Revelation 15:7

And one of the four living creatures gave unto the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.

Are these literal bowls? Not any more than the harps were literal harps, which means they were not in any sense literal. See under Revelation 15:2 for Pieters' comment on the absurdity of taking any of this literally.

Bowls ... This is a very interesting word. "It meant (1) a shallow vessel used for drinking purposes,"[37] as in the case of Old King Cole who called for his pipe and his bowl; (2) a broad shallow vessel used for libations as in Revelation 5:8; and (3) it signified a funerary urn for the ashes of the dead."[38] "This word is found only in Revelation 5:8; 15:7; 16:1-17; 17:1; 21:9."[39]

Full of the wrath of God ... The bowls were not literal receptacles of any kind, as nothing literal could be a suitable container of the wrath of God. They rank with the incense, the harps, the horses, the trumpets, etc., as part of the imagery of the vision. The fact of their being "golden" speaks of the extreme value in God's purpose of judgment. "The wrath of God is simply the operation of God's righteous law against sin ... That law is adverse to evil, and will eventually root evil out."[40] The dramatic scenes of Revelation 16 are designed to symbolize just that.

The execution of God's wrath in the outpouring from the hands of these angels is directed against all evil. Many scholars make what appears to be a very limited application of these divine judgments. Beeson limited them to the wrath of God in the destruction of Jerusalem;[41] McDowell applied them to the great conflict between the Christ and the Caesars;"[42] Wilcock said they were directed against Babylon as a composite of both the sea-beast and the land-beast;[43] Roberts wrote, "These are the last plagues upon the pagan city of Rome";[44] Hinds saw them as "a series of events that will ultimately end the papal hierarchy and accomplish the destruction of the man of sin."[45] There was a measure of God's wrath fulfilled in all such things; but we refrain from identifying these judgments exclusively with any particular time-frame, as did Beasley-Murray, for example, who understood them as "messianic judgments of the last time."[46]

The overriding meaning of these bowls is that when people of any time, place, or circumstance have repeatedly flouted initial and repeated heavenly warnings (by judgments), there comes the time of total overthrow and destruction. This is nothing new. It has always been God's way, Pharaoh of the Old Testament being a classical example; and the Christian dispensation will provide other examples of the same phenomenon; indeed it has already done so.

[37] Ibid.

[38] Ibid.

[39] Ralph Earle, op. cit., p. 586.

[40] Boyd W. Carpenter, op. cit., p. 606.

[41] Ulrich R. Beeson, The Revelation (Little Rock: Ulrich R. Beeson, 1956), pp. 120,121.

[42] Edward A. McDowell, The Meaning and Message of the Book of Revelation (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1951), p. 152.

[43] Michael Wilcock, I Saw Heaven Opened (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1975), p. 141.

[44] J. W. Roberts, The Revelation of John (Austin, Texas: The R. B. Sweet Company, 1974), p. 123.

[45] John T. Hinds, A Commentary on the Book of Revelation (Nashville: The Gospel Advocate Company, 1962), p. 223.

[46] G. R. Beasley-Murray, op. cit., p. 231.