Revelation 8:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Saint John often uses the number of seven angels, because it corresponds to this age, to sabbath rest, and to the repose of the saints. Therefore the opening of this seventh seal indicates the passage from earthly life.

The seven angels assist this passage by striking those men who need correction and instruction. The silence signifies good order, reverence, and the angels' ignorance of the time of the Second Coming.

The half hour is a short time when, after the punishments and the end of the world, the Kingdom of Christ will come.

Then seven trumpets were given to the seven angels, so that they might sound them at the approach of the King. These same trumpets are to awaken the dead.

For the Apostle, made wise in divine knowledge, said in the first letter to the Thessalonians that the Lord Himself will descend from heaven "with a cry of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God" (1 Thess 4:16). He also says: "For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible" (1 Cor 15:52).

The trumpets signify the authority given by God to His servants to proclaim the truth, foretell, teach, correct, punish, and the like. These saving sounds are to reach the hearing of all mortals, both bodily and spiritual.

"Seven trumpets were given to them." All Saint John's visions are closely and harmoniously connected with one another. After the seven seals come the seven trumpets, which are later followed by the seven bowls.

Between the first part of Revelation and the next, there passes in heaven as it were half an hour in silence. This is an indefinite but brief period. Such silence was meant to show John the importance of the events about to occur.

And behold, the seven angels who stood before God were ready to sound the trumpets given to them. But another Angel came and stood before the altar, holding a golden censer. Much incense was given to Him, that He might place it, with the prayers of all the saints, upon the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended from the hand of the Angel before God. According to the interpretation of St. Andrew, in their prayers the saints "ask that, for the calamities at the end of the world, the torments of the impious and lawless in the age to come may be eased. They also ask that the Lord, by His coming, may reward those who have labored."