Seven Bowls

Text and Content

The account of the seven bowls appears in Revelation 15–16. John sees in heaven seven angels having the seven last plagues (Revelation 15:1). One of the four living creatures then gives the angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God (Revelation 15:7). In chapter 16 the angels pour out the bowls one after another.

• First: Poured upon the earth, it brings a noisome and grievous sore upon those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image.
• Second: The sea becomes as the blood of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea dies.
• Third: The rivers and fountains of waters become blood. The angel of the waters declares that God's judgment is righteous.
• Fourth: The sun scorches people with fire. Yet they blaspheme God and do not repent.
• Fifth: Poured upon the throne of the beast, it plunges his kingdom into darkness, and people gnaw their tongues for pain.
• Sixth: The river Euphrates dries up, preparing the way for the kings of the east. Three unclean spirits like frogs gather the kings of the whole world to Armageddon.
• Seventh: Poured into the air, it is followed by a voice saying, "It is done." A great earthquake divides the great city into three parts, and hailstones each about the weight of a talent fall.

Background

The word "bowl" translates the Greek phialē, a broad, shallow vessel used in sacrifices and rituals. In Revelation 5:8, golden bowls of the same kind are full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

The plagues overlap considerably with the Ten Plagues; examples include sores, water turned to blood, darkness, frogs, and hail. The "song of Moses ... and the song of the Lamb" (Revelation 15:3), sung by the victors just before the bowl plagues, likewise recalls the Exodus.

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

The seven bowls are the third series of seven judgments in Revelation, following the seven seals and the seven trumpets. The trumpet judgments generally affect "the third part" of their objects; the bowl judgments carry no such limitation, and the text states that in them the wrath of God is filled up.

The scene of the third bowl (Revelation 16:5–7) emphasizes that judgment proceeds from the justice of God. Between the sixth and seventh bowls comes the warning, "Behold, I come as a thief" (Revelation 16:15). One of the angels who had the bowls later shows John the judgment of the great whore (Revelation 17:1), and in another passage one of them shows him the bride, the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:9). For this reason the seven bowls serve as a bridge from judgment to new creation.

Interpretation and Issues

How the seven bowls are read depends on one's approach to interpreting Revelation.

• Futurism: Particularly in dispensationalism, the bowl judgments are read as future events that will occur in sequence after the seal and trumpet judgments, in the final period of the Great Tribulation.
• Recapitulation: The seals, trumpets, and bowls are seen as depicting the same period from different perspectives with increasing intensity. This view is said to appear as early as the commentaries of the ancient church and is widely accepted among amillennial Reformed scholars.
• Other interpretations: Preterism reads the bowls as judgment on the first-century Roman Empire; historicism correlates them with events in church history; and idealism reads them as spiritual principles that transcend any particular era.

These views do not divide neatly along denominational lines; they vary among scholars and pastors even within the same denomination.

In popular preaching and books, Armageddon is often interpreted as a world war to be fought in a specific region, and "the kings of the east" as particular modern nations. The text, however, names only the place of gathering and gives no such specifics.

In the Korean Church

The seven bowls are treated mainly in expository preaching and Bible studies on Revelation. Because dispensational premillennialism has been highly influential in the Korean church, many sermons have read the bowl judgments as future events. Today, recapitulation and other interpretations are also presented. Interpretations that fit the plagues of Revelation to the international situation or events of the day have long been regarded with caution even within the Korean church.