This coming weekend, a lunar eclipse will occur, bringing to an end (I hope) the speculation that a recent series of four lunar eclipses, of which this one will be the fourth, has a special significance as a sign of the end-times. The view that these particular lunar eclipses may be portents of the end of the world was developed by Mark Biltz, who recently expressed his ideas in a book, Blood Moons: Decoding the Imminent Heavenly Signs. Biltz’s
theory was expanded and popularized by John Hagee, a preacher in Texas ,
in his book, Four Blood Moons: Something
Is About To Change. In my view, both
Biltz (who seems to be affiliated with the highly problematic "Hebrew Roots Movement") and Hagee should apologize to their readers for severely overstating the
importance of these lunar eclipses. (For a lucid review of Hagee’s views about the “blood moons” see the brief two-part article prepared by Christian astrophysicist Hugh Ross.)
There is little that textual criticism can offer to discourage poorly grounded
theories about signs of the end-times – but little is more than nothing, so
let’s take a look at two passages from two prophecies in the
New Testament that involve both the moon and the end of the world: Matthew 24 (paralleled in Mark 13 and Luke 21) and Revelation 6. Both of these
prophetic chapters involve scenes which bring to mind the wording of Joel
3:15: “The sun and moon will grow dark,
and the stars will diminish their brightness.”
And in their descriptions of signs of the end of the world, they both
contain small textual variants.In the apparatus of the fourth edition of the
Besides exhibiting how the Alexandrian Text was shortened by early scribes (not, in this case, due to any mischievousness, but because of negligence), this little variant illustrates – contrary to the claims of some researchers – that the translators of the KJV paid close attention to the Greek text instead of just reproducing the work of Tyndale and other earlier translators.
In Tyndale’s 1534 English New Testament, this verse refers to “pestilence, honger and erth quakes.” Likewise in the 1557 Geneva Bible, Jesus stated in Matthew 24:7, “There shal be “pestilence, honger, and earthquakes,” that is, λοιμοι και λιμοι και σεισμοι instead of λιμοι και λοιμοι και σεισμοι. This word-order is supported by the Vulgate, and by Codex W (which was unknown to modern researchers until the early 1900’s) and by Codex L (which was cited in the notes of Stephanus’ 1550 edition of the Textus Receptus). Erasmus' 1516 text read the Greek equivalent of "famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes." So did the text compiled by Theodore Beza. The King James Version’s translators made their English translation fit the Greek text of Matthew 24:7 precisely, adjusting the word-order and expressing the conjunctions.
So when looking for signs of the end, remember Jesus’ words of caution first: “Take heed that no man deceive you.” In and of themselves, the arrivals of false prophets and false teachers and false messiahs are nothing special. In and of themselves, wars do not signal the end-times. Nor do famines and pestilences and earthquakes in various places. These things come and go.
Now let’s look into Revelation 6:12, where John describes the vision of the sixth seal: “I looked when he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood.”
When Erasmus initially compiled the book of Revelation, he had one manuscript, which had been entrusted to his temporary care by Johann Reuchlin, a fellow scholar (who was also the uncle of Philip Melanchthon, a very influential Reformer). This manuscript used to be known as 1r (not to be confused with 1, an important Gospels-manuscript). For some time its location was unknown. When it resurfaced in 1861, researcher Franz Delitzsch realized that it was the same manuscript that Erasmus had used. As Erasmus had stated in his annotations on the text, this manuscript had undergone some damage, and for that reason, it was missing the last six verses of the final chapter.
Now let’s look into Revelation 6:12, where John describes the vision of the sixth seal: “I looked when he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood.”
When Erasmus initially compiled the book of Revelation, he had one manuscript, which had been entrusted to his temporary care by Johann Reuchlin, a fellow scholar (who was also the uncle of Philip Melanchthon, a very influential Reformer). This manuscript used to be known as 1r (not to be confused with 1, an important Gospels-manuscript). For some time its location was unknown. When it resurfaced in 1861, researcher Franz Delitzsch realized that it was the same manuscript that Erasmus had used. As Erasmus had stated in his annotations on the text, this manuscript had undergone some damage, and for that reason, it was missing the last six verses of the final chapter.
Reuchlin’s manuscript has been given a new
identification-number: 2814. It was produced in the 1100’s, and contains
not only the Greek text of Revelation but also the commentary on Revelation
written by Andrew of Caesarea (the Caesarea in Cappadocia ,
not the one in Israel )
in the year 610. Like 82 other Greek
copies of Revelation, it contains not only the text of Revelation but also the
text of Andrew of Caesarea’s commentary.
(Fifteen other manuscripts of Revelation, while lacking the full
commentary, feature extracts from Andrew’s work.)
In the Majority Text compiled by Hodges and Farstad, and in
the Byzantine Text compiled by Robinson and Pierpont, the Greek word ολη
(“whole”) follows the Greek word σεληνη (“moon”). Apparently a copyist skipped this word when
his line of sight drifted from the final letter of σεληνη to the final letter
of ολη. Not only does the majority-text of Revelation include the word ολη here, but so does Codex A, and so
does the Nestle-Aland compilation. If
one considers this combination of testimony to be trustworthy, then one may
conclude that the original text of Revelation 6:12 included a small emphasis –
not just the moon turned to blood, but the whole
moon – which was lacking in the Textus Receptus. The effect of this
difference is, however, extremely small.
(It should be noted, as a point of caution, that on page XXXVIII of his introduction,
Hoskier stated that “for what it may be worth,” he had included in the
apparatus a reading (in Rev. 21:4) that was claimed to have been obtained via a
séance-like spirit-channeling-session in 1856. The basis for this
appears to have been nothing more than a book written by Baron Guldenstubbe in French
in 1857. I suspect that Hoskier regarded
this as merely a curiosity, but included it in his apparatus in order to
maintain with absolute veracity his claim to have collated every Greek manuscript that testified about the text of Revelation.)
One additional little thought occurs
to me when thinking about eclipses. The technical term for what happens
when the sun, earth, and moon align (either in a solar eclipse, or in a lunar
eclipse) is “syzygy,” which has a Greek root.
A similar word occurs in Philippians 4:3, where Paul refers to his true “yoke-fellow”
– Συζυγε. Some commentators (and the creators of a few English paraphrases) have
theorized that this might not be an adjective, but a proper name, Syzygus
(otherwise unknown). May we all be
yoke-fellows of one another, and of Christ – ready to serve Him, and ready to
meet Him, as He said in Matthew 24:44: “Therefore
you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
1 comment:
James, your detailed handling of the manuscript evidence is always interesting. I also see that the Byz. text types have important things to say, and that the KJV translators were not ignorant men, but scholars who did fine work. Nice work as always. Thanks for the great read!I hope the message gets across to others.
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