When the Seventh Angel Sounds
The Apostle John, who wrote down Revelation
Revelation 10:7 seems to present a near‑certain contradiction as it is commonly read:
“In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which he declared to his servants [1] the prophets” (Revelation 10:7 ASV).
Too easily, this verse is read to say, The seventh angel messenger speaks before he has sounded! Ephesians 5:32 suggests the mystery is Christ and the church. If so, it would suggest the church would become complete before the seventh messenger himself finishes speaking!
A closer look at “when he is about to sound” in the Greek is helpful: hotan melle salpizein. There is general agreement that the last word, salpizein, means “to trumpet,” or by extension, “to sound.” The first word, hotan, is given as “whenever” by the Marshall diaglott, and “when” by the McReynolds diaglott (overall, the two most accurate diaglotts). The second word, melle, is given as “he is about” by Marshall, and “he might be about” by McReynolds; either is acceptable, though the latter is technically more correct (subjunctive). [2]
Marshall has an interesting footnote on mello (from which melle is derived) in Revelation 3:16, “As so often (see also Revelation 1:19, 2:10), this verb does not necessarily connote imminence, but only simple futurity.” [3] Thus, the RVIC reading is slightly better than ASV: “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, whenever he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which he declared to his servants the prophets.”
Therefore, this verse does not mean that somehow the voice precedes the sounding. Rather, the “whenever” suggests that the reader would not know ahead of time whether it would be tens, hundreds or thousands of years later, when the seventh messenger would begin speaking (and writing). McReynolds’ subjunctive, “he might be about to trumpet,” simply emphasizes that lack of foreknowledge about when. (Of course, once the seventh messenger would be trumpeting/sounding, the hearers need not any longer be in doubt about when.)
This verse does not say that it is in the days of the seventh messenger, but in the days “of the voice” of the seventh messenger, that “the mystery of God” is to be finished. That suggests to us that the words of the seventh (last) messenger will continue to be of value until the faithful church is complete.
— James Parkinson
[1] Greek, bondservants
[2] In translation, Wilson’s diaglott also is usually very good. Here it says, “In the DAYS of the BLAST of the SEVENTH Angel, when he may be about to sound, and the SECRET of God should be completed, as he announced the glad tidings to his SERVANTS the PROPHETS.”
[3] Lexicons of Liddell & Scott, Thayer, Gingrich, and Vine, are each consistent with this concise comment.