What is the meaning of wormwood in Revelation?
Revelation 8:10 - 11
ESV - 10 The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11 The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter.
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Asked July 01 2013
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Anonymous (via GotQuestions)
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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
"Wormwood" is the name of a star in Revelation 8:10-11: "The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs o...
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Jason Corning
Supporter
The Russian word for Wormwood is Chernobyl (as in the Nuclear Power Plant that melted down in the Soviet Union on April 26, 1986) A number of Bible scholars consider the term Wormwood to be a purely symbolic representation of the bitterness that will fill the earth during troubled times, noting that the plant for which Wormwood is named, Artemisia absinthium, or Mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris, is a known Biblical metaphor for things that are unpalatably bitter. One interesting theory is that nuclear weaponry could be called wormwood. For example: Ukrainian synonymy 'wormwood'. They do poison the water where they are detonated, thus explaining the correlation. Some even point to the Chernobyl disaster as a possible fulfillment of this prophecy, as the name Chernobyl is said to translate to "wormwood." - Wormwood, Wikipedia http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/chernobyl_wormwood.htm
Kenneth Heck
Supporter
To the ancients a star was a point of light in the heavens that was seen regularly; sometimes a comet would be called a 'hairy star' due to its visible tail. In this case the star may have been a comet or asteroid carrying poisonous compounds such as cyanide (CN); this is well known to astronomers. The second and third trumpets may refer to the same astronomical body affecting both sea water and fresh water. Equally likely, a large space satellite or space station will release large stores of chemical weapons as it falls to earth. Nuclear radiation would be ruled out since it is odorless and tasteless. The fact that the name 'Wormwood' is given to the star may mean that people knew of the chemical weapons it carried in advance of the star's fall. This would favor the space station interpretation.
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