Our Lady of the Apocalypse

Our chapter-by-chapter Bible study on the book of Revelation continues! For the first seven chapters, click here. Please note that our source material comes from the Taylor Marshall Show podcast.

The Book of Revelation

Apocalypse, “The Unveiling”

Chapter 8—Seven Trumpets

A pause at the seventh seal recalls Sabbath rest. Silence indicates the presence of God about to do something amazing. This seal brings forth seven angels (archangels?) bearing trumpets, like Joshua’s conquest of Jericho. A priest-angel brings the prayers of the saints to God’s altar as incense. The censer is filled with fire from the altar and thrown down to earth; this is the answer to the martyrs’ prayers. The first four angel trumpets bring forth cosmic catastrophes that mirror thematically the 10 Plagues of Egypt. Wormwood (Satan?) reverses the miracle of Moses purifying poisoned waters with wood (Cross?). The eagle’s triple superlative “Woe!” is a prophetic warning for the next three angels.

Chapter 9—The Locust Legion

The fallen star is given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit (Satan and Gehenna). Locusts stream out from the flames and smoke of hell a la the prophet Joel. Locusts take away everything that you worked so hard to produce. They are not allowed to harm those with the seal (Baptism) upon their foreheads, but torture others nonlethally for five months, the life cycle of a locust. Also, the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans lasted five months. What’s with the crazy description of the locusts? Consider the constellations visible over Jerusalem at the Passover and during the Jewish War: Leo, Virgo, Scorpio, Sagittarius the warrior, Hydra and Ophiuchus (the serpent and serpent-bearer). Abaddon/Apollyon means Destruction/Destroyer. Vespasian and his son Titus destroyed Jerusalem and conquered Rome. Titus was the commander of Legion XV Apollinarius. The second woe occurs when the sixth angel blows his trumpet and a huge mass of bizarre cavalry come forth. They punish unrepentant idolaters (Romans) and murderers (the apostate Jerusalem establishment that murdered John, Jesus, James and James).

Chapter 10—Heaven’s Giant

The “gigantic angel” appears to be Jesus: holding the scroll, clothed in cloud, ringed with rainbow, face like the sun, pillars of fire, lion’s voice. These are all divine attributes. The sea represents the Gentiles and the land represents Israel. John is not permitted to write what the seven thunders say. Thunder is God’s voice, the Holy Spirit. Mankind gets the little scroll instead. We cannot know everything, the entire mind of God. We are given what we need. With His feet touching the earth and sea He swears a New Testament by Heaven. The hidden mystery now revealed is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs of God’s promise; all nations are to be brought into God’s people Israel. “Take and eat” the little scroll. The scroll is the New Covenant, the Eucharist. It is both sweet and bitter.

Chapter 11—Two Witnesses

When John measures the Temple he is “canonizing” it for God. 42 months is 3 ½ years, the length of Jesus’ ministry but also the length of the Neronian persecution. The two witnesses dress like Elijah, God’s champion against idolatry. Zechariah spoke of two sons of oil, Joshua the priest and Zerubbabel the king. The fire from their mouths is the Word of God. They have Moses’ talent for plagues. Who are they: the Law and the Prophets; Elijah and John the Baptist; Peter and Paul? Or, as some Church Fathers believed, are the two witnesses Enoch and Elijah, the only two men who never died? Augustine and Aquinas affirm that Enoch and Elijah will return in the future. The Beast (Satan, animalistic sin) rises up from the Abyss (Gehenna) and kills the witnesses. Then the seventh trumpet sounds, and the Kingdom of God is unleashed upon the earth.

Chapter 12—Our Lady of the Apocalypse

Heaven splits open and the Ark of the Covenant is revealed: not a box but a woman. In 2 Maccabees 2, Jeremiah declares that God will keep the Ark hidden until He regathers His people in mercy. According to Aristotle, everything below the moon was mortal, and everything above immortal and incorruptible. She stands above the moon. But how can Mary and the birth of Christ occur here before the fall of Satan? According to tradition, Lucifer rebels on the first day of Creation because God shows to the angels a future vision of the Incarnation. 12 stars indicate Virgo, as well as 12 Apostles and 12 Tribes. The red dragon (Satan) has attributes of Daniel’s four beasts; Michael casts him down. The dragon pursues the woman: Eve or Mary? St. John took Mary from Jerusalem to Ephesus for her protection. The woman is Israel, and Mary, and the Church. If you bear witness to Jesus, you are a child of the mother of Jesus.

Chapter 13—Beasts of Earth and Sea

The sea represents the Gentiles and the land ancient Israel: Rome and Jerusalem. The sea beast has seven heads and 10 horns like the dragon, again from Daniel. 10 crowns relate to 10 Roman principalities and Daniel’s 10 toes. Is the head wound from Genesis 3:15? The pagan Roman kingdom has received its deathblow but it doesn’t know it yet. The Caesars call themselves “lord,” “divine,” and “savior,” which is blasphemy. The land beast, with horns like a lamb (like the Messiah) but the dragon’s voice, is a false prophet. The land beast ministers in the presence of the sea beast, serving and worshipping Caesar. The false idol refers to those synagogues that follow the false high priest, persecuting the Church by expelling Jewish Christians from their synagogues. 666 is “Nero Caesar.” In Exodus the Law is to be tied to the forehead and the right hand; false law mocks this.

Chapter 14—The Grapes of Wrath

The new song for the 144,000 is the liturgical song of victory. The faithful army of Christ is not swept away by spiritual adultery, and they speak the truth. One angel calls us to worship and honor God with our lives; another declares the fall of “Babylon.” This draws imagery from Ezekiel and Jeremiah, prophets who speak of Jerusalem as God’s unfaithful bride turned prostitute. The old city is fallen and will be destroyed. A third angel warns that those who worship the land beast and its idol will be punished. Christ reappears as Daniel’s Son of Man, holding a sickle. Two swings reap both wheat and grapes. The Old Testament calls Israel and especially Jerusalem God’s vineyard. Terrible bloodshed is coming to Jerusalem, but a harvest is reaped.