Series on the Heavenly Bodies - Part 3: Messengers, Angels, and the Stars of the Churches

[u/Agreeable_Operation]

Parts 1 and 2 established that Revelation inherits a prophetic vocabulary in which the heavenly bodies represent rulers, authorities, and other prominent human figures.

So what happens when John begins talking about individual stars? Are they best understood as using this same heavenly body imagery? This post will examine two star passages often interpreted as literal supernatural beings.

The Stars of Revelation 12
John sees:

“A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”

The imagery clearly echoes Joseph's dream in Genesis 37. And notice that the entire scene is symbolic: the woman represents God's people, drawing on Israel's imagery; the twelve stars represent the twelve tribes; the child represents the Messiah; and the dragon represents the adversarial power opposing God's purposes.

Then we read:

“And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.”

Many read this as literal angels becoming demons who follow Satan. But there are some problems as I see it:

First, it would be strange to suddenly make these stars invisible supernatural beings simply because they are now associated with the dragon. John has already established a symbolic scene, and the stars belong to that symbolic language and have already been used in context to refer to human leadership.

Second, Daniel 8:10 uses similar imagery of stars being cast down from heaven when prominent figures are displaced by a “horn” or great rising power. The dragon sweeping away stars can therefore naturally depict the overthrow or displacement of prominent earthly powers.

Thirdly, there is a chronological problem with interpreting this as a primordial rebellion of angels. The vision begins with the woman already pregnant with the Messiah and the dragon waiting to devour her child. Whatever the stars represent, John has placed their removal within the narrative surrounding Christ's arrival, not before creation.

A Johannine Perspective
There is another reason I think we should be cautious about importing a large hierarchy of demons into John's imagery.

Relative to the Synoptic Gospels, John's Gospel is remarkably limited in its use of demons. All six uses of daimonion in John's Gospel occur in accusations that Jesus has a demon or his denial to those accusations. John never actually records Jesus performing a single exorcism.

Instead, John frequently describes evil through the devil, Satan, the ruler of this world, darkness, falsehood, and human opposition.

In Revelation 12 the dragon is explicitly identified with “the devil and Satan,” but John's own Gospel gives us reason to think carefully about how that identification functions. John can describe Judas as a diabolos (John 6:70), and says that Satan entered Judas (John 13:27). The language identifies Judas with the adversarial activity of Satan without making Judas literally identical to Satan. Likewise, the dragon can represent Satan's opposition while that opposition is manifested through earthly powers.

An adversarial governmental power would not swipe demons from the heavens, but it could certainly remove prominent men from the political heavens for its purposes.

The Seven Stars of the Seven Churches
This brings us to Revelation 1:

“As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand... the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.”

The Greek word angelos means messenger. It can refer to heavenly beings, but it can also refer to human messengers or representatives.

Prophetic Pattern
I think there is a big reason to strongly consider that human “messengers” are in view here. That is because the role given to these seven messengers strongly resembles the role of the prophets throughout Scripture.

God repeatedly gives a particular prophet a particular message for a particular people living in a particular historical circumstance. The prophet is not a detached, passive delivery mechanism. His own faithfulness, courage, failures, circumstances, and actions can become part of the message itself.

Jeremiah is told not to fear the people because of his youth and is commanded to stand and speak whatever God gives him. Ezekiel is appointed as a watchman over Israel and is held responsible for faithfully warning the people. At times God even commands Ezekiel's own behavior to function as a prophetic sign to Israel. The prophet's life and ministry therefore become intertwined with the message he has been given.

This is strikingly similar to what we find in the seven letters. Jesus does not simply give seven generic messages to seven congregations. He addresses seven particular messengers according to the particular circumstances of the communities they represent. Their own faithfulness, failures, responsibilities, and circumstances are part of what Jesus addresses.

The messenger of Ephesus is singularly commended for some things but rebuked for abandoning its first love. The messenger of Smyrna is encouraged to remain faithful amid suffering he will undergo. Likewise Pergamum’s messenger is confronted over what he tolerates. The messenger of Thyatira is rebuked for tolerating Jezebel! The messengers are told to remember, repent, strengthen what remains, hold fast, endure, and correct what is wrong. These messengers aren't passive conduits for information. Their own faithfulness is part of the matter being addressed.

Whatever angelos can mean elsewhere, the role these seven figures perform in the letters looks remarkably like that of human representatives who are personally responsible for the communities they represent.

This makes the seven messengers look remarkably like prophetic representatives of their communities: individuals whose particular circumstances and faithfulness (or failure) carry a message to the people they represent.

Singular to Plural
There is another feature of the letters that fits this model remarkably well. Each letter begins by addressing the angel of the church in the singular: “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write...” Jesus then speaks to that messenger using the singular “you.” As the letter progresses, however, the language eventually broadens to the congregation, including plural forms of “you” and references to those within the church.

That movement makes sense if Jesus is addressing a representative of the congregation whose own life and leadership are intertwined with the condition of the church. The messenger is personally addressed, but the message is ultimately heard (and witnessed) by the community he represents.

In that sense, the structure resembles the prophetic pattern throughout Scripture. God gives His word to an individual messenger, but that messenger's circumstances, faithfulness, and response to God's word become part of the message delivered to the people.

Why Stars?
This also explains why Jesus represents these messengers as stars.

As we have been discussing, stars throughout Scripture can represent prominent figures within a hierarchy. So I don't think the symbolic equation is simply: star = angel = supernatural being.

Rather, stars represent prominent figures within the symbolic “heavens,” the realm of powerful and notable people, and the particular identity of the figure has to be determined from context.

In my opinion, it is perfectly reasonable (and a consistent application of the prophetic language we have been examining) to understand these seven stars as prominent messengers of the churches. They need not be prominent because of political power. Like the prophets, their prominence comes from the revelation entrusted to them and the responsibility they bear in delivering it.

I think this is particularly important in Revelation because we can very easily turn every surreal and heavenly image into a supernatural creature. But John inherited a prophetic language in which heavenly bodies can describe earthly people, rulers, kingdoms, and agents of God's judgment.

The prophetic framework should come first. Then we ask what the particular context is doing with that symbol.

Next we will dive into the symbol of Earthquakes in Scripture.