The Seven Trumpets

After the opening of the seven seals, the seven trumpets begin to sound. In the structure of the book of Revelation, John has organized the visions building septenaries, that is, a series of ‘seven’ events to show each time, in this series of seven elements, a summary of the history of salvation. In the seven seals, we have seen God's intervention in history; a people belonging to Him is formed because the seal is the sign of belongingness.

In the second series, John takes the trumpets as an important symbol and describes, at the beginning of chapter 8, a brief introductory scene from an angel who makes a liturgical gesture in heaven. He offers the perfume of incense that rises to God as the prayer of the saints. "The smoke of the incense along with the prayers of the holy ones went up before God from the hand of the angel.” Therefore, trumpets are given to seven angels and an image appears at the sound of each one.

We translate as ‘trumpet’ but most likely in John’s intention it was the reference to the ‘shofar’, that is, the horn used in the Jewish liturgy to give the sign of convocation; it is the typical symbol of the liturgy of Israel. A little like our bells. The sound of the bells is different depending on the messages they want to communicate. They may call for a feast or for mourning. It is a religious instrument of communication.

In the ancient tradition, especially in the context of priests or religious, it was the custom to draw attention, also within a convent, or a seminary, to do it with a bell. And the teachers said that the bell is the voice of God. When you hear the bell, you have to obey.

The ancient Israelites also had the same mentality; it was for them like hearing the voice of God at the sound of the horn or trumpet. In fact, in the story of the Exodus, when the theophany of Sinai is narrated, that is, the appearance of God to Moses on the mount, God is said to have spoken with a trumpet voice. Thunder could be heard; it was the voice of God and it sounded like a shofar sound.

John takes this image and evokes seven angels who perform a liturgy. They each take the trumpet and make it sound. “When the first one blew his trumpet, there came hail and fire mixed with blood, which was hurled down to the earth. A third of the land was burned up.” Then “the second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood.” “The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.” “The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark.”

You have noticed that the first four trumpets contain similar and brief described images. In all cases, it is a matter of "falling from heaven to earth"; of loss; and there's an underlined number element… did you notice? ‘A third’ is a well-known element to the apocalyptic literary genre because a third of angels were said to be rebellious and that they fell from heaven, while two thirds remained faithful to the Lord. It is an arbitrary and symbolic number; simply underlines the fact that faithful angels, the good spirits are twice as many as bad spirits.

Therefore, despite the world being corrupt and going wrong, the good is stronger and more numerous. At first there was damage. Indeed, this septenary wants to tell the story of salvation, starting even before Adam. As I have already mentioned, the procedure of John in the book of Revelation is not linear in the sense that it always goes forward, but it is circular, in the sense that it always comes back, he makes a circle and when he has finished a septenary, he is at the starting point. Climbing like a spiral staircase and when it is on the top plane, it is in the same position where it was in the preceding circle.

So, the septenary of trumpets does not say what will happen after the septenary of seals, it repeats the same thing, repeats the same message. With other images, he presents a summary of the history of salvation.

As in the septenary of the seals, also here we have the first four elements brief and similar. In all four the fall of the angels is described; a primordial mythical event is the revolt of the celestial spirits; a third rose against God and fell from heaven, proportionally ruining a third of the earth. “Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. It was given the key for the passage to the abyss. It opened the passage to the abyss, and smoke came up out of the passage like smoke from a huge furnace. The sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the passage. Locusts came out of the smoke onto the land, and they were given the same power as scorpions of the earth.”

Let's try to understand the image. The star fallen from heaven to earth is an angel. When we use the word 'luciferous', do we realize that we name a star? It is the usual name by which the Greeks and the Romans called the planet Venus. Even to us it looks like a star and we popularly talk about the evening star or the morning star.

Actually, it is not a star but a planet. Scientific clarifications are modern; because the planet Venus is seen as soon as the sun has set, and when illuminated from below it seems the first star which lights up at night after sunset. After a while, however, we no longer see it anymore because movement of the earth hides this illumination. In the same way, in the morning when the sun is about to rise it shines again, on the other side, of the planet Venus and it looks like the morning star, the one that brings light = ‘lucifer’.

Lucifer means only light bearer. If we have ever had the experience of seeing the sun rise, we will have noticed that right where the sun should rise, before the sun rises, a bright star appears, that simply disappears as soon as the sun is seen. This image that the ancients knew, was interpreted mythically; and that shining star bearer of the light, came to be identified with the one who was beautiful, but out of pride and arrogance rebelled against God, falling and losing its own light.

The star fallen into the pit of the abyss is a demonic image. He is the one who has the key to the abyss dungeon "smoke came up out of the passage like smoke from a huge furnace. The sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the passage.” And small but harmful animals emerged from the well. We have no idea what damage the locusts do in an invasion. It was a tragic phenomenon for the peasants, still today in the East. Locusts swarm in large groups, look like real clouds covering the sun; and when they pose on vegetation, they exterminate everything; they devour every last outbreak. And for farmers it is a disaster. It means famine. They are small but disastrous animals; they are the sign of an evil invasion that destroys the world.

They should not be taken literally. The abyss, the smoke, the locusts are all symbolic images that evoke something mythical that always happens. Indicates the consequence of the angels' revolt; the devilish rebellion has caused a fall; the fall ruins the world. From the pit of the abyss something comes out that destroys the earth.

The image of the fifth trumpet and the locusts described in detail, wants to indicate the distortion of values. These locusts are not normal locusts. "The appearance of the locusts was like that of horses ready for battle. Their faces were like human faces and they had hair like women’s hair. Their teeth were like lions’ teeth, and they had chests like iron breastplates. They had tails like scorpions, with stingers.” They are hybrid; an unclear reality, with positive and negative aspects, closely connected to each other. They are the image of evil that is presented in the form of good. It is the exchange of evil for good; the distortion of the values that destroy humanity.

"They had as their king the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon (which means ‘exterminator’) and in Greek Apollyon.” It means the same thing; refers to the god Apollo, the exterminator. And it is a way with which John makes anti-idolatrous controversy, that is, it alludes to the fact that the deities worshiped by the Greeks and Romans were not simply fables and inventions but were diabolical forms; deceptive ways in which demons made people worship them instead of God.

So much so that the word ‘daimones,’ which we read as ‘demons’ in ancient Greek indicated gods. It was not a negative but a positive, religious word. We inherit an interpretation that has inverted the meaning. The demons, that is, the divinities of the Greek world, have been identified with the rebel angels fallen from heaven. The sixth trumpet contains much larger images. Remember that the sixth seal was also different from the others, much broader. The sixth trumpet corresponds to the sixth seal.

The sixth element is the decisive one in an apocalyptic septenary because it indicates the decisive intervention of God in history to save humanity. And so, in chapters 10 and 11 John describes great scenes in which he summarizes the Old Testament history of salvation.

Above all, it takes up the image of locusts as an infernal cavalry, made of an impressive number of enemies ready to invade the world. Two hundred million, but before this tragic danger comes the intervention of God: an angel who appears putting one leg in the sea and the other on the land.

Try to imagine this scene; those who live near the sea have surely had the opportunity to see it. On a stormy day when the black clouds are scattering and the sky opens up, some ray of sun comes out, and it is possible that the rays come out through the clouds forming two columns, perhaps one that illuminates the sea and another that illuminates the land; and up there the rainbow appears.

John, gazing at the sea around on the island of Patmos, where he was relegated, saw a beautiful scene of a finished storm and has described the appearance of the angel holding the Old Testament, the first revelation of God, with this beautiful natural image. “Then I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven wrapped in a cloud, with a halo around his head; his face was like the sun and his feet were like pillars of fire. In his hand, he held a small scroll that had been opened.” This small scroll is the revelation of God. It is the intervention with which God, in the history of the ancient peoples, through the prophets, communicated His desire for salvation.

The angel gives the book to John, to the prophet John, who represents the entire prophetic tradition and asks him to eat the book. The same scene had already been narrated by the prophet Ezekiel. John echoes that story, takes it and adapts it. John swallows the book, devours it. “In my mouth it was like sweet honey, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.” When it goes down to the stomach it turns sour.

The ancient revelation leaves a bitter taste in the mouth; something more is needed, for fulfillment, for completion. Another very important scene is the one in which John describes the two witnesses that have the characteristics of Moses and Elijah, but they are neither Moses nor Elijah. They are the law and the prophets; they are all those who in the tradition of Israel have been the mediators of the revelation; those who brought the word of God, but they have not been well received. They have often been rejected, mistreated, and also killed.

The two witnesses (exactly as in the transfiguration of Jesus, also in that case appear Moses and Elijah who bear witness to Jesus in the sense that they guarantee the disciples that the path indicated by Jesus, that of passion is the right path). The two witnesses are victims of the oppressive structure of the city that crucified the Lord. They are killed and abandoned in the plaza without burial.

They are not literal or historical images; they are symbolic images that evoke in a transfigured way a whole series of events, and at the end of the sixth trumpet the resurrection of the righteous is placed. A voice from heaven calls the two witnesses to life. "The breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet."

At this moment, the seventh trumpet sounds, which is fulfillment. It is not an image but an audition. "Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet. There were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world now belongs to our Lord and to his Anointed, and he will reign forever and ever.”

The goal is the victory of the Risen Christ. His death and resurrection is the fulfillment of history. He carries out the project: from the fall that marked the ruin of the world comes to the ascent that determines the salvation of the world. In the septenary of the trumpets John has again proposed a summary of the history of salvation, putting the accent on the decisive event: Christ Jesus dead and risen is the source of salvation. He inaugurates the kingdom and his kingdom lasts forever.

“We give thanks to you, Lord God almighty, who are and who were. For you have assumed your great power and have established your reign.”

Even if things go bad, John writes the book of Revelation to comfort and encourage his disciples and to tell us too that the power of the Risen Christ is stronger than any structure of evil.