Apokalipsis trekhtolkoviy (1909) 24 - Third trumpet

Wormwood (ἀψίνθιον ''apsinthion'' or ἄψινθος ''apsinthos'' in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

) is a star or

angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles inclu ...

which appears in 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 ...

Hebrew Bible

The Biblical Hebrew word לענה (''la'anah''), translated into English as "wormwood", occurs eight times in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' 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 Chri ...

, in the

: ''Apsinthos'' is believed to refer to a plant of the genus ''

Artemisia Artemisia may refer to: People * Artemisia I of Caria (fl. 480 BC), queen of Halicarnassus under the First Persian Empire, naval commander during the second Persian invasion of Greece * Artemisia II of Caria (died 350 BC), queen of Caria under th ...

'', used metaphorically to mean something with a bitter taste. The English rendering "wormwood" refers to the dark green oil produced by the plant, which was used to kill intestinal worms. In the

, it refers to the water being turned into wormwood, i.e. made bitter.

Interpretations

Certain commentators have held that this "great star" represents one of several important figures in political or ecclesiastical history: Matthew Henry mentions

Augustulus Romulus Augustus ( 465 – after 511), nicknamed Augustulus, was Roman emperor of the West from 31 October 475 until 4 September 476. Romulus was placed on the imperial throne by his father, the ''magister militum'' Orestes, and, at that time, ...

, a 5th-century

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

of the

Western Roman Empire The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period ...

, and

Pelagius Pelagius (; c. 354–418) was a British theologian known for promoting a system of doctrines (termed Pelagianism by his opponents) which emphasized human choice in salvation and denied original sin. Pelagius and his followers abhorred the moral ...

, deemed a heretic at the Council of Ephesus. Other Bible dictionaries and commentaries view the term as a reference to a celestial being; for example, ''A Dictionary of the Holy Bible'' states that "the star called Wormwood seems to denote a mighty prince, or power of the air, the instrument, in its fall".

Historicist

Various religious groups and figures, including

Seventh-day Adventists The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and i ...

and the theologians Matthew Henry and John Gill,Gill, John, ''Exposition of the Entire Bible''
Revelation 8:10
a
bible.crosswalk.com
/ref> regard the verses of Revelation 8 as symbolic references to past events in human history. In the case of Wormwood, some

historicist Historicism is an approach to explaining the existence of phenomena, especially social and cultural practices (including ideas and beliefs), by studying their history, that is, by studying the process by which they came about. The term is widely u ...

interpreters believe that this figure represents the army of the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...

as led by king Attila, pointing to chronological consistencies between the timeline of prophecy they have accepted and the history of the Huns' campaign in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. Others point to Arius, the emperor

Constantine Constantine most often refers to: * Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I *Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria Constantine may also refer to: People * Constantine (name), a masculine given name ...

Origen Origen of Alexandria, ''Ōrigénēs''; Origen's Greek name ''Ōrigénēs'' () probably means "child of Horus" (from , "Horus", and , "born"). ( 185 – 253), also known as Origen Adamantius, was an early Christian scholar, ascetic, and theo ...

or the ascetic

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

, who denied the doctrine of original sin.

Spiritual

The Swedenborgian New Church follows a spiritual interpretation of the star Wormwood based on other passages of scripture which mention gall and wormwood. The star signifies self-derived intelligence which departs from God, thus it falls from heaven. For the star to make the waters of rivers and fountains bitter signifies to falsify spiritual truths, as waters signify truths derived from the Word. In general, the Book of Revelation is seen as a prophecy of the corruption of the Christian churches in the end times which is followed by a New Church, signified by the New Jerusalem.

Alternative interpretations

A number of Bible scholars consider the term ''Wormwood'' to be a purely symbolic representation of the bitterness that will fill the earth during troubled times, noting that the

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclu ...

for which Wormwood is named, ''

Artemisia absinthium ''Artemisia absinthium'' (wormwood, grand wormwood, absinthe, absinthium, absinthe wormwood, mugwort, wermout, wermud, wormit, wormod) is a species of '' Artemisia'', native to temperate regions of Eurasia and North Africa, and widely naturalize ...

'', or

Mugwort Mugwort is a common name for several species of aromatic flowering plants in the genus '' Artemisia.'' In Europe, mugwort most often refers to the species ''Artemisia vulgaris'', or common mugwort. In East Asia the species ''Artemisia argyi'' is ...

, '' Artemisia vulgaris'', is a known biblical metaphor for things that are unpalatably bitter.

Chernobyl

Due to the

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

word for '' Artemisia vulgaris'' being ''chernobyl'' (), many have used the

Chernobyl nuclear disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nucl ...

in 1986 as definitive proof that the prophecy in the Book of Revelation is correct. The verses referring to a "star falling down and turning the waters bitter" are interpreted as the radioactive fallout from the disaster poisoning the environment around

Chernobyl Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...

, leaving it uninhabitable. In the town centre of Chernobyl, there is the Wormwood Star Memorial, which depicts an angel blowing a trumpet, recalling the biblical prophecy.

References

External links

Revelation 8:11 The name of the star is called Wormwood
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wormwood (Star) Angels in Christianity Astronomical myths Book of Proverbs Book of Revelation Individual angels New Testament words and phrases Prophecy in Christianity Water and religion