Revelation 10: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

John sees another mighty angel come down from heaven holding a small open scroll, with one foot on the sea and one on the land. The angel shouts, seven thunders answer, and John is told to seal up what they said rather than write it. The angel swears there will be no more delay, and that God's hidden plan will be finished when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet. John is told to take the scroll and eat it; it is sweet in his mouth and bitter in his stomach, and he is told he must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.

Claim by Claim

1. 10:1
   • John saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven
   • The angel was clothed with a cloud
   • A rainbow was on his head
   • His face was like the sun
   • His feet were like pillars of fire
2. 10:2
   • The angel had in his hand a little scroll that was open
   • He set his right foot on the sea
   • He set his left foot on the land
3. 10:3
   • The angel cried out with a loud voice
   • His cry was like a lion roaring
   • When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their own voices
4. 10:4
   • When the seven thunders had uttered their voices, John was about to write
   • John heard a voice from heaven speaking to him
   • The voice said to seal up the things the seven thunders uttered
   • The voice said not to write them
5. 10:5
   • The angel John saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his hand toward heaven
6. 10:6
   • The angel swore by him who lives forever and ever
   • The one sworn by created heaven and the things in it
   • The one sworn by created the earth and the things in it
   • The one sworn by created the sea and the things in it
   • The angel swore that there would be time no longer, which may mean that time would cease or that there would be no more delay
7. 10:7
   • In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God would be completed
   • God declared this mystery as good news to his servants the prophets
8. 10:8
   • The voice John had heard from heaven spoke to him again
   • The voice told him to go and take the scroll that was open in the angel's hand
   • The angel holding the scroll was standing on the sea and on the land
9. 10:9
   • John went to the angel
   • John asked the angel to give him the little scroll
   • The angel told him to take it and eat it up
   • The angel said it would make his belly bitter
   • The angel said it would be sweet as honey in his mouth
10. 10:10
    • John took the little scroll out of the angel's hand
    • John ate it up
    • It was sweet as honey in his mouth
    • As soon as he had eaten it, his belly became bitter
11. 10:11
    • He said to John that John must prophesy again
    • The prophesying is to be before or concerning many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

10:1

The Greek word for "another" here means another of the same kind, tying this figure to the angels of the preceding chapters. The details piled up in this verse are all stock features of divine or heavenly appearances in the Hebrew scriptures: the cloud, the rainbow of Ezekiel 1, the face shining like the sun, the burning pillars that recall the pillar of fire in Exodus.

10:2

A "little book" in 1611 English is not a bound volume with pages. Books at this period were rolls of papyrus or parchment, unrolled from one end to read; a small one could be held in a hand and eaten, as happens in verse 9. Standing with one foot on the sea and one on the land is a posture of straddling the whole world, sea and dry land being the two halves that make it up.

10:3

"Uttered their voices" translates a phrase meaning simply that they spoke, that the thunder carried articulate words. In the Hebrew scriptures thunder is regularly described as the voice of God; Psalm 29 counts seven thunderings of that voice over the waters, which may be why these thunders arrive already numbered and with the definite article, "the seven thunders," as though the reader should know them.

10:4

To "seal up" a document meant to close the roll and press a lump of wax or clay over the fastening, stamped with a signet. A sealed roll could not be read without visibly breaking the seal, so sealing something was the ordinary way of keeping its contents secret, or of preserving them unread until an appointed time. The instruction is to keep the message shut, not to record it.

10:5

Raising a hand toward heaven was the standard gesture for taking an oath, the way a raised right hand still is in a courtroom. The gesture and the words in the next verse together form a formal sworn statement, not a prayer.

10:6

Swearing "by" someone means calling that person as guarantor, so that the oath fails if the speaker lies. An oath was normally sworn by a party greater than oneself, and here the guarantor is the maker of the three realms named: heaven, earth and sea, the standard threefold division of creation used in oath formulas in the Hebrew scriptures. The KJV's "that there should be time no longer" is misleading to a modern ear: the Greek word chronos means an interval or a stretch of waiting as well as time in the abstract, and the sense here is that the waiting is over, that there will be no further delay, not that time itself is being abolished.

10:7

"Mystery" in the KJV does not mean a puzzle or something confusing. It means a plan that God kept hidden and then made known.

10:9

Long before, the prophet Ezekiel was also told to eat a scroll, and it tasted sweet. Eating a message was a picture of taking it inside yourself.

10:10

Bitter is the opposite of sweet. It is a sharp, sour taste that nobody enjoys.

10:11

"Tongues" is the older English word for languages, so this means people who speak many different languages.