by N.drew 69 Replies latest watchtower bible
Revelation 11:8
And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. Revelation 11:8
I know Babylon means the impossibility of understanding one another. Sodom probably means I shall do as I please. What does Egypt mean?
Babylon = "Gate of the Gods"
Babel might connote the impossibility of understanding each other. Babylon was a major political force in the MidEast. It conquered the Jews. If the Jews had their way, the Jews would have conquered Babylon. All I see is a reference to a historical enemy.
Egypt could reference slavery, the community losing all its status. It can also mean deliverance, God protecting. It is another reference to an enemy of the Jews.
Revelation makes no sense read literally. I would add IMO but I believe it more strongly than in My Opinion. Now I find it a beautifully written book when read as one of many thousands of its genres. I curse the day it was canonized. Revelation has caused more problems than any other book in the Bible. If you study secular histories of the period, the characters are readily identifiable to contemporary persecutors of Christians. The Romans would have crucified John if he wrote a standard narrative. By couching the language in numerology and oblique references, his readers of the first century understood what he was saying and the Romans would look the other way. There are so many Jewish and Christian apocalypses that employ the same technique.\
Revelation has such soaring language, very similar to John 1 IMO. All I was taught as a Witness was that the end was near (much more believabe to a 1st century audience under attack from Rome), demons would roam, the Beast, 666, Babylon the Great. I don't believe the author ever meant us to speculate endlessly over every little detail. I see his purpose as a coded message of cheer that Christ will come imminently and that the present tribulations for Christians are part of the story of Christ's Second Coming.
It shows how Jewish Christianity still was at this time. If the church were universal, references to China or India would pop up. Native Americans might be mentioned. How likely is it that the God of all the universe and beyond would focus exclusively on a small nation state.
Babylon = "Gate of the Gods"
Thank you. Can I laugh at that?
So, we're IN Babylon. So spiritually thinking, what does "Egypt" mean,
from the perspective of I shall understand what it means.
If one waits for something that already happened, what's that called?
Babylon would say Egypt. But I don't think that's the answer.
Thank you. Can I laugh at that?
Yes! Please do so.
It won't be harder than I laugh at the idea that the sixty-six book bible should be considered a contiguous whole and read not as a historical document, but as a fundamentally cryptic work where entire civilizations existed as 'types' for wild-eyed metaphorical speculative interpretation milleniums later.
Egypt is known for the pyramids and cats - which clearly indicates that Egypt signifies the pointy shape of your head and the revelations you recieve when your many cats speak bible verse to you, N.drew.
It won't be harder than I laugh at the idea that the sixty-six book bible should be considered a contiguous whole and read not as a historical document, but as a fundamentally cryptic work where entire civilizations existed as 'types' for wild-eyed metaphorical speculative interpretation milleniums later.
That makes you a goat!
People love to be understood.
When the child listens to the parent and does what he requests the parent feels refreshed. When the child is stubborn the parent gets to feeling stormy inside.
"Everlasting life" first of all means a view of the whole existence of man and people have it too. Is that not how we are "in God's image"?
The prophet sees something ahead. It is the prophets view of "everlasting life". God's will is that it is forever.
Everyone on the side of God wants the same thing.
So when someone on the side of everlasting life writes a warning or wisdom, it is for everlasting life.
The people so occupied are called "brothers" of Christ.
So then when a person "takes heed" of that which is written for a warning or for wisdom, the person who wrote it feels refreshed. The key is related to the topic. Egypt means "seek a better place after the life". The key is "they are all living" to the living God.
Then when a major problem arises we can really look backward to the warning. Most of the time there is not enought time in the present to straiten things out. So God uses the past. What's wrong with that?
So they say to refresh, feed, visit, comfort ect the brothers of Christ is to do it now. Of course it can mean now, but it really means them. They are dead, yes, but they are not dead when they are alive. By our responding favorably to what they have worked hard to do is to encourage them.
Here is some research I did a while back on "the great city Egypt" of Rev. (11:8) and "the land of Egypt" of Dan. (11:42, 43) for what it's worth:
After the death of Messiah, “the Leader of [the] covenant” (cf. Dan. 9:26; 11:22), the identity of “the beautiful land” would change. Fleshly Israel as a nation would be rejected (cf. Matt. 21:42-44; 23:37, 38; Luk. 13:34, 35). God would choose a new nation, made up of people of the nations, for his Name (Ac. 15:14).This new nation (= spiritual Israel) would inhabit a spiritual realm, “the beautiful land”, i.e., the spiritual estate (or paradise) of God’s anointed remnant (cf. Is. 66:8). This new “beautiful land” (= “the land of the Decoration”) stands in stark contrast to “the land of Egypt” mentioned in Daniel (11:42, 43). Egypt then referred to the land of the Pharaohs as well as the headquarters of the King of the South. Moreover, in the first century CE, after “the beautiful land” would undergo its identity change, “Egypt” would acquire a new symbolic meaning. This is the key that would unlock the final verses of Daniel 11.
Because ancient Egypt was a hub of international trade, it would show hospitality to a host of nations (cf. Gen. 41:57). Its populace at that stage would be a fair reflection of the “global village” of today. In the book of Revelation she is portrayed as a great city, the capital of Satan’s debased world. This would in all probability be the new location of Satan’s throne during the Lord’s Day (cf. Rev. 1:10; 2:13). Rev. 11:8 informs us:
And when they have finished their witnessing, the wild beast that ascends out of the abyss will make war with them and conquer them and kill them. 8 And their corpses will be on the broad way of the great city which is in a spiritual sense called Sod´om and Egypt, where their Lord was also impaled.
What does this great city “Egypt” represent? In the Revelation Climax-book we find a detailed discussion on the subject:
Jesus was impaled there. So we immediately think of Jerusalem. But he also says that the great city is called Sodom and Egypt. Well, literal Jerusalem was once called Sodom because of her unclean practices. (Isaiah 1:8-10; compare Ezekiel 16:49, 53-58.) And Egypt, the first world power, sometimes appears as a picture of this world system of things. (Isaiah 19:1, 19; Joel 3:19) Hence, this great city pictures a defiled “Jerusalem” that claims to worship God but that has become unclean and sinful, like Sodom, and a part of this satanic world system of things, like Egypt.
According to the Keil-Delitzsch Commentary, “Egypt, as the chief power of the south, represents the mightiest kingdoms of the earth. (and there shall not be for an escape), expressive of complete overthrow, cf. Joel 2:3, Jer. 50:29.” Daniel (11:42) uses a form of hendiadys (Gr. hen dia dyoin, ‘one through two’). Lit. “And he will stretch out his hand against the lands (= the earths), and land (= earth) of Egypt will not escape”, i.e., “lands” = “land of Egypt” (cf. Zech. 14:17, 18: “families of the earth” = “family of Egypt”). BDBLex adds: “5. pl. ’ärâtsouth is almost wholly late… it denotes lands, countries, often in contrast to Canaan, lands of the nations.” A few translations add “other” to Dan. 11:42, usually in cursive script. However, this is understood and not part of the text.
Here “the land of Egypt” does not refer to Christendom as such, but the domain in which Christendom operates, amongst mankind alienated from God, i.e., the “world” under Satan’s control. This would include territories in the domain of the King of the South, as well as those held by the King of the North. In other words, “the land of Egypt” would here point to the current satanic system of things, encompassing the entire world. This is Satan’s counterfeit “kingdom”.
What I understand "Egypt" to mean is only what I see.
It means the people are rejecting life by first leaning on understanding that was passed on from a person who is dead. And secondly it means occupying one's self with their own death, instead of their own life.
