The Revelation of John (American Standard Version, 1901) · 15 of 22 · tr. American Standard Version (1901)

16:3-17:2

[16:3] And the second poured out his bowl into the sea; and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living soul died, even the things that were in the sea.

[16:4] And the third poured out his bowl into the rivers and the fountains of the waters; and it became blood.

[16:5] And I heard the angel of the waters saying, Righteous art thou, who art and who wast, thou Holy One, because thou didst thus judge:

[16:6] for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and blood hast thou given them to drink: they are worthy.

[16:7] And I heard the altar saying, Yea, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.

[16:8] And the fourth poured out his bowl upon the sun; and it was given unto it to scorch men with fire.

[16:9] And men were scorched with great heat: and they blasphemed the name of God who hath the power over these plagues; and they repented not to give him glory.

[16:10] And the fifth poured out his bowl upon the throne of the beast; and his kingdom was darkened; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

[16:11] and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they repented not of their works.

[16:12] And the sixth poured out his bowl upon the great river, the river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way might be made ready for the kings that come from the sunrising.

[16:13] And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, as it were frogs:

[16:14] for they are spirits of demons, working signs; which go forth unto the kings of the whole world, to gather them together unto the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.

[16:15] (Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.)

[16:16] And they gathered them together into the place which is called in Hebrew Har-Magedon.

[16:17] And the seventh poured out his bowl upon the air; and there came forth a great voice out of the temple, from the throne, saying, It is done:

[16:18] and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since there were men upon the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty.

[16:19] And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

[16:20] And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

[16:21] And great hail, every stone about the weight of a talent, cometh down out of heaven upon men: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof is exceeding great.

[17:1] And there came one of the seven angels that had the seven bowls, and spake with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the judgment of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters;

[17:2] with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and they that dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her fornication.

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Themes

Angra Mainyu Principlecosmology

The principle of cosmic disorder and falsity.

The dragon, the beast, the false prophet, and the three unclean spirits personify cosmic disorder, deception, and falsity as an active force opposing the divine order.

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Archonscosmology

Malevolent planetary rulers or demiurgic powers that govern the material world and obstruct the soul's ascent.

The beast and its throne, together with the kings of the whole world gathered for final war, function as malevolent rulers governing the material world in opposition to God.

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Asha Cosmic Ordercosmology

Truth as the fundamental structure of reality.

God's judgments are explicitly affirmed as 'true and righteous,' framing divine justice as the fundamental ordering structure of reality being restored.

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Cosmic Dualismtheology

Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.

The passage is structured around the ontological opposition between the divine (God, the altar, the angel of the waters) and the adversarial powers (dragon, beast, false prophet, unclean spirits) as the fundamental structure of the eschatological conflict.

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Divine Providencetheology

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.

The drying of the Euphrates to make the way ready for the kings, and the entire sequence of judgments, demonstrate the divine actively ordering the unfolding of events toward a specific intelligible end.

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Eschatological Judgmentsoteriology

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 entire passage is the seven bowl judgments—the final collective cosmic verdict in which the wicked are sentenced, Babylon is destroyed, and the cosmos is shaken to its foundations.

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Invisible Worldcosmology

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).

Angels, unclean spirits, the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet operate as non-physical beings that directly affect the physical world (pouring bowls, gathering armies, working signs).

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Living Godtheology

The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.

God is portrayed as actively and dynamically intervening in the world through judgment, speaking from the throne, and executing specific acts of wrath rather than remaining an abstract principle.

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Numerical Mysticismtheology

Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.

The structure of seven angels, seven bowls, and the tripartite division of the great city encode numerical significance as a structural feature of the divine plan.

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