The Revelation of John (American Standard Version, 1901) · 10 of 22 · tr. American Standard Version (1901)
10:6-11:12
[10:6] and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created the heaven and the things that are therein, and the earth and the things that are therein, and the sea and the things that are therein, that there shall be delay no longer:
[10:7] but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which he declared to his servants the prophets.
[10:8] And the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard it again speaking with me, and saying, Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel that standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
[10:9] And I went unto the angel, saying unto him that he should give me the little book. And he saith unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as honey.
[10:10] And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and when I had eaten it, my belly was made bitter.
[10:11] And they say unto me, Thou must prophesy again over many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.
[11:1] And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and one said, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
[11:2] And the court which is without the temple leave without, and measure it not; for it hath been given unto the nations: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
[11:3] And I will give unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
[11:4] These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks, standing before the Lord of the earth.
[11:5] And if any man desireth to hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies; and if any man shall desire to hurt them, in this manner must he be killed.
[11:6] These have the power to shut the heaven, that it rain not during the days of their prophecy: and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they shall desire.
[11:7] And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that cometh up out of the abyss shall make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them.
[11:8] And their dead bodies lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
[11:9] And from among the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations do men look upon their dead bodies three days and a half, and suffer not their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.
[11:10] And they that dwell on the earth rejoice over them, and make merry; and they shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth.
[11:11] And after the three days and a half the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them that beheld them.
[11:12] And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they went up into heaven in the cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The oath in 10:6 references God as creator of heaven, earth, and sea and all things therein, invoking the act of cosmic origin as a credential.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
God's oath that there shall be delay no longer, the precise timing of the seventh trumpet, the measured 42 months and 1260 days, and the breath of life entering the dead at exactly 3.5 days all express active divine ordering of events toward intelligible ends.
The doctrine that emotions constitute a valid and necessary mode of knowing reality, complementing or surpassing intellectual cognition.
The little book is known through embodied sensation — sweet as honey in the mouth, bitter in the belly — making affective and sensory experience a mode of apprehending divine truth.
Final, collective cosmic judgment as an event in which the wicked are sentenced and the cosmos restored; distinct from psychopomp_journey (individual passage at death) and emphasising verdict where Zoroastrian frashokereti emphasises restoration.
The finishing of the mystery of God at the seventh trumpet, the judgment implied by the witnesses' testimony and the beast's opposition, and the final ascension all point to a culminating cosmic verdict.
The finishing of the mystery of God at the seventh trumpet and the ultimate restoration of the witnesses point toward a final renovation of the cosmic order.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The passage is saturated with non-physical realities interpenetrating the physical: voices from heaven, the beast rising from the abyss, the breath of life from God entering dead bodies, and the witnesses ascending into heaven in a cloud.
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
God is conceived as actively swearing, speaking, sending angels, giving breath of life, and commanding ascension — a dynamic personal reality rather than an abstract principle.
Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.
The little book that is simultaneously sweet as honey and bitter, and the dead bodies that must not be buried yet are restored after 3.5 days, use apparent contradiction to destabilise ordinary understanding.
A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.
The two witnesses' resurrection and ascension into heaven in the cloud (11:12) is a clear staged upward passage from death through restoration to heavenly return.
The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.
The two witnesses have the power to shut heaven, turn waters to blood, and smite the earth with plagues 'as often as they shall desire' — their prophetic word carries direct causal-magical force over nature.