Ten Days

The church at Smyrna will suffer “ten days” (Revelation 2:10). That suggests a brief tribulation, but why ten days?

There are various speculations, but James Jordan’s suggestion seems the most fruitful: The ten day tribulation refers to the period between the feast of trumpets (Day 1 of Month 7) and the day of atonement (Day 10 of Month 7).

To see how this works, it’s necessary to note that Revelation follows the calendar of Israel as laid out in Leviticus 23: John begins on the Sabbatical Lord’s day; Jesus sends message to the seven churches warning that He is coming, sometimes as an angel of death (Passover); Jesus appears in heaven as a Lamb, the firstfruits of the dead (First Sheaf); seals on a book are opened and fire falls from heaven (Pentecost). Then come the feasts of the seventh month: Trumpets (7 trumpets), the day of atonement (7 bowls), and the feast of booths (marriage supper, God tabernacles among men in His bridal city).

The gap between the trumpet section (Revelation 8-11) and the bowl section (Revelation 16) is equivalent to the ten-day gap between the feast of trumpets and the day of atonement. That is the time of tribulation.

And so it is. In chapter 11, we have a preview of the persecution of the two witnesses, who are killed and rise again; in chapter 12, the dragon makes war on the woman, and then on her children; in chapter 13, the dragon calls up a beast from the sea who overcomes the saints; in chapter 14, the saints are harvested as grain and grapes, bread and wine. Then the bowls are filled and the blood of final day of atonement is poured out on the city (chapters 17-18).

The persecution in Smyrna comes from the synagogue of Satan, or the evil (2:9-10). Satan is again mentioned in the messages to Pergamum (2:13) and Philadelphia (3:9), but then is not mentioned until he appears during the “ten-day” section between the trumpets and bowls (12:9). So too, diabolos is the enemy in Smyrna, but there is no further reference to him until 12:9, 12. The threats that Jesus warns about materialize in the text in the hiatus between trumpets and bowls.