The Seven Bowl Angels

Also known as: The Seven Angels with the Seven Bowls, Seven Angels with the Last Plagues, Angels of the Seven Bowls, Seven Vial Angels, The Bowls of Wrath

The seven angels who come out of the heavenly temple bearing the seven golden bowls of the wrath of God, “the seven last plagues” (Revelation 15–16). At the command “Go and pour out the bowls,” each empties one upon the world — festering sores, the sea and the rivers turned to blood, the scorching sun, the darkening of the beast’s kingdom, the drying of the Euphrates, and the final earthquake that topples Babylon the Great — completing God’s judgments, so that His wrath is “finished” (15:1). Orthodox tradition understands them, like the trumpet angels, as faithful ministers who execute God’s righteous judgment and hold no authority of their own. The bowls openly reprise the plagues of Egypt, and the golden vessels that once held the prayers of the saints (Revelation 5:8) now pour out the answer to those prayers. Yet the judgment turns toward mercy: one of the seven bowl angels becomes John’s guide, showing him first the fall of Babylon (17:1) and then the New Jerusalem, the Bride of the Lamb (21:9) — and when John falls to worship him, refuses: “Worship God” (22:9).