Revelation 16 is the sixteenth chapter of the

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of R ...

or the Apocalypse of John in the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

of the

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

. The book is traditionally attributed to

John the Apostle John the Apostle ( grc, Ἰωάννης; la, Ioannes ; Ge'ez: ዮሐንስ;) or Saint John the Beloved was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Generally listed as the youngest apostle, he was the son of Zebedee a ...

, but the precise identity of the author remains a point of academic debate. This chapter describes the

seven bowls The seven bowls (, ''phialas'', sing. φιάλη ''phialē''; also translated as cups or vials) are a set of plagues mentioned in Revelation 16. They are recorded as apocalyptic events that were seen in the vision of the Revelation of Jesus Chr ...

vial A vial (also known as a phial or flacon) is a small glass or plastic vessel or bottle, often used to store medication as liquids, powders or capsules. They can also be used as scientific sample vessels; for instance, in autosampler devices i ...

s or phials of God's wrath, poured out on the wicked and the followers of the

Antichrist In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form) 1 John ; . 2 John . ...

after the sounding of the

seven trumpets In the Book of Revelation, seven trumpets are sounded, one at a time, to cue apocalyptic events seen by John of Patmos ( Revelation 1:9) in his vision ( Revelation 1:1). The seven trumpets are sounded by seven angels and the events that follow are ...

, on the command of "a loud voice from the temple" heard by the author.

Text

The original text was written in

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

. This chapter is divided into 21 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are among others: *

Papyrus 47 Papyrus 47 (''P. Chester Beatty'' III), designated by siglum (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is an early Greek New Testament manuscript written on papyrus, and is one of the manuscripts comprising the Chester Beat ...

(3rd century; complete) *

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus (Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts) ...

(330-360) *

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...

(400-440) *

Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus The Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (Paris, National Library of France, Greek 9) designated by the siglum C or 04 {in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 3 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a ma ...

(ca. 450; extant verse 1-12) * Papyrus 43 (6th/7th century; extant verse 1-2)

The seven bowls (16:1–21)

Verse 1

:''Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth."''

NKJV The New King James Version (NKJV) is an English translation of the Bible. The complete NKJV Bible was published in 1982 by Thomas Nelson, now HarperCollins. The NKJV is described by Thomas Nelson as being "scrupulously faithful to the origin ...

*"From the temple": from the words in grc-x-biblical, ἐκ τοῦ ναοῦ, ek tou naou, "from the temple", or "from the sanctuary", do not appear in some ancient versions, and

Tischendorf Tischendorf is a German surname Personal names in German-speaking Europe consist of one or several given names (''Vorname'', plural ''Vornamen'') and a surname (''Nachname, Familienname''). The ''Vorname'' is usually gender-specific. A name is usu ...

omitted them from his critical edition. German Protestant theologian

Heinrich Meyer Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer (10 January 1800 – 21 June 1873) was a German Protestant divine. He wrote commentaries on the ''New Testament'' and published an edition of that book. Biography Meyer was born in Gotha. He studied theology at Jena, ...

argues that the inclusion of these words "is guaranteed by A, C, א, and some other manuscripts, "and is entirely suitable".

The fourth bowl (16:8–9)

Verse 8

:''And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.'' *"Men": from grc-x-biblical, ἄνθρωπος, anthrōpos in generic use refers to 'both men and women'.

Verse 9

:''And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.'' *"Men": from grc-x-biblical, ἄνθρωπος, anthrōpos in generic use refers to 'both men and women'.

The sixth bowl (16:12–16)

Verse 12

:''Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great

river Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Euph ...

, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.'' *"From the east": translated from the Greek phrase with literal meaning "from the rising of the sun" here in the sense of 'a geographical direction' (cf. ; 16:12; ).

Verse 16

: ''And they gathered them together to the place called in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Armageddon According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...

.'' NKJV *"

": identified with ''Har-megiddo'', "the mountain of Megiddo", which may refer to 'the slaying of Josiah in the valley of Megiddo', which 'became proverbial for any great sorrow' (; ; ) or 'to the slaughter of Sisera's army at the waters of Megiddo', by Barak, ().''John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible'' - Revelation 16:16
/ref>

Notes

References

External links

* King James Bible - Wikisource
English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
(ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English)
Multiple bible versions at ''Bible Gateway''
(NKJV, NIV, NRSV etc.) {{Book of Revelation 16