Eight Rivers

Further reflections on rivers in the book of Revelation, following up on an earlier note.

“River”(potamos) is used eight times in Revelation, and the eight references form a repeated pattern:

A. Third trumpet, star falls on rivers; turn to poison, 8:10.

B. Sixth trumpet, release angels at River Euphrates, 9:14.

C. Serpent tries to drown woman with river from mouth, 12:15-16 (2x).

A’. Third bowl poured on rivers; turn to blood, 16:4.

B’. Sixth bowl poured on Euphrates, dries it, 16:12.

C’. River of water of life from throne, 22:1-2 (2x).

The parallels are precise. In A/A’, we are in the third moment of a sevenfold sequence, the third trumpet then the third bowl; in both cases, the judgment falls on “rivers” in both cases, rivers get polluted. In B/B’, we are in the sixth of seven events, and in each case the Euphrates is specifically mentioned. C and C’ both use potamos twice. C and C’ are sharply in contrast: The serpent’s mouth-river is an attempted murder by water, while the water that flows from the temple is the river of the water of life that water fruit trees.

A couple of implications may follow from this structure. First, this structure reinforces evident connections between the myriad-of-myriads army at the Euphrates in chapter 9 and the army of the “kings from the sunrising” in chapter 16. Since the latter describes the famed (and misunderstood) “battle of Har-Magedon,” it may be that the former passage is talking about the same event (if it is an event, rather than a process).

Second, the contrasting sources of water in C and C’ are intriguing. In Revelation 22, life-giving water flows (as in Ezekiel) from the throne of God, the temple. In chapter 12, the river of death flows from the dragon. Perhaps we can press the parallel: The dragon is or represents a false temple; the temple is the true form of the dragon. 

And we should reflect momentarily on the eight-ness of the river theme. Eight is the number of new creation, and it’s probably not an accident that after all the poisoning and blood-turning and drying that happens to rivers in Revelation, the final two references are to the river of new creation. The river of the new Jerusalem is the river of Sabbath rest; the river of eternal Sabbath.

There is a similar pattern with the springs (pege). The word is used five times in the book, the first and last being references to the “spring of the water of life” (7:17; 21:6). The second and fourth references (8:10; 16:4) occur in third-of-seven sequences, and both involve judgment: The third trumpet poisons not only the rivers but the springs, and the third bowl turns springs as well as rivers to blood. The central use of the word (14:7) is in the announcement of the first gospel angel, who urges the people of the land to worship the Creator who made heaven, earth, sea, and springs. Those who worship the Creator of springs drink from the spring; those who worship the beast and kill for the beast drink poison and blood.

Whatever we might do with the parallels, the river forms a motif in the complex symphony that is Revelation.