At the end of the New Testament the Day is no longer announced but shown. Where the prophets foretold it and Paul expounded it, John unrolls it as a vision — seal after seal, trumpet after trumpet, bowl after bowl. But before John takes his turn, two short letters give the last words of the apostles concerning the Day, and they touch its two extremes: its delay and its execution.
Peter answers, in his second letter, the scoffing of "where is the promise of His coming?" And his answer does not explain the delay away but interprets it: the Lord is not slow, but patient, "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." The delay is the grace — the same open door that Peter had already named in Acts 2. And then the Day comes nonetheless, suddenly: the day of the LORD will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will burn and dissolve. There stands the thief of Paul and the un-creating of Jeremiah, now consummated in fire. And Peter gives the Day its last name: he speaks of "the coming of the day of God," tēs tou theou hēmeras, for which we "wait and hasten" — and beyond the fire: we wait for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. This is the outflow of chapter 3: the day of the LORD that opens up into the day of God, and the day of God that runs out into a new creation. The burning is no annihilation but a crucible — the fire of the refiner (chapter 3, Excursus 3·3), now cosmic.
Jude adds, in one citation, the oldest preserved Day-prophecy. He cites Enoch, "the seventh from Adam": behold, the Lord has come with His holy myriads, to execute judgment against all. The coming with the holy myriads — the Warrior with His hosts — is the image that Zechariah (14:5, "all the saints with Him") and the Olivet Discourse (the angels) share. One thing must be said at once: Jude cites here from the extra-canonical book of Enoch, and this book treats such a citation as it treats all Second Temple literature — as background, not as Scripture. That Jude cites it under inspiration gives authority to the cited line; it does not raise the whole book of Enoch to canon. The full weighing of this literature follows in Part VIII.
And then John, who sees the Day rather than hearing it. At the opening of the sixth seal the whole Old Testament darkening-field falls suddenly together: a great earthquake, the sun black as sackcloth of hair, the moon like blood, the stars falling like unripe figs, the sky receding "as a scroll that is rolled up" — straight from Isa 34 (chapter 7). And the kings, the great, the slaves, all hide themselves in the caves and cry to the mountains: fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand? There it is, in so many words: hē hēmera hē megalē tēs orgēs autou — the great day of His wrath — and the question that all of Scripture posed, tis dynatai stathēnai, who is able to stand (chapter 3). The sixth seal is the day of the LORD, made visible. What Joel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Malachi foretold stands here in one tableau.
From that point on Revelation unrolls the Day in its movements. The harvest and the winepress (chapter 14): the Son of Man on the cloud with a sharp sickle reaps the earth, and the grapes are thrown into "the great winepress of the wrath of God" — the winepress of Isa 63 and the valley of threshing of Joel 3, now executed. The final battle: the kings of the earth are gathered "to the war of that great day of God the Almighty," at the place called Armageddon. And the climax (chapter 19): the Rider on the white horse, from whose mouth goes a sharp sword, "and He treads the winepress of the wine of the fury and of the wrath of God the Almighty." There is the Warrior of the Sea of Reeds (chapter 5), the Son of Man of Dan 7 (chapter 10), the appearing that slays the lawless one (chapter 16) — one figure, who brings the Day to its end. And beyond the battle: the kingship, the new heaven, the new earth, the city without night (chapter 3).
So the New Testament closes the circle that the Torah opened. What began at Sinai in smoke and trumpet, what the prophets foretold and the Psalms sang, what Daniel furnished with numbers and Jesus sketched on the Mount of Olives and Paul divided into two names — it is unrolled in Revelation, seal by seal, into the winepress and beyond it, until all is new. The day of the LORD, which lay as a seed in Genesis, is brought in here as harvest.
Excursus 17·12 Peter 3: the day of God and the new creation
2 Peter 3 carries three things that no other letter gives so fully. (1) The delay explained: the "slowness" is longsuffering, "not willing that any should perish" (3:9) — the delay is grace, the open door of Acts 2. (2) The un-creating by fire: "the elements will burn and dissolve [...] the earth and the works on it will be burned up" (3:10) — the counterpart of the flood (3:6-7: then water, now fire), and the completion of Jeremiah's tohu wa-bohu (chapter 8). (3) The name and the outflow: Peter here calls the Day "the day of God" (hēmera theou, 3:12) — the last name in the series of chapter 3 — and lets it run out into "new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells" (3:13, echo of Isa 65:17). The fire is thus no end but a purifying: the old is melted down so that the new may rise. (The three elements: well-documented. The relation of fire/renewal as purifying: weighed.)
Excursus 17·2The sixth seal is the day of the LORD
Rev 6:12-17 is no new vision but the concentration of the whole Old Testament Day-field, and this is demonstrable from the borrowings: the earthquake (Ezek 38:19; Joel 2:10); the sun black as sackcloth of hair and the moon like blood (Joel 2:31; Isa 13:10); the stars that fall (Isa 34:4); the sky rolled up as a scroll (Isa 34:4, almost word for word, see ch. 7 Expert note); the hiding in the caves (Isa 2:10,19). And the climax-words are unmistakable: "the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" (6:17) — hē hēmera hē megalē tēs orgēs is the Greek form of jom JHWH ha-gadol, and tis dynatai stathēnai completes the "who can stand" chain (Mal 3:2; Joel 2:11; Nah 1:6; Ps 76:7 — chapter 3, Excursus 3·3). Conclusion: the sixth seal marks the onset of the day of the LORD, the revelation of God's wrath — precisely the hinge on which the placement of the rapture turns (Parts V-VII). (The identification sixth seal = day of the LORD via the OT borrowings: well-documented. The chronological fitting relative to the rapture: weighed; see Part VII.)
Excursus 17·3The winepress and the cup: one thread consummated
Two related images of the wrath run through all of Scripture and culminate in Revelation. The cup of fury (Jer 25:15; Ps 75:8; Isa 51:17) returns as "the wine of the wrath of God" that the worshippers of the beast drink (Rev 14:10) and as "the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath" for Babylon (16:19). The winepress, in which grapes are trodden until the juice flows like blood (Isa 63:3; Joel 3:13, "the press is full"), returns as the harvest of the earth in "the great winepress of the wrath of God" (Rev 14:19) and as the Rider who "treads the winepress of the wine of the fury and of the wrath of God the Almighty" (19:15). The two images say the same thing: the accumulated wrath is on the Day poured out and pressed out to the full. What Isa 63 ascribed to the Warrior who treads the press alone, Rev 19 consummates in the Rider whose name is "the Word of God." (The cup- and winepress-thread: well-documented; fully traced in Part IV.)
DossierThe Day in the catholic epistles and Revelation
The phrase, the name, and the tableau; TR, after hand-checking.
Text
Phrase / motif
Contribution
Jas 5:7-9
the parousia; "the Judge stands at the door"
patience until the coming
2 Pet 3:10
hēmera kyriou as thief
un-creating by fire
2 Pet 3:12
hēmera theou
the day of God; new creation
Jude 14-15
the Lord with holy myriads
the oldest Day-citation (Enoch)
Rev 6:17
hē hēmera hē megalē tēs orgēs
the sixth seal = the day of the LORD
Rev 14:10,19
wine of the wrath; winepress
harvest and cup
Rev 16:14
tēs hēmeras [...] tēs megalēs tou theou
the great day of God the Almighty
Rev 19:15
the winepress trodden
the climax; the Rider-Warrior
(The phrase-counts and borrowings: well-documented, reproducible; Appendix A.)
Expert noteJude 14-15 and the citation from Enoch
Jude 14-15 cites 1 Enoch 1:9 almost word for word: προεφήτευσεν δὲ [...] Ἑνὼχ λέγων· ἰδοὺ ἦλθεν κύριος ἐν μυριάσιν ἁγίαις αὐτοῦ, ποιῆσαι κρίσιν κατὰ πάντων (proephēteusen [...] Enōch legōn· idou ēlthen kyrios en myriasin hagiais autou, poiēsai krisin kata pantōn), "Enoch prophesied: behold, the Lord has come with His holy myriads, to execute judgment against all." Three notes. (1) The aorist ἦλθεν ("has come") is a prophetic perfect: the future coming seen as already accomplished — a Hebrew idiom in a Greek citation. (2) The "holy myriads" are the heavenly hosts that accompany the Warrior (cf. Deut 33:2; Zech 14:5; 2 Thess 1:7). (3) The canonical status: that an inspired writer cites a non-canonical book lends authority to the cited utterance, not to the whole book of Enoch — just as Paul cites pagan poets (Acts 17:28; Titus 1:12) without making them Scripture. This book therefore treats 1 Enoch as valuable background, not as the original text (Part VIII). (The borrowing and its status: well-documented.)
At the end of the New Testament the Day is no longer announced but shown. Where the prophets foretold it and Paul expounded it, John unrolls it as a vision — seal after seal, trumpet after trumpet, bowl after bowl. But before John takes his turn, two short letters give the last words of the apostles concerning the Day, and they touch its two extremes: its delay and its execution.
Peter answers, in his second letter, the scoffing of "where is the promise of His coming?" And his answer does not explain the delay away but interprets it: the Lord is not slow, but patient, "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." The delay is the grace — the same open door that Peter had already named in Acts 2. And then the Day comes nonetheless, suddenly: the day of the LORD will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will burn and dissolve. There stands the thief of Paul and the un-creating of Jeremiah, now consummated in fire. And Peter gives the Day its last name: he speaks of "the coming of the day of God," tēs tou theou hēmeras, for which we "wait and hasten" — and beyond the fire: we wait for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. This is the outflow of chapter 3: the day of the LORD that opens up into the day of God, and the day of God that runs out into a new creation. The burning is no annihilation but a crucible — the fire of the refiner (chapter 3, Excursus 3·3), now cosmic.
Jude adds, in one citation, the oldest preserved Day-prophecy. He cites Enoch, "the seventh from Adam": behold, the Lord has come with His holy myriads, to execute judgment against all. The coming with the holy myriads — the Warrior with His hosts — is the image that Zechariah (14:5, "all the saints with Him") and the Olivet Discourse (the angels) share. One thing must be said at once: Jude cites here from the extra-canonical book of Enoch, and this book treats such a citation as it treats all Second Temple literature — as background, not as Scripture. That Jude cites it under inspiration gives authority to the cited line; it does not raise the whole book of Enoch to canon. The full weighing of this literature follows in Part VIII.
And then John, who sees the Day rather than hearing it. At the opening of the sixth seal the whole Old Testament darkening-field falls suddenly together: a great earthquake, the sun black as sackcloth of hair, the moon like blood, the stars falling like unripe figs, the sky receding "as a scroll that is rolled up" — straight from Isa 34 (chapter 7). And the kings, the great, the slaves, all hide themselves in the caves and cry to the mountains: fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand? There it is, in so many words: hē hēmera hē megalē tēs orgēs autou — the great day of His wrath — and the question that all of Scripture posed, tis dynatai stathēnai, who is able to stand (chapter 3). The sixth seal is the day of the LORD, made visible. What Joel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Malachi foretold stands here in one tableau.
From that point on Revelation unrolls the Day in its movements. The harvest and the winepress (chapter 14): the Son of Man on the cloud with a sharp sickle reaps the earth, and the grapes are thrown into "the great winepress of the wrath of God" — the winepress of Isa 63 and the valley of threshing of Joel 3, now executed. The final battle: the kings of the earth are gathered "to the war of that great day of God the Almighty," at the place called Armageddon. And the climax (chapter 19): the Rider on the white horse, from whose mouth goes a sharp sword, "and He treads the winepress of the wine of the fury and of the wrath of God the Almighty." There is the Warrior of the Sea of Reeds (chapter 5), the Son of Man of Dan 7 (chapter 10), the appearing that slays the lawless one (chapter 16) — one figure, who brings the Day to its end. And beyond the battle: the kingship, the new heaven, the new earth, the city without night (chapter 3).
So the New Testament closes the circle that the Torah opened. What began at Sinai in smoke and trumpet, what the prophets foretold and the Psalms sang, what Daniel furnished with numbers and Jesus sketched on the Mount of Olives and Paul divided into two names — it is unrolled in Revelation, seal by seal, into the winepress and beyond it, until all is new. The day of the LORD, which lay as a seed in Genesis, is brought in here as harvest.
Excursus 17·12 Peter 3: the day of God and the new creation
2 Peter 3 carries three things that no other letter gives so fully. (1) The delay explained: the "slowness" is longsuffering, "not willing that any should perish" (3:9) — the delay is grace, the open door of Acts 2. (2) The un-creating by fire: "the elements will burn and dissolve [...] the earth and the works on it will be burned up" (3:10) — the counterpart of the flood (3:6-7: then water, now fire), and the completion of Jeremiah's tohu wa-bohu (chapter 8). (3) The name and the outflow: Peter here calls the Day "the day of God" (hēmera theou, 3:12) — the last name in the series of chapter 3 — and lets it run out into "new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells" (3:13, echo of Isa 65:17). The fire is thus no end but a purifying: the old is melted down so that the new may rise. (The three elements: well-documented. The relation of fire/renewal as purifying: weighed.)
Excursus 17·2The sixth seal is the day of the LORD
Rev 6:12-17 is no new vision but the concentration of the whole Old Testament Day-field, and this is demonstrable from the borrowings: the earthquake (Ezek 38:19; Joel 2:10); the sun black as sackcloth of hair and the moon like blood (Joel 2:31; Isa 13:10); the stars that fall (Isa 34:4); the sky rolled up as a scroll (Isa 34:4, almost word for word, see ch. 7 Expert note); the hiding in the caves (Isa 2:10,19). And the climax-words are unmistakable: "the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" (6:17) — hē hēmera hē megalē tēs orgēs is the Greek form of jom JHWH ha-gadol, and tis dynatai stathēnai completes the "who can stand" chain (Mal 3:2; Joel 2:11; Nah 1:6; Ps 76:7 — chapter 3, Excursus 3·3). Conclusion: the sixth seal marks the onset of the day of the LORD, the revelation of God's wrath — precisely the hinge on which the placement of the rapture turns (Parts V-VII). (The identification sixth seal = day of the LORD via the OT borrowings: well-documented. The chronological fitting relative to the rapture: weighed; see Part VII.)
Excursus 17·3The winepress and the cup: one thread consummated
Two related images of the wrath run through all of Scripture and culminate in Revelation. The cup of fury (Jer 25:15; Ps 75:8; Isa 51:17) returns as "the wine of the wrath of God" that the worshippers of the beast drink (Rev 14:10) and as "the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath" for Babylon (16:19). The winepress, in which grapes are trodden until the juice flows like blood (Isa 63:3; Joel 3:13, "the press is full"), returns as the harvest of the earth in "the great winepress of the wrath of God" (Rev 14:19) and as the Rider who "treads the winepress of the wine of the fury and of the wrath of God the Almighty" (19:15). The two images say the same thing: the accumulated wrath is on the Day poured out and pressed out to the full. What Isa 63 ascribed to the Warrior who treads the press alone, Rev 19 consummates in the Rider whose name is "the Word of God." (The cup- and winepress-thread: well-documented; fully traced in Part IV.)
DossierThe Day in the catholic epistles and Revelation
The phrase, the name, and the tableau; TR, after hand-checking.
(The phrase-counts and borrowings: well-documented, reproducible; Appendix A.)
Expert noteJude 14-15 and the citation from Enoch
Jude 14-15 cites 1 Enoch 1:9 almost word for word: προεφήτευσεν δὲ [...] Ἑνὼχ λέγων· ἰδοὺ ἦλθεν κύριος ἐν μυριάσιν ἁγίαις αὐτοῦ, ποιῆσαι κρίσιν κατὰ πάντων (proephēteusen [...] Enōch legōn· idou ēlthen kyrios en myriasin hagiais autou, poiēsai krisin kata pantōn), "Enoch prophesied: behold, the Lord has come with His holy myriads, to execute judgment against all." Three notes. (1) The aorist ἦλθεν ("has come") is a prophetic perfect: the future coming seen as already accomplished — a Hebrew idiom in a Greek citation. (2) The "holy myriads" are the heavenly hosts that accompany the Warrior (cf. Deut 33:2; Zech 14:5; 2 Thess 1:7). (3) The canonical status: that an inspired writer cites a non-canonical book lends authority to the cited utterance, not to the whole book of Enoch — just as Paul cites pagan poets (Acts 17:28; Titus 1:12) without making them Scripture. This book therefore treats 1 Enoch as valuable background, not as the original text (Part VIII). (The borrowing and its status: well-documented.)