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Revelation 8:1 - Thoughts on the sound of silence in heaven - Day 157

Another catch up.  Two more tomorrow.

The half hour of silence in heaven got my attention. 

1. This silence displaces ceaseless praises by living creatures (Rev. 4:8), elders (5:9), angels (5:11–12), and the church triumphant (7:9–10). Every creature in heaven is speechless when the Lamb opens the seventh seal.  And there a lot of creatures in heaven.  There response to being in God's presence has been praise.  The response to opening the last seal is stunned silence.

2. Isn't it surprising that John had a sense of time during his vision.  This is only place where "half hour" is used in Scripture. Hour was 1/12 of daylight period.  The sun dial is only time keeping device.  Yet there is no sun in heaven.  God as pure spirit is outside of space and time.  Past, present and future are where creatures dwell, not God.  Maybe John was just saying that from his perspective there was a relatively short period of silence which was ended by the thunder and rumbling when censer is thrown on to the earth , not the resumption of praise.  

3. The verb "was" can also be translated "came to pass"; "began to be." This verb is middle voice deponent intransitive.  No, I am not a Greek scholar.  I have electronic version of Complete Word Study Bible.  But once I had that bit of information, I had to find out what "middle voice deponent intransitive" means.

MIDDLE VOICE: The subject is part or all of the action. In other words, the subject is both the cause and the focus, the agent and experiencer, of a verbal action.

I moved (myself).

Intransitive - a verb that does not take an object

So I take this as Silence came to pass.  This silence was in a sense its own cause.  

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