek chronos, rendered time in the King James. At the seventh trumpet, sounded at 11:15, the mystery of God will be fulfilled, as Amos 3:7 says God tells His prophets.
Revelation 10:5
“Christ, to his own two witnesses. Whom I saw standing upon the earth and upon the sea, lifted up his right hand toward heaven - As yet the dragon was in heaven. When he is cast thence he brings the third and most dreadful woe on the earth and sea: so that it seems as if there would be no end of calamities.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 10:5
“And the angel which I saw stand ... - Rev 10:2. That is, John saw him standing in this posture when he made the oath which he proceeds to record. Lifted up his hand to heaven - The usual attitude in taking an oath, as if one called heaven to witness. See Gen 14:22; Deu 32:40; Eze 20:5-6. Compare the notes on Dan 12:7.”
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the Greek word for delay is the word for the time the martyrs must wait in Revelation 6:11. The angel swore by Him who lives forever that the wait is over. Clarke reads the oath the same way.
Revelation 10:6
“The solemn oath taken by this mighty angel. The manner of his swearing: He lifted up his hand to heaven, and swore by him that liveth for ever, by himself, as God often has done, or by God as God, to whom he, as Lord, Redeemer, and ruler of the world, now appeals.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Revelation 10:6
“By him that liveth for ever and ever - The eternal, self-existent Jehovah, the Maker of all things. That there should be time no longer - That the great counsels relative to the events already predicted should be immediately fulfilled, and that there should be no longer delay. This has no reference to the day of judgment.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Revelation 10:6
“The appointed season or time of delay is at an end (the same Greek is here as in Re 6:11, chronus). Not as English Version implies, Time shall end and eternity begin.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the mystery of God will be fulfilled: The verse points ahead to 11:15 to 19, where the seventh angel sounds and heaven announces the kingdom. The Greek for proclaimed is euangelizo, the verb of the gospel, so the mystery is good news He proclaimed to His servants the prophets.
Revelation 10:7
“But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel - The days in the period of time embraced by the sounding of the seventh trumpet. That is, the affairs of this world would not be consummated in that period embraced in the sounding of the sixth trumpet, but in that embraced in the sounding of the seventh and last of the trumpets. Compare Rev 11:15-19. When he shall begin to sound - That is, the events referred to will commence at the period when the angel shall begin to sound.”
2 more voices on this verse
Revelation 10:7
“The mystery of God shall be fulfilled - It is said, chap. xvii, 17, "The word of God shall be fulfilled." The word of God is fulfilled by the destruction of the beast; the mystery, by the removal of the dragon. But these great events are so near together, that they are here mentioned as one.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Revelation 10:7
“Then finally His servants shall praise Him most fully, for the glorious consummation of the mystery in having taken to Himself and His saints the kingdom so long usurped by Satan and the ungodly. Thus this verse is an anticipation of Re 11:15-18. declared to--Greek, "declared the glad tidings to." "The mystery of God" is the Gospel glad tidings.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Sweet in the Mouth, Bitter in the Belly
Revelation 10:8-9
The voice from heaven sends John to take the small scroll, and the angel warns him in advance, It will make your stomach bitter. Ezekiel 3:1-3 gives the pattern, a prophet eating a scroll that tasted of honey.
Wesley reads the command to take the scroll and eat it as a call to take in the whole message, as Ezekiel ate his scroll. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the honey in the mouth as doing the will of God. The stomach turned bitter at the judgment.
Revelation 10:9
“Eat it up - The like was commanded to Ezekiel. This was an emblem of thoroughly considering and digesting it. And it will make thy belly bitter, but it will be sweet as honey in thy mouth - The sweetness betokens the many good things which follow, chap. xi, 1, 15, &c.; the bitterness, the evils which succeed under the third woe.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 10:9
“His finding the roll sweet to the taste at first, is because it was the Lord's will he was doing, and because, divesting himself of carnal feeling, he regarded God's will as always agreeable, however bitter might be the message of judgment to be announced.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Revelation 10:10-11
sweet as honey: John eats the scroll and finds it as sweet as honey in my mouth, but his stomach turned bitter. He is told You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings, the fourfold phrase of 5:9.
Revelation 10:10
"I took the book from the hand of the angel, and ate it up." To take the book and eat it up, is, when exhibition of a thing is made to one, to commit it to memory. "And it was in my mouth as sweet as honey." To be sweet in the mouth is the reward of the preaching of the speaker, and is most pleasant to the hearers; but it is most bitter both to those that announce it, and to those that persevere in its commandments through suffering.
Victorinus of Pettau · written before 304 · Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed Johnpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Revelation 10:10
“That which is least pleasing may be most profitable; however, God's messengers must not keep back any part of the counsel of God. The apostle is made to know that this book of prophecy, which he had now taken in, was not given him merely to gratify his own curiosity, or to affect him with pleasure or pain, but to be communicated by him to the world.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Victorinus reads the command to prophesy again as fulfilled when John was set free from the mines of Patmos after Domitian died. Barnes reads prophesy as speaking the truth of God to many peoples, nations, tongues and kings. John had more to speak.
Revelation 10:11
"And He says unto me, Thou must again prophesy to the peoples, and to the tongues, and to the nations, and to many kings." He says this, because when John said these things he was in the island of Patmos, condemned to the labour of the mines by Caesar Domitian. There, therefore, he saw the Apocalypse; and when grown old, he thought that he should at length receive his quittance by suffering, Domitian being killed, all his judgments were discharged. And John being dismissed from the mines, thus subsequently delivered the same Apocalypse which he had received from God.
Victorinus of Pettau · written before 304 · Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed Johnpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Revelation 10:11
“And he did prophesy, by "measuring the temple," chap. xi, 1; as a prophecy may be delivered either by words or actions. Concerning people, and nations, and tongues, and many kings - The people, nations, and tongues are contemporary; but the kings, being many, succeed one another. These kings are not mentioned for their own sake, but with a view to the "holy city," chap. xi, 2.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Revelation 10:11
“And he said unto me - The angel then said. Thou must prophesy - The word “prophesy” here is evidently used in the large sense of making known divine truth in general; not in the comparatively narrow and limited sense in which it is commonly used, as referring merely to the foretelling of future events. See the word explained in the Rom 12:6 note; 1Co 14:1 note.”
How this psalm is built
The form: An interlude in which the rest of the sealed scroll of chapter 5 is given to John as a small open scroll, as Wesley classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The eaten scroll | Ezekiel was handed a scroll written on front and back, told to eat it, and found it as sweet as honey in his mouth. John repeats the act in verses 9 and 10 and adds the bitterness that follows. Albert Barnes notes the strong resemblance to Ezekiel 2:9 to 10 and Ezekiel 3:1.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Revelation 10:8. | Revelation 10:8, Revelation 10:9, Revelation 10:10 |
| The oath of the raised hand | In Daniel 12:7 the man clothed in linen raised his hands to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever. The angel of verses 5 and 6 raises his right hand and swears by the same living God that there will be no more delay. Albert Barnes calls the raised hand the usual posture of an oath, and points to Genesis 14:22, Deuteronomy 32:40 and Daniel 12:7.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Revelation 10:5. | Revelation 10:5, Revelation 10:6 |
| Sweet and bitter in two orders | Verse 9 names the bitter stomach first and the sweet mouth second. Verse 10 gives the same taste in the order John felt it, sweet as honey in the mouth and then bitter in the stomach. The words sweet as honey stand in both verses.the site's count of the Berean text, the verses of Revelation 10 in the store, translation id 3, the Berean Standard Bible. | Revelation 10:9, Revelation 10:10 |
| The sea and the land | The chapter places the angel on the sea and on the land three times, in verses 2, 5 and 8. Verse 6 names the sea again among the things God created, with heaven and earth. The small scroll is named four times, in verses 2, 8, 9 and 10.the site's count of the Berean text, the verses of Revelation 10 in the store, translation id 3, the Berean Standard Bible. | Revelation 10:2, Revelation 10:5, Revelation 10:6, Revelation 10:8 |
How the chapter is built
7 more paragraphs on the patterns
Chapter 9 ended with the sixth trumpet and people who would not repent. Chapter 10 holds back the seventh trumpet and opens an interlude that runs to 11:14, as chapter 7 stood between the sixth and seventh seals. Verses 1 to 4 bring the mighty angel, the small scroll and the sealed thunders. Verses 5 to 7 give the oath. Verses 8 to 11 give the eating of the scroll and John's new commission. Chapter 11 begins to carry it out with the measuring of the temple.
Who the mighty angel is
The angel wears a cloud and a rainbow, and his face shines like the sun. The Son of Man has the same face in Revelation 1:16. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read him as Christ's representative (Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on 10:1). Matthew Henry reads the oath as Christ's own, as Lord, Redeemer and ruler of the world (Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 10:6). John Wesley holds that a creature may bear this glory (Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, on 10:1). The righteous, he notes, will shine like the sun in Matthew 13:43. Andreas of Caesarea teaches that angels swear by the Creator because they are creatures (Commentary on the Apocalypse, on 10:5 to 6).
How the seventh trumpet is read
Albert Barnes reads verse 7 as a pointer to Revelation 11:15 to 19. The seventh trumpet sounds there (Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, on 10:7). Ticonius reads that trumpet as the end of persecution and the coming of the Lord (Commentary on the Apocalypse, on 10:7). He joins it to the last trumpet of 1 Corinthians 15:52. John Wesley reads the mystery as fulfilled by the removal of the dragon (Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, on 10:7).
Where to go deeper
The book as a whole has its page at /book/revelation. The two scrolls of the book are at /featured/the-scroll-and-the-book, and the oath at /featured/oaths. The appearances of Christ are at /featured/christophany, and the two witnesses who follow are at /featured/two-witnesses. Angels in Revelation is listed as an owed feature page.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1755, on Revelation 10:2; Oecumenius, Commentary on Revelation, 550, on Revelation 10:2 and Victorinus of Pettau, Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John, 304, on Revelation 10:11.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Bede, Commentary on Revelation; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oecumenius, Commentary on Revelation; Ticonius, Commentary on the Apocalypse and Victorinus of Pettau, Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John.