In Revelation 10:6, depending on which Bible version you use, why will there be "time no longer" or "no more delay"?
I am stumped by Revelation 10:6. No commentaries I have read satisfy my query. Perhaps you have some insight.
The Scripture is translated both as "There will be time no longer" and "There will be delay no longer." The Greek word used here appears more often translated as 'time' than it does as 'delay.' If 'time' is the correct usage of the Greek, does this point to the end of time as we know it shortly after the seven angels release their judgments? This might explain the 'mystery of God is finished' in Revelation 10:7. The translation of 'delay' leaves me flat and doesn't really explain verse 7 for me.
If time ends after the 7 angels' judgments, how do we explain the thousand year millennium, which would require 'time' to measure it? Thank you for any help you can give me.
Ted's Response:
I looked up Revelation 10:6 in several Bible versions at www.biblegateway.com. The majority of the ones I looked at use "delay" rather than "time" in that verse. But even for the ones that use "time" (such as the KJV, although the NKJV uses "delay"), I can give you my input about the issue. We need to tie Revelation 10:6 and 10:7 together.
Revelation 10:7 indicates that when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, the "mystery of God" will finished or accomplished. The time for this mystery, which was declared to the ancient prophets, will come to fruition or final fulfillment when Jesus returns to earth, to reign forever, at the blowing of the Seventh Trumpet (Revelation 11:15,17). Another way to say it is that the entire, lengthy duration of time of prophecies about the ultimate mystery of God will end and no longer will continue at that time.
This mystery is a combination of two things. Ephesians 1:9,10 indicates that the times or time of human history, as we know it, will culminate or conclude when all things in heaven and earth will be brought under Christ. Ephesians 3:4-6 indicates that believing Gentiles would be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of the same promise, in Christ, with God's chosen people: Israel.
Paul goes into more detail about this mystery in Romans 11:13-25, using the word "mystery" in 11:25. He talks about those who will be grafted and regrafted. Basically, many of the natural olive "branches" of Israel have been "broken off" due to disbelief, but the wild olive "shoots" of Gentile believers have been "grafted in" to the olive root of Israel.
When Jesus returns to earth, there will be "broken off" branches who will be "re-grafted" in to their natural root, Israel; and believing Jews and Gentiles will be one, together, in Christ. The final fulfillment of this will be at the end of this age, when full number of Gentile believers has come in (Romans 11:25).
This is the mystery that will commence a new span of time, which will continue throughout the Millennium, since the old span of time will have come to an end. When the mighty angel is speaking his words in Revelation 10:6,7, he is indicating that once the Seventh Trumpet is blown, there will be no more delay in the fulfillment of the mystery of God.
Additional details about these things can be read in a mighty angel section of my Chronology of Revelation commentary. There also is more information in this email response:
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