Bible Gem 2356 – Let’s Look At The List (Revelation 18:12-13)

¹¹The merchants of the world will weep and mourn for her, for there is no one left to buy their goods.

¹²She bought great quantities of gold, silver, jewels, and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet cloth; things made of fragrant thyine wood, ivory goods, and objects made of expensive wood; and bronze, iron, and marble. ¹³She also bought cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, wagons, and bodies—that is, human slaves. 

Revelation 18:12-13

¹⁴“The fancy things you loved so much are gone,” they cry. “All your luxuries and splendour are gone forever, never to be yours again.”

I have written much about this list. A number of you have attempted to find the two items on the list which contain hidden meaning.There are 28 items included in this extensive list. All of these ‘goods’ are imported. I feel you ought to have zeroed in at least one of these items which John made stand out. The other one is more subtle, but one reader picked it out. It’s surprising in that it’s unexpected. It was unexpected back in the First Century and it is certainly unexpected today.

Would it help you to isolate the two in focus if I just simply listed the list?

1. gold
2. silver
3. jewels
4. pearls
5. fine linen
6. purple
7. silk
8. scarlet cloth
9. things made of fragrant thyine wood
10. ivory goods
11. objects made of expensive wood
12. objects made of bronze
13. objects made of iron
14. objects made of marble
15. cinnamon
16. spice
17. incense
18. myrrh
19. frankincense
20. wine
21. olive oil
22. fine flour
23. wheat
24. cattle
25. sheep
26. horses
27. wagons
28. bodies i.e human slaves 

Does listing the items help you spot the two which stand out?

Isn’t it odd that John wrote “The merchants of the world will weep and mourn for her, for there is no one left to buy their goods” and then proceeded to list 28 different items? I mean, come on John! Alright, so Rome (she) did import a lot of things. But why did you list them ALL? Why not just sum them up in categories? Instead John has compiled this comprehensive list of the ‘products’ Rome imported almost as a lengthy criticism of Roman luxurious excesses. Pliny, Martial and Juvenal had written much in criticism of Roman excesses. But John has catalogued these luxuries in one inordinately long sentence. It is almost like he has borrowed from Ezekiel chapters 27 to 28 with specific reference to Ezekiel 27:12-22. I haven’t worked out the word for word correspondence mathematically but it has a high correlation. Did John borrow the list? While John may have patterned his list on Ezekiel’s, I prefer to think that John just systematically listed Roman imports as he thought of them category by category. Precious minerals, jewellery, fine cloth, objects made from expensive raw materials, spices and incense, wine, oil, flour, various animals, wagons and slaves. On the contrary, John felt compelled to list out all 28 imported items from all over the Roman world, detail by detail for effect. In Greek this is one long sentence from verse 11 to 13.

Gordon Fee, my favourite exegete, has linked these products to their point of origin as follows

Source: Gordon Fee, Revelation pp 254-255

Before I address the hidden gems of meaning I will answer your reader queries about the reference to Thyine wood. Thyine wood is derived from a Greek word [θύΐνος] ‘thuïnos’, transliterated into English in the KJV as thyine which refers to wood from the burr of the tree with the botanic name Tetraclinis articulata or Thuja articulata. It was also called Citron wood and was popular among the Romans and Greek for its colour and scent, similar to Western Red Cedar (Thuja occidentalis). Thyine wood was prized by the Romans for its veining, which in the best examples replicated the eyes in the peacock feathers, the stripes of the tiger or the spots of the leopard.

I am sure many of you are busting to get to the part where I tell you what the two examples which contain hidden gems are. I have deliberately held back addressing the two examples until now. I am going to handle them in reverse order. So the first one we deal with is # 28. Did you pick up that it has already been flagged by John in that way he wrote it. The literal Greek words are:

The second kai is technically called an epexegetic kai. [kai] is the Greek word for ‘and’ but in this case the second kai has an added function. The second kai can be read not just as a repetition of ‘and’ but a stronger ‘even’. In other words John is intending a sense of meaning like “they have not just been trading in dead bodies (bodies of death), but these same bodies represent the souls of human beings”. John is not just listing here slaves contrasted to bakers and shoemakers (simple working class) as opposed to lawyers and professionals. He is meaning “these commodities you rich Romans have been trading are indeed even the souls of human beings“. The sense being that you brought in all of these luxuries from around the countries of the Mediterranean Sea which you gained by plundering their wealth and treasures as the spoils of war using the might of the Roman war machine. But to make matters worse you captured their people and you brought them to the Empire, the fruit of the slave trade!

At this point, pause and read again Exodus 22:21-24 in order to understand the intent of these words here in Revelation 18.

Now that you have the full meaning of this last supposed benefit of the fruit of the Roman merchants, realise that the rank and file population didn’t benefit from the slave trade, only the fabulously wealthy estate owners and landed gentry could afford slaves. It was exactly this social injustice that Pliny, Martial and Juvenal protested. Amos took Israel to task over the exact same attitude with his castigation of the nation in Amos 2:6-7.

This is what the LORD says: “The people of Israel have sinned again and again, and I will not let them go unpunished! They sell honourable people for silver and poor people for a pair of sandals. They trample helpless people in the dust and shove the oppressed out of the way. Both father and son sleep with the same woman, corrupting my holy name.

Amos 2:6-7

Now it is time to move on to the second of our hidden gems. Did you spot it? Only two readers thus far have seen it or have queried whether this is the second of these subtle little hidden gems. This one is found in product # 21. Do you understand why this is the case and why it is so well disguised? We could easily pass over it and not realise the subtlety there. Olive oil is after all synonymous with Italy and Rome, a little like the connection between Greece and olive oil. These two nations were producers of olive oil and traded it with the world. Did you notice that Italy and Greece were not included in the list of the olive oil producers in Gordon Fee’s list? Prior to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, the domestic source had ended and olive oil had to be imported from Spain and Africa.

What is curious is that John’s long sentence appears to catalogue a list of Roman luxury imports, hence the inclusion of ships captains in his list of participants as they profited from the transportation of the luxury imports. But if that is the case, then why does John include olive oil when it was a domestic product? It was not until the latter part of the first century that the domestic supply of olive oil ceased and it had to be imported. How then did John know that when he was imprisoned in exile on Patmos? While John’s source of information is unknown, it seems he was up to date enough with what was happening in the Empire to add olive oil to his list of luxury imports. It is curious to say the least. One commentator I read suggested John just copied ‘olive oil’ from Ezekiel.

Judah and Israel traded for your wares, offering wheat from Minnith, figs, honey, olive oil and balm.

Ezekiel 27:17

Yet Gordon Fee wrote:

“Olive oil [was] a local product, but by the time of John’s writing it also had to be imported in large quantities. Perhaps as striking as anything , is the breadth of John’s own knowledge of this dimension of the Empire’s high-handed treatment of those it had conquered.”

Gordon Fee ibid p.251

No, I think John was far more intentional than that. I am sure he knew that olive oil was now being imported and was no longer a domestic product of Rome. It seems both Greek and Roman locally produced olive oil was now an import and thus included in John’s list of imports. The agricultural sector is often a casualty of war and conquest, just look at Russia and Ukraine these days. The price of wheat and olive oil has become like agricultural gold. Similarly I suspect in Rome, but if you want to be sure then ask John or Gordon when you get your opportunity.

In the next Gem we will take a look at the closing verses of John’s chapter 18.

²⁰Rejoice over her fate, O heaven and people of God and apostles and prophets! For at last God has judged her for your sakes. ²¹Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a huge millstone. He threw it into the ocean and shouted, “Just like this, the great city Babylon will be thrown down with violence and will never be found again. ²²The sound of harps, singers, flutes, and trumpets will never be heard in you again. No craftsmen and no trades will ever be found in you again. The sound of the mill will never be heard in you again. ²³The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The happy voices of brides and grooms will never be heard in you again. For your merchants were the greatest in the world, and you deceived the nations with your sorceries. ²⁴In your streets flowed the blood of the prophets and of God’s holy people and the blood of people slaughtered all over the world.”

Revelation 18:20-24

I think John was way smarter than we give him credit for. Gordon Fee suggests, “Revelation 18 is narrative art at its finest.”

Ian

It’s spiritually deceitful to place our trust in what belongs to us instead of in the One to whom we belong.

Gregory Lewis

The risk-free life is a victory-free life. It results in a life-long surrender to the mediocre and that is the worst of all defeats.

Jamie Buckingham  

I’d rather be an unknown down here and have my name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Jim Caviezel (the actor who played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ)