The Revelation of Jesus Christ:
The Faithful Witness
Lesson 17 Seven Bowls of the Wrath of God
the book of Revelation 16:1–21
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)*
New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE)*
Catechism of the Catholic Church
ex libris (in our library)
glossary for the book of Revelation
cross references in the book of Revelation
chapter-by-chapter review page
next lesson: Mother of Harlots
This material coordinates with Lesson 17 on pages 103–108 in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.
“Great and wonderful are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways,
O King of the ages! Who shall not fear and glorify your name, O Lord? For you alone are holy.
All nations shall come and worship you, for your judgments have been revealed.”
—the book of Revelation 15:3–4
welcome to our in-depth study of the book of Revelation
We invite groups and individuals to check out the sample first lesson and video from this 23-lesson Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study. Our online pages
link 
to the free lesson videos, a glossary, cross references in the biblical text, and a chapter-by-chapter review page—and they also include illustrations, maps, additional commentary, and prayers based on the primary Scripture in each lesson. The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness has been granted an imprimatur. The study may be purchased from our website shop. If you have a Bible-related question or comment, click on the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” button on any study page.
open with prayer
It’s always wise to begin any Bible study with prayer, whether reading the Scriptures alone or meeting with others in a discussion study group. You can pray using your own words or use one of the opening prayers on our website. We especially like the following:
Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit
to teach us all things.
As we read and study your word today,
allow it to touch our hearts and change our lives. Amen.
let’s review—the book of Revelation 15:1–8
In Lesson 16 Seven Angels with Seven Plagues, yet a third sign appears in heaven, this time seven angels with seven plagues, and this sign represents the end of the wrath of God. Those who conquered the beast are seen standing on the sea of glass, which now has become mingled with fire. They’re singing the new song of Moses. The tent of witness in heaven is opened and the final seven angels emerge in priestly attire. They’re given seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God. The Temple in heaven is filled with smoke from the glory of God.
the final plagues
In the sixteenth chapter in the book of Revelation, the author describes one last series of events
leading to Final Judgment. Surprisingly enough, he veers from his usual practice of dragging these out over more than one chapter. The most obvious thing about these last plagues is that they closely resemble other events we’ve encountered in the book of Revelation. They also bear a striking resemblance to many of the plagues against Egypt found in the book of Exodus. You can learn more about the plagues of Egypt in the Turning 
to God’s Word Catholic Bible study You Shall Have No Other Gods: The Book of Exodus. Of special interest in the book of Revelation are the realms affected by each plague and the order in which the plagues are enacted. A careful examination will show that although many similar elements occur 
throughout the book of Revelation, there’s a direct correspondence between these last seven plagues and what happens when the seven trumpets are blown. The chiastic structure ofthe book of Revelation means that we can expect to see events and themes that occurred in the first half of the book repeated in reverse order. Click on the image (above right) to enlarge Turning to God’s Word co-founder Tami Palladino’s illustration, which is on page 105 of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness. The map, which shows the location of Megiddo (associated with Armageddon in the book of Revelation), is on page 107 and elsewhere in the study book; the image can be enlarged by clicking on it. Learn more about Megiddo in Lesson 26 Josiah Institutes Reforms in Thus 
Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets: Volume I: A Kingdom Divided, the first of two volumes in our study of the biblical prophets, which totals 51 lessons.
God pours out his wrath (55:12)
In the video for this lesson, Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps h
ighlights the seven bowls of wrath as a repetition of the blowing of the seven trumpets. What’s more important is the idea that God has been harvesting and storing up wrath. That wrath now is being poured back out at the end of time. There’s an event in salvation history in which God’s wrath was held back (humanity killed God), but punishment didn’t happen. What if God has been harvesting and storing up that wrath, and we see a repetition of the original event but with a different outcome this time? God 
doesn’t lose the second time around. This wrath is the culmination of what humanity owes for sin. The covenant—if you sin, you die—never is annulled. Overshadowing all of humanity, even after Jesus, is the idea of doom. We already are dead in our sin. Punishment is delayed from when our sin happens. Humanity individually and as a body is in a state of thinking we’ve gotten away with sin. The just punishment is delayed to give us time to find the pathway to salvation that Jesus opened for us, an infinite mercy. Time can’t end at Final Judgment without accounts being settled. The wine of God’s wrath is being poured out on those who are dead. What happens to those who are alive showed up in the previous lesson. This different version of a Crucifixion-themed event shows the wrath of God focused on sinners who fail to repent.
The Scripture ranges for the videos that accompany this Catholic Bible study match the Scripture ranges for the sets of questions in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness. You can follow along with the video overview as Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps discusses Lesson 17, “Seven Bowls of the Wrath of God,” on pages 103–108 in the study book.
especially notice the first plague
Of note is the restriction applied to the first plague, which appears to affect only those who bear the mark of the beast and who worship its image. In the previous lesson, we saw those who’d conquered the beast standing on the sea of glass mingled with fire, singing a triumphant new song equated with the song of Moses. Now we seem to be seeing the fate of those who’ve continued to oppose God.
one way to think about the book of Revelation
Instead of describing what appears to be an almost unrealistic amount of destruction and carnage, the author may be describing the same events over and over from slightly different perspectives. This would help explain so many recurring events. The author of the book of Revelation may be using words to accomplish much the same effect that artists achieve when they create transparent overlays. Each layer of the transparency adds something new, and all the patterns of preceding transparencies remain visible. Transparencies allow us to see how the final image is built. If we overlay the events that have been described so far in the book of Revelation on top of each other, we begin to see a more complete picture of the author’s apocalyptic vision leading up to Final Judgment.
a talking altar
In the book of Revelation 6:9–11, an altar showed up with souls under it, and those souls were crying out for God to judge and avenge their blood so that they could be released. The method for their release was that a number of their fellow servants and brethren were to be killed as they had been (that is, slain for the word of God and for the witness they’d borne). Now, ten chapters later, the altar cries out: “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!” It would appear that enough blood now has been poured out on the altar of the earth to bring about the release of those souls who’ve been trapped beneath the altar. It’s worth thinking about why this occurs at the point when the fresh water in the rivers and fountains is turned into blood.
purification seems to be the point
Although these last plagues are destructive, those involving blood and fire also seem able to bring about a type of purification, which in the book of Revelation appears necessary if the earth is to be renewed and re-created.
Unlike some of the pauses while we waited for the seventh event in previous series, the seventh plague follows almost immediately after mention that the enemies of God are assembling at Armageddon. There’s no discussion of the battle or its outcome. The author simply moves on to the seventh and final plague, and a voice from the throne in the Temple of heaven announces: “It is done!” (How many choices do we think we have about who that might be doing the speaking?)
judgment—you could look it up in our archives
Although an angel is issuing proclamations about the Final Judgment, a few more things need to happen first. To learn about the relationship between
“judgment” and “separation,” read Lost in Translation, an online column in which Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps helps readers connect with ideas expressed in the original languages of the Scriptures. New Lost in Translation entries are posted on Mondays, and past entries are archived on our website. Contact us if you’d like to receive Lost in Translation by email every week.
where do we get the idea of Armageddon?
In “Armageddon” on page 106 in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness, you can learn about the role that Armageddon played in the history of God’s chosen people—as well as what’s different about its new role as the location of the final battle between good and evil. You can learn more about the history of Armageddon in Lesson 26 Josiah Institutes Reforms in the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided.
Q&A—difficulties understanding the blood of God’s wrath
Several people in one of our study groups encountered problems with the blood that mingles with the waters of the sea and then fresh water. The main problem seemed to center on the idea that blood—even the blood of the wrath of God—appears to be both life-giving and death-dealing.
Q: Our group ran into trouble reconciling what Turning to God’s Word author Matthew Phelps says on the lesson video about the blood under the altar of the earth and the references to God’s wrath and blood in the fourteenth chapter of the book of Revelation. Can you shed some more light on this?
A: We certainly are willing to give it a try.
what Matthew says: “What is this blood? When it comes up in the book of Revelation 16:3-4, it doesn’t matter. The connection point is that it’s a parallel to the plagues in the book of Exodus. Where did that blood come from? No one knows or cares. That’s also arguably 
but less clearly a result of God’s wrath. The wrath here also comes in the context of a wave offering, which would involve wine and suggests a connection back to the end of the fourteenth chapter of the book of Revelation with the grapes of wrath and especially the book of Revelation 14:20 where blood rather than wine is poured out of the wine press of God’s wrath. The angel who starts this comes “from the altar” in the book of Revelation 14:18. The vintage of God’s wrath is blood and has a relationship with the altar. There’s a suggestion here of a parallel or connection between the altar and the wine press.
“The book of Revelation 16:5-7 makes this into something more than we see in connection with the Exodus (as so often happens in the book of Revelation). Water turns to blood in recompense and justice for the shedding of the blood of the holy ones and the prophets. Whether this is specifically their blood or not, it’s a one-to-one relationship. With the above connections, this takes on a deeper character. The life (blood) of these holy people is taken by wicked people and becomes a sacrifice on the altar (earth) joining with the great and similar sacrifice of Jesus that was made on the same altar/wine press. The world itself is a container or table (altar) upon which sacrifice occurs.
“This life/blood/sacrifice is stored up for the proper time. Like the sacrament of the Eucharist (and the waters of Baptism), this sacrifice can give life or death. To those who are with God, it gives life. To those who are against God, it gives death and condemnation. It’s a truly just exercise of wrath in that the same act gives life to the worthy and death to the unworthy. This blood has been stored up and is poured out upon the earth in the mingling of water and blood, the same outcome we see in reaction to the death of Christ but at a much larger scale, though the source is the same.
“The altar crying out seems to be not the people still on earth but the aggregation of the victims sacrificed on it. They aren’t dead, and their life was transformed by sacrifice in much the same way that bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ. Again, for them this all grants life but for others the opposite, though the condemnation has a delayed effect. The fruit of their sacrifice is life to some and death to others.”
Additionally, now might be a good time to take a second look (or perhaps a first one) at information about blood from heaven in the online study page for Lesson 11 A Mighty Angel Come Down from Heaven. Once there, scroll down to “there’s a lot of blood in heaven” and the two items that follow it: “another mysterious appearance of blood in the Bible” and “what does blood symbolize?”
In the book of Revelation, we can’t go wrong keeping in mind that everything now appears related to everything the author previously wrote in this book, and to everything else in Scripture. That’s generally a good Bible study practice anyway, but it seems especially important when trying to make sense of images in the book of Revelation.
WHAT DO YOU THINK still is left to cover in the book of Revelation?
It’s time for the author to start tying up loose ends. Even though the voice from heaven announces “It is done,” we still have six more lessons. That means we’re far from done yet with this study.
? What loose ends might be left?
? What might be likely to happen next?
? Consider what the conclusion of this seventh in a series of sevens suggests in terms of liturgical themes.
? What still might be needed to bring the legal issues to a close?
? What’s happening now in the book of Revelation in terms of time and space?
the best Catholic commentary about Scripture
To find out more about how Church teaching is supported by Scripture passages in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness, check out the Index of Citations in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Links to the primary Scripture passages in the lesson (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition [RSVCE*]) and relevant paragraphs in the Catechism are provided here. Not every passage in the biblical text for this Catholic Bible study is referenced in a Catechism paragraph, however.
the book of Revelation 16:15—paragraph 2849
ways our glossary might prove helpful
In addition to providing extra information about geographical locations, our glossary also points out
persons and places mentioned in the biblical text under multiple names or spellings. If you can remember a name but aren’t sure in which lesson it shows up, you can find it in the glossary, which lists every proper noun in the primary biblical text for The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.
to learn more, read more Scripture
If you’re having difficulty with a passage of Scripture, it can be helpful to read the 
cross references pertaining to it—but looking these up can take time. To make that easier, we’ve compiled the cross references from the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE)—the translation that we reprint in our study books. That list can be found at the top of every online study page, and it includes links to cross references in the primary biblical text for The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.
review previous lessons
As we progress through the book of Revelation, the images become more complex, increasing the potential for confusion. To help participants 
in our study keep track of what’s happening in the Scripture, we’ve prepared a chapter-by-chapter review of key events and images in the book of Revelation. A link can be found at the top of every online study page that accompanies The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness.
don’t forget about our indexes & extra online material
If you’re trying to locate information about a specific Scripture passage, you can look it up in the index at the back of the study book or sample lesson. If you want to find a particular commentary, you can look up its title in the topics index. To learn more about another book of the Bible for which there’s a Turning to God’s Word study, visit the online study directories to read the commentaries and watch any accompanying videos. Finally, if you have a question or would like to make a comment about any of our studies, you can use one of the “ask us your question” or “what do you think” buttons to email our authors.
ex libris—Church documents & books about religious topics
You can find links to magisterial documents referred to in Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible studies 
at ex libris—magisterial documents. This page includes a listing of significant recent encyclicals as well as a number of historical Church documents. Recommended books related to Scripture study can be found at ex libris—main bookshelf.
wondering how to pronounce some of these words?
The following link is to a reading from the New International Version (NIV) Bible. To listen, click on the audio icon above the printed text. Although not taken from the translation used in our study materials, the NIV reading provides an audio guide to pronunciation of words in this lesson’s primary biblical text. A close online version of the translation of the Bible used in Catholic liturgy in the United States as well as an audio guide for daily Mass readings for the current month can be found on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
the book of Revelation 16:1–21 (NIV)
close with Bible-based prayer related to this lesson
Many of our Catholic study groups like to conclude their discussions with a prayer based on the scriptural focus of their lesson, and some participants include Scripture-specific prayer in their individual study. If you’re uncomfortable composing your own Bible-based prayers, you can follow our four easy steps. If you prefer, you can use the following short prayer based on this lesson’s text from the book of Revelation.
O all-powerful God, you help us to love and trust in your word,
and not to delay in repenting of our sins,
especially sins involving the worship of false gods.
Grant us the humility to accept the mercy
that you so graciously continue to offer to your wayward children.
We ask this in the name of your Son,
whose great love for you and for us
has made entering heaven a possibility for all men and women. Amen.
Lesson 18 Mother of Harlots, the book of Revelation 17:1–18
Lesson 16 Seven Angels with Seven Plagues, the book of Revelation 15:1–8
you also may like our two-part study of the prophets
Thus Says the LORD: God Speaks Through His Servants the Prophets—Volume I: A Kingdom Divided examines the prophets in their historical context using the First and Second Books of the Kings and other Old Testament passages written before the Babylonian Exile in 586 B.C. Volume II: Restoration & Redemption looks at the post-exilic prophets. This 51-lesson Catholic Bible study builds on The United Kingdom of Israel: Saul, David & Solomon Foreshadow Christ the King. Click on the books’ covers to view a sample lesson from each volume.
start a Turning to God’s Word Bible study
Thank you for your interest in The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness. 
Information about beginning a Turning to God’s Word Bible study can be found at start a Bible study. Tami, Matthew, and I are available to answer questions and offer support. Contact us if you’d like to start one of our studies or have your schedule listed with other TtGW study groups on our website. —Jennifer
*There are seven deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament—the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and First and Second Maccabees, as well as some passages in the Books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants usually refer to these works as “apocryphal,” a word that means “outside the (Protestant) canon” because they’re excluded from most Protestant Bibles. The word “deuterocanonical” means “second canon”; Catholics use that word to refer to any section of the Catholic Old Testament for which there are no extant, or existing, Hebrew manuscripts. All of the deuterocanonical books appear in the Septuagint, the earliest remaining versions of which date to the 1st century B.C. This Greek translation of the Old Testament was in common use by Jews at the time of Jesus. Learn more by reading How Do Catholic & Protestant Bibles Differ?
Turning to God’s Word printed Bible studies use the 2006 Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition (RSV2CE) translation for all Scripture references except those to the Psalms, which are taken from The Abbey Psalms and Canticles, prepared by the Benedictine monks of Conception Abbey and published in 2020 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). All Scripture links for the online pages of The Revelation of Jesus Christ: The Faithful Witness are to the 1966 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) translation. The New International Version (NIV) audio recordings follow the same chapter and verse numbering as the RSV Catholic translations, but the NIV translation doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books and passages.
The 1966 RSVCE uses archaic pronouns and verb forms such as “thee,” “thou,” “didst” in the Psalms and in direct quotations attributed to God. The 2006 RSV2CE replaces these with more accessible English. The few significant translation changes in the RSV2CE include rendering almah as “virgin” in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 and restoring the term “begotten” in the Gospel According to John 3:16.
Numbering varies for some passages in this Bible study. Turning to God’s Word studies (print and digital) follow the numbering in the Revised Standard Version Catholic translations (RSV2CE and RSVCE). Discrepancies in the New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE) are noted in the Index of Scripture Citations in the study book and the online sample.
You can learn more about the Psalms by viewing a sample lesson from the Turning to God’s Word Catholic Bible study Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume I: Lauds & Vespers. The second part of that study, Sing a New Psalm: Communicating with God Through the Prayers of the Church—Volume II: Vigils, Day Prayer & Compline, is scheduled for publication in 2025. Some verse numbers may vary in different translations of the Psalms.